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State Head Program Operations
- Company
Room to Read India
- Location
Rajasthan or Uttar Pradesh or Bihar
- Employment Type
Full-Time
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Functional Category
Programme Management & Implementation
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Experience
12 - 15 years
- Date Posted
27-Jun-2025
- Application Deadline
14-Jul-2025
About Room to Read India
Room to Read is a global nonprofit transforming the lives of children in low-income communities by focusing on Literacy and Gender equality in education. Established in India in 2003, presently has programs in ten states – Chhattisgarh, Delhi NCR, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh. Our Literacy Program has been implemented in 15642 government schools, training 25,741 teachers trained in library management and reading activities. Over the same period our Girls’ Education & Gender Equality Program has benefited over 62,457 girls. Founded in 2000 on the belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children®, our innovative model focuses on deep, systemic transformation within schools during two time periods that are most critical in a child’s schooling: early primary school for literacy acquisition and secondary school for girls’ education. We work in collaboration with local communities, partner organizations, and governments to develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children and ensure girls can complete secondary school with the skills necessary to negotiate key life decisions. The Room to Read global headquarters is in San Francisco, and we have smaller fundraising offices in Hong Kong, London, and Delhi.
- Website
Overview of the Role
The State Head is responsible for Room to Read’s operations in a geographic area a state in this case. The State Head is primarily responsible for ensuring government relations at state level timely and effective implementation of programs at the field office including implementation spending hiring local procurement inventory management distribution and logistical support. The position is required to take initiative for project management improving work approaches partnerships selection of projects sites and ensuring adequate staff to work at the field level. S/he will work to strengthen coordination and collaboration within teams and across all CO program teams maintaining and ensuring constructive communication building team morale within individual teams and contributing to a positive working environment. S/he will report to the Sr. Manager Program Operations and will have dotted line reporting to various stakeholders from the Country Leadership Team. The entire state team will report to him/her.
Job Description
- System strengthening and system integration:
Working closely with State officials in ensuring government system strengthening and institutionalization of RtR programs in the states.
Preparation of overall strategic plan basis local context and RtR Vision plan 2025 for the respective state and continuously reviewing the same.
Organizing various discussions/consultations with Government to work towards system strengthening and positioning RtR as a thought leader in Literacy and Girls Education program.
Building body of evidence that can push appropriate policy/practice changes backed by robust evidence.
Support INCO Op’s in proposal development and country growth plan as needed
- External Coordination branding and Networking:
Attends to donor affairs including hosting donor and project site visits in collaboration with programs staff.
Develop and lead media advocacy plan for the state.
Assist RtR communication team in promotion of RtR programs through active media liasioning in state in accordance with the strategy policies and guidelines of RtR.
Scanning of education landscape in the state and positioning RtR as a thought leader through strategic management
Take lead in dissemination of program results sharing program report to government and other agencies in suggestions with OPS team.
Meets regularly with local government representatives NGO partners school administrators and parent groups to represent RtR.
Promotes and protects the reputation of Room to Read in external settings ensuring that the organization’s experience and expertise is well communicated and consistently presented and that we are looked upon as a professional Education organization.
- Management and Coordination:
Ensures efficient and effective coordination across all elements of the Literacy Program and Girls’ Education Program in his/her region.
Supervises and oversees the work of the field staff and is responsible for optimizing their productivity through effective management and leadership techniques (i.e. coaching/advising).
Ensures staff are consistently complying and adhering to policies procedures and guidelines articulated in the CO handbooks and facilitates the dissemination of information to all staff members to promote transparency.
Supports staff through consultation with CO-level technical team to regularly assess staff capacity building needs.
Ensures the performance management process is well-planned and conducted in a timely for all field staff. This includes setting performance goals conducting progress check-ins providing feedback conducting year-end appraisals and making recommendations for staff development and career advancement.
Collaborates with Human Resources to handle recruitment and training of staff according to need.
Leads and facilitates field staff in bi-weekly or monthly meetings to review progress against plans find solutions to problems share lessons learned exchange expertise across programs and to motivate and encourage teamwork.
Ensures that field-staff are aware of and understand the programs’ goals and objectives working approaches and methodology and have all necessary information related to annual plans targets and implementation calendars.
Conducts regular field visits to monitor and verify the programs’ progress and impact understand the challenges and needs of stakeholders (e.g. RtR staff Social Mobilizers Field Facilitators communities children etc...) and suggest appropriate solutions.
Develop and implement plans for on-line material development in consultation with Country office as per the state specific context.
Perform other tasks as assigned by the Sr. Manager – Operations and Country Management Team.
- Financial management:
Supervises fund disbursement reviews and approves the field monthly and quarterly financial expenses in accordance with financial and purchasing policy and procedures.
Timely submission of Cash forecast booking of monthly bills and variance tracker
Monthly tracking of all expense vis-à-vis the budgets and flagging any deviations to concerned person.
Coordinates the timely completion of annual planning and budgeting.
Ensuring full utilisation of respective budgets as per the financial guidelines.
Co-ordinate and answer any audit queries for the state.
- Reporting and Documentation:
Develops high quality quarterly report for distributing to partners if applicable.
Prepares high quality monthly and quarterly donor programmatic reports coordinate with concerned Program Finance and OP’s department in INCO for finalizing and sharing the report on time.
Ensuring high level of data quality for all reporting purposes.
Preparation of appropriate case studies for submission to donors/communication team
Required & Preferred Qualifications
Skill
- Strategic Leadership & Planning
Ability to design and implement strategic plans aligned with organizational goals.
Proven track record in leading state-level operations and driving system-level change.
- Government & Stakeholder Engagement
Strong experience working with government departments particularly in education and social sectors.
Capacity to build and maintain strategic partnerships with public private and civil society actors.
- Program & Project Management
Expertise in end-to-end program management including planning implementation monitoring and evaluation.
Experience in integrating literacy and girls’ education programs within state systems.
Education
Master’s in education/social sciences/management Social Work or equivalent.
Experience
- Minimum 12 years of relevant experience and 5+ years of management experience of related sector - Prior experience of community engagement/ mobilization activities. - Command of the local language is preferred.
Company Policies
Leave Policies
Paid Time Off
Healthcare & Wellness
Insurance