Manager - Research & Learning

Magic Bus; Dadri, Mumbai; On-site; INR 1,200,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Job summary

Magic Bus India Foundation is seeking a Manager for Research & Learning to lead evidence generation, partnerships, and learning strategies across education programmes. The role collaborates with academic partners and donors to demonstrate impact and inform strategy.

The position focuses on building a learning-driven culture, producing knowledge products, and strengthening policy relevance and programme quality through robust evaluation and evidence dissemination.

Qualifications

• Masters degree in Social Sciences, Public Policy, Development Studies, Economics, Education, Statistics, Data Science or related.
• Additional training in research methods, evaluation, statistics or data analytics desirable.
• 6–7 years of relevant experience in research, monitoring and evaluation in development sector.
• Experience with government school systems and large-scale education programmes.

Responsibilities

• Lead partnerships with academic institutions, research organizations, evaluation agencies, think tanks and technical experts.
• Develop high-quality knowledge products to support donor engagement and policy advocacy.
• Design and implement the organization's learning agenda for teacher-led life skills education.
• Support MEL frameworks and learning reviews across multiple states.

Skills

Research leadership

Partnership development

Grant proposals

MEL frameworks

Data analysis

Knowledge management

Education

Masters in Social Sciences or related

Job description

Manager: Research & Learning

Role: Manager: Research & Learning

Company: Magic Bus India Foundation

Location: Mumbai/Noida

About Magic Bus:

Magic Bus India Foundation, founded in 1999 by Matthew Spacie, stands among the top five NGOs in India dedicated to education and skill development. Our organization equips adolescents and young individuals with essential life skills and knowledge to thrive during the transition from childhood to livelihood.

Our mission is to create a world where young people break free from poverty, leading fulfilling and rewarding lives while making positive contributions to their communities. We achieve this by enabling adolescents to complete their secondary education, providing them with the necessary skills for employment, and connecting them to job opportunities. Our target age group ranges from 12 to 24 years.

The Role:

The Manager Research & Learning will lead Magic Bus's research, evidence generation, and organizational learning agenda to strengthen institutional partnerships and support resource mobilization. The role will be responsible for developing strategic partnerships with academic institutions, research organizations, and technical experts to generate high-quality evidence that demonstrates programme effectiveness, informs sector discourse, promotes internal learning and documentation and enhances the organization's ability to deliberate on areas of enquiry and reach out to donors, governments, and other stakeholders.

Positioned within the Institutional Partnerships team, the role will ensure that robust evidence and learning are translated into compelling knowledge products that support donor engagement, proposal development, strategic communications, and policy advocacy. The Manager will identify and mobilize resources for research and learning initiatives, enabling Magic Bus to continually strengthen its internal learning agenda and improve programme quality, while expanding its evidence base and thought leadership in life skills education and systems change.

By positioning evidence as a strategic asset, the Manager will enable Magic Bus to strengthen donor confidence, inform funding and policy decisions, influence education systems, and establish the organization as a recognized thought leader in adolescent development and life skills education.

Reports to: Head Institutional Partnerships

Key responsibilities

Partnerships, Research Collaboration & Resource Mobilization

• Build and manage partnerships with academic institutions, research organizations, evaluation agencies, think tanks, and technical experts to strengthen the organization's research and learning ecosystem.
• Identify opportunities for collaborative research and external evaluations that contribute to sector knowledge and organizational credibility.
• Generate and collate robust evidence, impact data, and research findings for donor engagement and resource mobilization.
• Contribute to the development of high-quality grant proposals by providing evidence, programme insights, and measurement frameworks.
• Produce donor reports, impact summaries, and evidence products that demonstrate programme outcomes and value for investment.
• Identify and pursue funding opportunities for research, evaluation, innovation, and learning initiatives in collaboration with the institutional fundraising team.

Research, Organizational Learning and Evidence Strategy

• Lead the design and implementation of the organization's learning agenda for the teacher-led life skills education programme in alignment with organizational priorities.
• Identify strategic research questions that generate evidence on programme effectiveness, scalability, systems change, and policy relevance.
• Establish systems and processes to capture, document, and disseminate programme learnings, best practices, innovations, and implementation insights.
• Develop high-quality knowledge products including research reports, learning briefs, case studies, policy briefs, presentations, and impact stories.
• Facilitate periodic learning reviews, reflection workshops, and cross-state knowledge-sharing forums to promote organizational learning along with the MB Strategy team

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL)

• Support the development, refinement, and implementation of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) frameworks of key programmes across multiple states
• Generate actionable insights from programme data to support adaptive management and continuous programme improvement.

Educational Qualifications

• Masters degree in Social Sciences, Public Policy, Development Studies, Economics, Education, Statistics, Data Science or related disciplines.
• Additional training in research methods, evaluation, statistics, or data analytics is desirable.

Experience

• 6-7 years of relevant experience in research, monitoring and evaluation, learning within the development sector.
• Experience in programme evaluations and evidence generation.
• Experience working with research agencies and academic institutions.
• Experience working with:
  • Government school systems
  • State or district education departments
  • Large-scale education programmes

Strong capability in:

• Developing case studies and learning briefs.
• Facilitating learning reviews and reflection workshops.
• Creating knowledge repositories.
• Supporting evidence-based decision-making.

Excellent ability to:

• Write analytical reports.
• Create presentations for diverse audiences.
• Communicate technical findings in accessible language.
• Facilitate workshops and learning sessions.