Manager - Academic

Leadership For Equity; Pune District; On-site; INR 700,000 - 1,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Leadership for Equity in Pune invites applications for an Academic Manager to lead the Sadhana Teacher Excellence Lab, combining academic leadership with programme management and government partnership oversight.

The role requires coordinating with CETE‑TISS, universities, NGOs, and schools, while guiding a multidisciplinary team to deliver high‑quality fellowships and placements.

Qualifications

• Postgraduate degree in education; 6–8 years in education, teacher training, instructional design, or academic programme management.
• Minimum 2 years of classroom teaching experience required.
• Proven ability to lead an academic team and manage partnerships with educational institutions.
• Experience designing and implementing M&E frameworks and data systems for educational programmes.

Responsibilities

• Lead programme quality, partnerships with CETE-TISS, universities, NGOs, and schools.
• Manage the academic team; set content quality benchmarks and oversee fellowship delivery.
• Design blended/online learning content; create assessments and learning materials.
• Monitor and evaluate programme progress; support funder reporting and sharing learnings.
• Coordinate with operations to organise workshops and placement activities.

Skills

Marathi

English

Education

M.Ed./MA Education

Tools

Google Classroom

Articulate 360

Adobe Premiere Pro

Videoscribe/Filmora

Job description

Leadership For Skilled Education Foundation (branded as Leadership for Equity, LFE) is a non-profit organisation based in Pune, Maharashtra, working to strengthen India’s public education system so that every child learns and thrives. We envision public education systems that refuse to let children down.

LFE partners with state and district governments across multiple states—including Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Haryana—to improve teaching practices and build sustained academic support structures within the public system. Our work is anchored in the belief that public education systems are the gatekeepers of social equity, and strengthening them is essential to ensuring that every child has access to strong foundational and future-ready learning.

Approach

LFE’s systems-change approach focuses on improving classroom practice and enabling government ownership through three core levers:

• Co-creating high-quality curricular resources and building teacher capacity
• Developing academic leadership to coach and mentor teachers
• Providing data-driven advisory support and policy implementation guidance

Our model empowers teachers as instructional leaders and embeds long-term support through government-run mentor cadres, continuous classroom observation cycles, and in-system academic structures. Technology plays a critical role, including an in-house Classroom Observation App for real-time monitoring and a WhatsApp-based teacher support chatbot for contextual resource delivery.

The approach is iterative and context-responsive, grounded in classroom realities and tailored to state and district needs. Implementation varies across geographies—whether working directly with teachers or through government-appointed mentors—ensuring relevance and feasibility within existing structures. A continuous feedback loop of training, observation, and coaching moves beyond one-time interventions toward sustained practice change. All programs are co-designed and co-implemented with government partners to ensure scale, sustainability, and systemic ownership, ultimately leading to improved student learning outcomes in foundational and future literacy.

About Centre For Excellence in Teacher Education, TISS

Established as CEIAR in 2015, the CETE has been engaging with and promoting innovation in school curriculum, teacher education, and higher education curriculum and pedagogy. The Centre of Excellence in Teacher Education (CETE) will work towards revitalising the education sector through research, academic programs, teaching, field action, policy advocacy, partnerships, and collaborations. Their goal is to improve the learning outcomes of children across schools in India by equipping teachers with the necessary skills, knowledge, and attitudes.

CETE envisages its role as a "Catalyst for Transformation in Teacher Education" through multiple activities. The Centre continues to build on its contemporary academic programs to provide relevant skills and perspectives to new entrants, practising teachers, and professionals. It continues to strengthen deeper, meaningful, and impact-orientated engagements with various stakeholders in the sector, incubating and promoting the innovative use of new technologies and media to raise relevance, quality, and standards of education.

About Sadhana Teacher Excellence Lab

LFE, in partnership with CETE and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has established Sadhana Teacher Excellence Lab in Pune to revitalise the pre-service education space. The Centre aims to offer a part-time fellowship programme to strengthen the professional skills and academic competencies of young people aspiring to enter the teaching profession. It also seeks to improve the job readiness of aspiring teachers. To support this goal, the Centre will partner with schools and educational institutions to facilitate the placement of successful programme participants as teachers in these institutions.

The Centre will undertake the following activities:

• Run reflective and immersive practice-oriented certificate programmes for youth with teaching degrees but who are unable to secure employment as a teacher.
• Run online and in-person in-service certificate programmes to strengthen teachers’ pedagogical and subject competencies.
• Function as a resource centre for teachers to learn and experiment in the spirit of continuous learning and development.
• Blended courses in partnership with CETE-TISS
• Theme-based workshops to enhance subject-based pedagogy

The scope of work for the project will be as follows:

• Design and execute a fellowship for aspiring teachers rooted in immersive and reflective practice.
• Conduct classes, field internships, and reflection sessions with course participants to enable successful mastery of learning competencies.
• Partner with schools and educational institutions to facilitate placement for the successfully certified course participants.
• Conduct ongoing monitoring and evaluation to assess project progress and outcomes.

Job Description and Responsibilities

The Academic Manager will serve as a key leadership node within the Sadhana Teacher Excellence Lab, working in close collaboration with the Academic Lead to drive overall programme quality, team effectiveness, and institutional partnerships. This role sits at the intersection of academic leadership and programme management, requiring both strategic thinking and strong field presence.

The ideal candidate is someone who has moved beyond individual contribution and is ready to hold accountability for team performance, content quality benchmarks, and multi-stakeholder partnerships. They bring experience managing academic teams, designing partnership structures, and building the operational systems that allow a growing programme to deliver consistently. We are looking for someone who combines reflective academic practice with the confidence to lead, coordinate, and build, a person who thrives in complex, collaborative environments and is deeply committed to the mission of making teaching aspirational and effective.

Key responsibilities:

1. Program implementation (40%)

• Work closely with the Academic Lead on overall programme execution, ensuring all milestones are met with quality and timeliness.
• Design high-quality sessions on Modern Pedagogy and other fellowship themes to strengthen fellows' pedagogical skills.
• Conduct and oversee weekly in-person and virtual learning sessions for fellowship batches, with emphasis on engagement, reflection, and peer learning.
• Contribute to the design and delivery of hands-on workshops, blended learning courses, and interactive learning content.
• Oversee the design, execution, and tracking of fellowship assignments across the programme cycle.
• Create PPTs, narration scripts, session plans, and digital learning materials, including Google Sheets, Google Docs, Canva, and Google Slides.
• Support the operations team in organising workshops and sourcing fellows where needed.
• Participate in all organisational learning spaces and collaborative structures to contribute to team and organisational growth.

2. Partnerships (25%)

• Serve as the primary liaison with academic partners, including CETE-TISS, universities, NGOs, B.Ed. colleges, and schools, to ensure alignment, coordination, and collaboration.
• Design and operationalise structures for effective, sustained partnerships with B.Ed. Colleges, NGOs, and schools—including MOUs, engagement protocols, and collaborative programme frameworks.
• Identify, onboard, and manage external facilitators, subject matter experts, and guest practitioners contributing to the fellowship; develop clear briefs and quality benchmarks for their engagement.
• Coordinate with internal and external facilitators for the smooth execution of fellowship courses.
• Support the operations team in handholding fellows for placement, including resume preparation, interview readiness, and onboarding coordination with recruiters.
• Contribute to report writing for funders, internal teams, universities, and schools.
• Co-create SOPs for branding consistency, partnership management, and academic execution to ensure organisational coherence as the programme scales.
• Represent the Sadhana Lab in partner meetings, forums, and collaborative planning sessions as required.

3. Team management (20%)

• Manage, coach, and support the internal academic team to maintain high benchmarks for content creation, session facilitation, and fellow mentoring.
• Establish and uphold quality standards across academic deliverables—lesson plans, learning materials, session designs, and facilitation guides.
• Design and execute effective fellow-mentor coaching mechanisms and group structures for elevated mentoring support.
• Conduct regular observation, feedback, and debrief cycles with team members to support their professional growth as academic practitioners.
• Identify skill gaps in the team and design targeted capacity-building interventions to address them.
• Support the Academic Lead in coordinating work across the team to ensure timely and high-quality execution.

4. Monitoring and evaluation (15%)

• Design and implement effective monitoring & evaluation (M&E) tools to track fellow progress, team performance, and programme outcomes.
• Update and maintain data management systems and trackers as per programme requirements using Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel.
• Design and implement assessments to measure learning outcomes and application; use evidence from observations, feedback, and assessments to refine content and delivery.
• Conduct classroom observations and beneficiary interviews to gather feedback for course refinement.
• Support the academic lead in ensuring timely and quality project reporting; track outputs and help ensure achievement of intended outcomes.
• Lead documentation of learnings, best practices, and case studies from programme implementation.

Requirements

Education & Experience

• Postgraduate degree in education or a related field (M.Ed., M.A. Education, or equivalent); additional qualifications in management or leadership are an advantage.
• A minimum of 2 years of classroom teaching experience is mandatory.
• 6–8 years of overall experience in education, teacher training, instructional design, or academic programme management.
• Demonstrated experience managing or leading an academic team, including coaching, performance support, and quality oversight.
• Prior experience designing and managing partnerships with educational institutions—B.Ed. colleges, universities, NGOs, or schools.
• Experience designing and implementing M&E frameworks and data systems for educational programmes.
• Experience in designing blended or e-learning content; familiarity with FLN (Foundational Literacy and Numeracy) initiatives preferred.
• Experience conducting capacity-building workshops for adult learners (Age 19–40).
• Experience with audio-visual content production or comfort exploring emerging AI tools for educational media development is desirable.

Knowledge, Skills & Capabilities

• Strong functional command of Marathi and English, both oral and written.
• Excellent writing, copy editing, and report synthesis skills.
• Strong facilitation, coaching, and presentation abilities.
• Proven ability to design and manage multi-stakeholder relationships in the education sector.
• Systems thinking and ability to design SOPs, protocols, and operational structures from the ground up.
• Proficiency in digital content creation tools such as Videoscribe / Filmora, Articulate 360, and Adobe Premiere Pro.
• Experience in setting up and managing Google Classroom, Google Sites, or other learning management systems (LMS).
• High level of ownership, initiative, and ability to manage multiple priorities independently.
• Strong interpersonal skills to build and sustain relationships with diverse partners and stakeholders.
• Adaptability to evolving project needs and resilience in the face of challenges.
• Openness to continuous learning and reflective practice.
• Comfort exploring and integrating AI tools for educational content development and programme management.

Location and Compensation

Location: Pune, Maharashtra, but with regular travel to schools across the city on a weekly basis.

Compensation: In addition to being part of a young and dynamic learning team, the individual will receive healthy compensation at par with the non-profit sector benchmark for this position, commensurate with the individual’s prior experience and qualifications. The current compensation band offered, based on fit and experience, is 7 - 10 lakh INR per annum as CTC.

Leadership for Equity is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Prohibits Discrimination and Harassment of Any Kind. We do not discriminate on the basis of caste, race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other non-merit factor.