New opportunity

Senior Project Lead – EdTech and AI

Central Square Foundation · Delhi, India

About this role

The Senior Project Lead – EdTech and AI will lead Central Square Foundation’s government adoption, implementation and policy portfolio for education technology and emerging AI-enabled opportunities in Indian school education. The role focuses on scaling evidence-backed approaches that improve foundational learning and support remediation. It reports to the Associate Project Director – EdTech and AI and is based in Delhi.

Responsibilities

Translate the EdTech and AI strategy into priorities, workplans and measurable outcomes. Lead partnerships across 3–4 states, from identifying opportunities and designing programmes through procurement, implementation, scale-up and institutionalisation.
Build relationships with senior state and central government stakeholders, including the Ministry of Education. Help governments use technology investments effectively and develop concept notes, policy memos, guidelines, procurement language and implementation frameworks.
Lead programme design, partner selection, contracting, implementation planning, monitoring, risk management and course correction. Strengthen Technical Support Units, Programme Management Units and other technical-assistance structures; use data and field insights to address implementation bottlenecks.
Turn evidence and implementation learning into case studies, playbooks, policy recommendations and other knowledge outputs. Contribute to work on AI in education, digital infrastructure and technology-enabled governance.
Manage the portfolio’s team, budgets, resources, reporting and governance, coordinating with other CSF teams.

Required qualifications

At least 10 years of relevant experience, including significant work with Indian state and/or central government systems; experience leading complex, multi-stakeholder programmes through implementation and institutionalisation; and experience managing portfolios, budgets, teams and external partners. Applicants need a master’s degree in business, public policy, education, engineering, development studies or a related field, plus a demonstrated ability to build senior government relationships and translate evidence into policy and system-level outcomes. Applicants from education, EdTech or adjacent social sectors are preferred. CSF also seeks strong communication, judgement, relationship-building and execution skills, with curiosity about the responsible application of emerging technologies.

Remuneration is described as competitive with Indian philanthropy and social-impact sector benchmarks and commensurate with experience. Apply through the CSF Careers Portal by 20 September 2026 with a role-specific resume and a statement of interest of no more than 500 words. Candidates should apply only if they can commit to at least three years supporting CSF’s 2025–2028 EdTech and AI strategy.

For full details about this role, click “Apply on company site” to view the employer’s original posting.

Skills for this role

EdTechAI in educationGovernment partnershipsProgramme managementStrategic planningPolicy developmentProcurementStakeholder managementMonitoring and evaluationTechnical assistanceRisk managementBudgetingTeam leadershipEvidence synthesisDigital education

Checking your profile…

Preparation suggestions, not the employer’s actual interview questions. Always check the original posting for current requirements.

Understand the role

What matters most

Turn strategy into a managed state portfolio
Lead partnerships across 3–4 states with clear priorities, measurable outcomes, milestones, ownership, risks and resource plans.
Secure government adoption and effective procurement
Build trusted relationships with senior state and central officials, including the Ministry of Education, and support quality-led procurement through specifications, technical requirements and implementation frameworks.
Make implementation sustainable
Guide programmes from design through scale-up and institutionalisation; use data and field insights to resolve bottlenecks, strengthen government ownership and sustained usage, and improve TSUs, PMUs and other technical-assistance structures.
Convert evidence into policy and practice
Use implementation learning to guide decisions and produce policy memos, guidelines, case studies and playbooks. Contribute to work on evidence-backed EdTech, AI in education and digital infrastructure.
Lead delivery across people and resources
Manage partner selection, contracting, monitoring and course correction while leading the team, budgets, reporting and coordination with other CSF teams.

Likely challenges to think through

Balance common direction with state-specific execution
Preparation hypothesis: A 3–4-state portfolio may need consistent outcomes while each partnership has different priorities and implementation conditions. Prepare a way to explain how you would set shared measures, assign ownership and adapt workplans using state-level evidence.
Move beyond procurement to sustained use
Preparation hypothesis: A quality-led purchase may not, by itself, produce government ownership or sustained usage. Prepare an approach that connects specifications and contracting to monitoring, field feedback, technical assistance and course correction.
Weigh emerging AI opportunities against learning evidence
Preparation hypothesis: Interest in AI-enabled approaches may outpace evidence of their value for foundational learning or remediation. Prepare to explain how you would assess an opportunity against learning goals, implementation data and responsible use before recommending scale.

Practice your answers

Technical practice

How would you turn an EdTech and AI strategy into a manageable portfolio across 3–4 states?

What to coverThe role calls for state-specific priorities, workplans, measurable outcomes, ownership and resource plans. Suggested preparation: explain how you would sequence opportunities, set milestones and make trade-offs when state needs or capacity differ.

How would you design a technology intervention for foundational learning or middle-school remediation?

What to coverCSF describes student-focused and teacher-directed approaches for primary-grade foundational learning and middle-school remediation. Suggested preparation: discuss learner needs, pedagogical fit, classroom or home use, equity and the conditions needed for sustained use.

What evidence would you require before recommending an EdTech approach for government scale-up?

What to coverThe posting emphasises evidence-backed solutions and learning what works, how it works and how to scale it. Suggested preparation: distinguish learning outcomes from usage measures, and explain how you would assess relevance to the proposed setting and uncertainty in the evidence.

How would you develop quality-led procurement specifications for an EdTech programme?

What to coverThe role includes programme specifications, technical requirements, procurement language and implementation frameworks. Suggested preparation: explain how you would translate educational goals into assessable requirements while balancing quality, feasibility and effective use of public investment.

How would you move a state partnership from initial adoption to institutionalised implementation?

What to coverThe posting assigns this role the full path from opportunity identification through procurement, implementation and institutionalisation. Suggested preparation: describe how you would build government ownership, clarify responsibilities and plan for sustained usage beyond an initial rollout.

How would you diagnose and respond to an implementation bottleneck?

What to coverThe role requires using monitoring data and field insights to identify bottlenecks and course-correct. Suggested preparation: explain how you would test competing explanations, gather input from implementers and choose a change whose results can be monitored.

What would an effective Technical Support Unit or Programme Management Unit need to do?

What to coverCSF expects this lead to design or strengthen technical-assistance structures and establish workplans, reviews, decision logs and deliverable tracking. Suggested preparation: discuss decision rights, government capability-building and how support would reinforce rather than replace government ownership.

How would you manage partner selection, delivery risks and resources across several state programmes?

What to coverThe role covers partner selection, contracting, risk management, budgets and resource allocation. Suggested preparation: describe criteria and review points that would help you balance programme quality, delivery capacity and competing portfolio demands.

How would you turn implementation learning into a useful policy recommendation?

What to coverThe posting calls for policy memos, guidelines, case studies and playbooks informed by evidence and field experience. Suggested preparation: explain how you would separate observed results from interpretation and tailor a concise recommendation to a government decision.

How would you assess an emerging AI-enabled education opportunity?

What to coverThe role contributes to work on AI in education, digital infrastructure and technology-enabled governance, with an emphasis on responsible application. Suggested preparation: compare the proposed educational value with evidence, implementation feasibility and potential risks, without assuming AI is the right solution.

Behavioural practice

Tell me about a time you built trust with a senior government stakeholder.

What to coverThe role depends on relationships with senior state and central government counterparts. Suggested preparation: use a situation–action–result example that shows how you understood their priorities, handled differing interests and established a productive working relationship.

Describe a time you had to create a plan in an ambiguous, evolving programme.

What to coverThe posting values self-direction, prioritisation and execution across a multi-state portfolio. Suggested preparation: give a situation–action–result example showing how you set priorities, assigned ownership and revised the plan as new information emerged.

Tell me about a time you coached a team through a demanding delivery period.

What to coverThis lead will coach and performance-manage a team while building ownership and execution capability. Suggested preparation: describe the situation, your specific coaching and delegation actions, and the resulting change in delivery or team capability.

Describe a time you aligned organisations with different priorities around a shared programme.

What to coverThe role coordinates government counterparts, external partners and multiple CSF teams. Suggested preparation: use a situation–action–result example that makes the disagreement clear, explains how you reached a workable decision and identifies the outcome.

Tell me about a time evidence or field feedback changed your programme recommendation.

What to coverThe posting expects evidence and implementation learning to inform decisions and system-level recommendations. Suggested preparation: explain the situation, what you learned, the action you took to change course and the result, including any remaining uncertainty.

Sharpen your knowledge

Topics to prepare

Foundational learning and EdTech fit
Suggested revision exercise: Compare a hypothetical technology intervention for primary-grade foundational learning with one for middle-school remediation; explain how evidence, pedagogy and sustained use would affect adoption. CSF explicitly focuses on these two learning needs and evidence-backed, scalable solutions.
Government adoption and institutionalisation
Suggested revision exercise: Explain the stages from identifying a state opportunity through procurement, implementation, scale-up and lasting government ownership. The role leads partnerships across 3–4 states through this full cycle.
Evidence and implementation learning
Suggested revision exercise: Given a hypothetical gap between reported usage and field observations, distinguish what the data establishes, what needs investigation and what might warrant course correction. The posting calls for using evidence, monitoring data and field insights to address bottlenecks.
Technical assistance and governance
Suggested revision exercise: Describe how a TSU or PMU could support government ownership, reviews and decision-making without substituting for it. The role is tasked with strengthening these structures and establishing programme governance.
Responsible AI and digital education
Suggested revision exercise: Discuss a hypothetical AI-enabled education opportunity, separating potential learning value from questions that would need evidence and responsible-use judgement. CSF identifies AI in education, digital infrastructure and technology-enabled governance as areas of contribution; the posting does not prescribe a particular AI tool.

Skills to revise

Build a multi-state portfolio workplan
Suggested practice: Draft a one-page hypothetical plan for 3–4 state partnerships with outcomes, milestones, owners, resources and risks. The role explicitly translates strategy into measurable plans and leads that portfolio.
Draft government-facing procurement material
Suggested practice: Write a short hypothetical programme specification with technical requirements and an implementation framework, stating how quality would be assessed. The posting explicitly calls for quality-led procurement and procurement language.
Diagnose an implementation bottleneck
Suggested practice: Use a hypothetical monitoring summary and field note to identify a bottleneck, propose a corrective action and specify what to check at the next review. The role uses data and field insights for monitoring and course correction.
Synthesize evidence into a policy memo
Suggested practice: Draft a one-page memo for a government stakeholder that separates findings, limitations and a recommended system-level action. The role develops policy memos and translates evidence and programme insights into recommendations.
Run portfolio governance
Suggested practice: Create a hypothetical review agenda, decision log and budget-versus-plan summary showing an escalation and a resource trade-off. The role owns budgets, reporting and resource allocation and establishes reviews and decision tracking.

Your preparation checklist

Prepare a government partnership walkthrough
Select a real programme you led with Indian state or central government. Prepare a concise account of stakeholder relationships, your decisions from design through implementation, measurable results, setbacks and what became institutionalised; distinguish your contribution from the team's.
Draft a multi-state scale-up exercise
As a hypothetical exercise, outline how you would prioritise and manage 3–4 state partnerships for evidence-backed EdTech. Include milestones, owners, resources and measures for foundational learning in primary grades or remediation in middle school.
Write a sample government-facing brief
Prepare a one-page concept note or policy memo for a hypothetical education-technology adoption decision. Show how evidence would inform the recommendation, quality-led procurement requirements and a practical implementation framework.
Sketch an implementation governance plan
Create a sample workplan showing reviews, decision logs, deliverable tracking, risks and course corrections. Explain how a TSU or PMU could use field insights and monitoring data to resolve bottlenecks and strengthen government ownership.
Prepare an evidence and AI discussion
Choose an example of how implementation evidence changed a programme or policy recommendation. Separately, prepare questions to examine the pedagogical value, scalability and responsible use of a proposed AI-enabled education intervention; these are discussion prompts, not stated CSF requirements.
Gather portfolio leadership evidence
Prepare examples with figures you can substantiate for budgets, resource allocation, external partners and team management. Be ready to explain trade-offs, cross-team coordination and reporting decisions at portfolio level.
Bring targeted questions for the employer
Ask how success is measured across the state portfolio, where government adoption faces the greatest implementation barriers, and how the role works with Evidence/M&E, Finance and State Reform teams. Clarify priorities for the 2025–2028 EdTech and AI strategy.
Tailor the application materials
Prepare a role-specific resume and a statement of interest of no more than 500 words connecting past work and future aspirations to the role. The posting sets 20 September 2026 as the application deadline and asks applicants to commit to at least three years.

Availability last checked: 5 Nov 2026. Status can change after a check; confirm on the employer’s website. Report an issue · Our checking policy

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