Associate Director- Education and Skills Development

The Associate Director – Education will play a strategic leadership role strengthening, guiding, and expanding the impact of Education and Skills Development vertical. S/he will be responsible for driving the growth strategy, leading large-scale multi-stakeholder engagements, fostering key partnerships, and delivering high-impact education sector programs. The incumbent shall also be responsible for leadership and guidance to the team on proposals and project deliverables.

• Provide strategic oversight and quality assurance for end-to-end project execution, ensuring alignment with client expectations, timelines, and budgets.
• Identify new business opportunities in target geographical areas as well as across identified education components (e.g. ECCE, higher education, school education, EdTech solutions, accelerated school readiness, teaching learning online platforms, etc.)
• Establish and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders, including educational institutions, education sector firms, and government bodies.
• Publish in technical / trade journals, write papers on chosen technical expertise, or speak at industry events representing IPE.
• Develop and formalize strategic alliances and consortiums for joint bidding, project implementation, and knowledge exchange to enhance and represent the Education and Skills Development department.
• Promote a high-performance, inclusive, and collaborative team culture.
• Technical Capability Building of Education Team at IPE.
• Mentor and lead a team of mid and junior-level professionals across diverse geographies.
• Provide technical expertise across project teams and clients for Education.
• Contribute to research on various educational practices, both local and global, focusing on enhancing education programs and documenting best practices.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for key clients including government ministries, donor agencies, and multilateral organizations, ensuring strategic alignment and be accountable for achievement of set targets.
• Ensure that all work submitted as part of the proposal, research and development is technically sound.
• Promote IPE through speaking engagements at industry conferences and involvement in local business organizations.
• Develop and implement comprehensive business development plans and proposals to win projects and achieve organizational goals and objectives.
• Facilitate regular meetings, strategic dialogues, and field visits with clients to ensure transparency, responsiveness, and effective project delivery.
• Co-create project scopes, implementation strategies, and innovations in partnership with clients to ensure contextual relevance and sustainability.
• Support project teams in planning, implementation, monitoring, and reporting, while troubleshooting operational challenges and ensuring adaptive management.
• Bring forward new ideas, unique methodologies, value-added changes to existing practices including but not limited to areas of: a) proposal preparation b) internal processes and management strategies c) client engagement and retention plans d) scaling up of opportunities.
• Facilitate continuous capacity development and knowledge sharing within the Education vertical.
• Identify and drive the design and implementation of large-scale programs in early education, school education, teacher training, institutional capacity building, and change management etc.

• 12+ years of experience in the education sector with a focus on business development activities along with implementation of projects.
• MBA/ Master's degree in a relevant field such as economics, international development, education, or a related field.