Principal Lead, Implementation

Room to Read India; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 7,000,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Thirteenth month bonus

Health insurance

Retirement plan

Job summary

Room to Read India is seeking a Principal Lead, Implementation, to drive multi-state operations across Karnataka, Maharashtra and Telangana. You will report to the Program Operations Director and supervise State Heads to ensure timely, high-quality literacy and girls' education programs, with cross-functional coordination across country and global offices.

The role requires a Master’s in a relevant field, 12+ years in education project management, strong budgeting and data analysis, and travel

Qualifications

• Master’s degree or higher in management, education, or related field.
• Minimum 12 years of relevant experience in program management across multiple states.
• Strong data analysis and financial management skills.
• Excellent managerial and interpersonal skills with mentoring ability.
• Willingness to travel 8–10 days per month.

Responsibilities

• Lead multi-state strategic and operational leadership for program quality, delivery, and reporting across Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Telangana.
• Identify cross-state bottlenecks and scale opportunities; ensure programs adhere to designs and calendars.
• Coordinate with technical/program teams to maintain quality and fidelity; conduct monthly field visits.
• Manage government relations and stakeholder engagement, MoUs, renewals, and policy alignment.
• Oversee Central Operations activities: AP&B, GO queries, and escalation to POD.

Skills

Leadership

Data analysis

Financial management

Communication

Travel readiness

Education

Master’s in management/ education / related field

Job description

The Principal Lead, Implementation, is a member of Operations team at the regional level. This position will report directly to the Program Operations Director (POD). The Principal Lead provide strategic and operational leadership across Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Telangana, reporting to the Program Operations Director and supervising State Heads to deliver approved program and operational priorities. The Principal Lead will lead cross-functional coordination with Country Office and Global Office teams to resolve operational issues and support timely implementation.

Responsibilities:

Multi-State Strategic and Operational Leadership: Program Quality -Delivery – Reporting (60%)

• Ensure both programs Literacy and Girls Education GEP) achieve their respective goals across states with high-quality implementation of Literacy, Girls’ Education, Library, FLN and other relevant programs across assigned states.
• Identify cross-state trends, operational bottlenecks, emerging risks, and opportunities for scale.
• Ensure that programs are implemented in accordance with approved program designs and implementation calendars, with timely action on significant deviations.
• Work closely with technical/program teams (IDTS) to maintain program quality, fidelity, and alignment with evidence-based approaches and organizational standards.
• Conduct program field visits to project locations each month across both programs and work with teams to ensure the program is delivered as per the program design.
• Promote cross-state learning, innovation, and replication of successful practices.
• Partner with HR and State Heads to strengthen workforce capacity, leadership continuity, and organizational readiness across assigned states.
• Ensure that state teams can implement the program promptly with minimal deviations.
• Coordinate with RM&E to interpret Literacy and Girls’ Education data, identify implementation risks and deviations, and recommend process improvements.
• Help develop systems to keep records of all state-level partnerships and do follow-ups for the timely renewal of the partnership documents (agreements/MoUs).
• Establish regular communication channels with all departments to facilitate effective coordination and implementation.
• Collaborate with state heads, conducting monthly Operations calls for streamlined coordination and communication.
• Review state performance against annual plans, budgets, KPIs, program outcomes, and organizational priorities.
• Lead multi-state performance reviews and ensure agreed corrective actions are implemented. Review state budgets, resource requirements, staffing structures, and operational assumptions.
• Monitor budget utilization and identify significant variances and corrective actions.
• Ensure efficient deployment of human and financial resources across states.
• Support resource mobilisation and donor engagement through accurate program costing, operational inputs, and strategic narratives.
• Collect, collate CO and GO level reports (Monthly and quarterly) from allocated states and review; collaborate with RM&E team for final reporting.

Government & External Stakeholder Management (20%)

• Build and maintain high-level relationships with State Governments, Education Departments, SCERTs, Samagra Shiksha, district administrations, and other relevant government institutions.
• Support State Leads in developing and strengthening strategic government relationships and stakeholder engagement. Represent Room to Read in high-level government meetings, consultations, reviews, and strategic forums as required.
• Lead negotiations and strategic discussions related to MoUs, program expansion, renewals, government approvals, policy alignment, and institutional partnerships.
• Anticipate changes in government priorities and lead appropriate operational responses. Strengthen RtR’s positioning as a credible, evidence-based and non-partisan development partner
• Ensure timely and accurate submission of internal trackers every month to the Finance team.
• Proactively monitor the financial and operational performance of assigned projects and ensure timely escalation of material variances and risks. Ensure timely and accurate submission of the Cash Forecast every month to the Finance team.
• Timely and accurate submission to any financial queries by Country and Global Office.
• Keep track of Annual Budgets submitted to the Global Office.

Central Operations role (10%)

• Communicate and correspond with GO counterparts to seek highlight issues and seek clarification on various aspects of operations in the country.
• Lead and provide strategic direction for the Annual Planning & Budgeting (AP&B) process across assigned states. Proactively participate in the annual planning and budgeting exercise and ensure timely submission of key documents for the same.
• Ensure any Global Office queries (related to program, budgets) are responded to on time.
• Second line to the POD and represent POD in various meetings as and when required.
• Build a high-performance culture based on accountability, collaboration, ownership, learning, and results.
• Establish clear expectations for state leadership roles and strengthen managerial effectiveness.
• Conduct regular performance reviews and provide strategic feedback and coaching
• Identify leadership and succession needs across states.
• Build second-line leadership capacity to ensure continuity and organizational resilience.
• Monitor risks related to government relationships, MoUs, staffing, finances, safeguarding, program continuity, compliance, reputation, and external environment.
• Ensure timely escalation of critical risks to senior leadership.
• Represent Room to Read at relevant government, development-sector, education, and sectoral forums.
• Perform other duties as assigned by POD.
• Participate in any other activities which may be required to be undertaken to fulfil the objectives of the organization.

Qualifications:

Required:

• Master’s in management/ education / related field.
• Minimum 12 years of relevant experience. Should have a strong background in project management, encompassing planning, monitoring, and evaluating programs at all levels across multiple states, preferably education projects.
• Possess strong data analysis skills for both programs.
• Possess strong financial management expertise, including annual planning, budgeting, budget outlook, cash forecasting, and the ability to analyze and track budgets for various programs.
• Excellent managerial and interpersonal skills, including skills in managing and mentoring people.
• Demonstrates excellent communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Should be willing to travel to various states for a minimum of 8-10 days per month.

Compensation:

Room to Read offers a competitive salary with excellent benefits. Benefits include thirteenth month bonus, health insurance and a retirement plan. The non-monetary compensation includes a unique opportunity to be part of an innovative, meaningful, and rapidly growing organization that is changing transforming the lives of millions of children in developing countries on literacy and gender equality in education.

Room to Read is a child-safe organization. All personnel are expected to adhere to Room to Read’s Child Protection Policy and Child Protection Code of Conduct.