Senior Project Manager/Project Lead - EdTech/AI Gender Specialist (Consultant)

Location: Delhi

Founded in 2012, Central Square Foundation is a non-profit philanthropic foundation working with the vision of ensuring quality school education for all children in India. We believe that effective foundational learning is essential for better learning outcomes for all children in school. Development of foundational literacy and numeracy skills by Class 3 can help children progress to higher levels of learning and is an essential building block in a child’s life.

We are driven by our mission to enable the school education system to adopt solutions that are scalable, sustainable and effective, so that all children get equal access to opportunities needed for leading a better life. CSF has prioritized 4 critical areas of work:

1. Foundational Literacy & Numeracy (FLN)

2. EdTech

3. Early Childhood Education (ECE)

4. Schools Governance

Read more about our work here: https://www.centralsquarefoundation.org. About EdTech at CSF

CSF’s EdTech initiative focuses on leveraging technology to enhance teaching and learning, both in classrooms and at home, through student-focused and teacher-directed interventions. Our goal is to improve foundational learning in primary grades and provide remediation support in middle school using evidence-based, scalable technology solutions.

• Since 2012, CSF has played a pivotal role in shaping India’s EdTech ecosystem by bridging demand and supply, backed by rigorous research. We drive impact by:
• Supporting EdTech organizations to build contextually relevant, pedagogically sound products for low-income learners.
• Generating evidence on what works, how it works, and how to scale effective EdTech interventions.
• Partnering with governments to implement EdTech solutions and influence policy.
• Funding public goods to drive innovation and strengthen the ecosystem.

In the last five years, CSF has collaborated with 15+ EdTech organizations, 11+ state governments, and leading academic institutions, reaching 2.5 million learners across India.

Position summary

One of the key areas of CSF’s work is EdTech (Education Technology). Under this thematic area, we focus on how technology can be leveraged to improve the teaching-learning experience within classrooms and at homes through both student-focussed and teacher-directed interventions. Our goal is to leverage technology to improve foundational learning in primary grades and provide remediation support in middle school.

• Since 2012, CSF has played a pivotal role in shaping India’s EdTech ecosystem by bridging demand and supply, backed by rigorous research. We drive impact by:
• Supporting EdTech organizations to build contextually relevant, pedagogically sound products for low-income learners.
• Generating evidence on what works, how it works, and how to scale effective EdTech interventions.
• Partnering with governments to implement EdTech solutions and influence policy.
• Funding public goods to drive innovation and strengthen the ecosystem.

As we continue to explore how EdTech can be transformative for learning, innovating with technologies such as AI becomes key to our strategy going forward. As part of the EdTech team, you'll have the chance to chart the transformation of education for children through the most meaningful use of AI.

The Senior Project Manager / Project Lead will be responsible for end-to-end ownership of the gender track of our AI Samarth initiative ). The AI Samarth initiative is CSF’s flagship AI Literacy initiative, supported by Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google. As a part of this initiative, you will have the opportunity to contribute towards empowering over 5 million students, parents, and educators with the skills and knowledge to harness the potential of AI, with a focus on gender inclusivity. The Senior Project Manager / Project Lead role reports to the Senior Project Lead, EdTech.

You’ll conceptualize, design, and lead high-impact gender focused initiatives, collaborate with influential stakeholders, and harness frontier technologies to revolutionize learning at scale.

We are looking for a dynamic EdTech Gender Specialist (Senior Program Manager or Project Lead) with 5 - 9 years of experience. The ideal candidate should have demonstrated expertise in gender focused projects, strong problem-solving skills, stakeholder management experience, and the ability to navigate complex projects with an entrepreneurial mindset.

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to

• Lead and support the growing portfolio of EdTech at CSF with a gender lens.
• Develop and conduct end-to-end project management for a gender focused work stream of the AI Samarth Initiative - scoping and adding a gender-focused program partner for targeted deployments, design of programmatic intervention and its qualitative evaluation, synthesise insights and ensure effective and strategic dissemination within the ecosystem to drive meaningful dialogue and impact.
• Management of all internal and external reporting and reviews for the EdTech team - with the leadership, funders and Board members.
• Identify innovative hypotheses based on current and future gender-related trends and barriers in AI and other frontier technologies, and build a pipeline of opportunities for building gender-focused partnerships.
• Enable the creation of knowledge products and public goods for the ecosystem to adopt, particularly around gender-focused Responsible AI, AI literacy initiatives, among others.
• Support grant writing, donor engagement, and develop funding proposals to strengthen CSF’s EdTech gender initiatives.
• Lead the development of thought leadership, reports, blogs, and presentations for internal and external audiences.
• Management of all internal and external reporting and reviews for the EdTech team, with the leadership, funders and Board members.
• Build and manage relationships with key stakeholders, including funders, ecosystem partners, and technology innovators.

Required Qualifications, Skills and Abilities

• Master’s or equivalent degree (background in business, economics, education, or public policy, gender studies preferred).
• At least 5 - 6 years of work experience for SPM and 6 to 9 years of experience for PLs in gender-focused project management / management consulting / grant management / building startups
• Strong project management skills ability to set priorities, plan timelines, and meet deadlines for multiple projects simultaneously.
• Excellent strategic thinking and problem-solving skills to navigate complex challenges in EdTech, education, and gender inclusivity.
• Ability to build and manage relationships with diverse stakeholders.
• Strong written and verbal communication and presentation skills.

Desired Qualities

• Experience in the intersection of education, EdTech, and gender would be preferred
• Exposure to AI technologies, including experience of working closely with technical teams on AI integration in products would be preferred
• Entrepreneurial spirit and ‘can-do’ attitude
• Operating style suited to working in a small organisation setting, where teamwork, collaboration and resourcefulness are highly valued
• Excellent leadership skills, including the ability to manage multiple projects at a time

Compensation

Remuneration will be competitive with Indian philanthropy pay scales and will depend upon the candidate’s experience levels.

Apply

Interested candidates can apply below. Shortlisted applicants will complete a case exercise and participate in panel interviews.