Senior Academic Specialist – Literacy, New Delhi

Role: Senior Academic Specialist – Literacy, New Delhi
Experience: 8+
Salary:12-16 LPA
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About the role :
The Academic Specialist (Literacy) will be part of the Central Academic Team (CAT) based in New Delhi and will provide academic and technical leadership and support to assigned projects, including state-level technical support.

The position will work closely with state academic teams, partner organisations, and government institutions to support the design and implementation of literacy programs. In addition to providing academic and technical inputs, the role will have significant responsibility for academic planning, coordination, and tracking of project deliverables.

The position is expected to translate academic priorities into clear workplans, timelines, deliverables, and tracking mechanisms; coordinate across teams to ensure timely execution; support regular academic reviews; and identify and follow up on implementation gaps and dependencies

Key Roles and Responsibilities

1. Academic Leadership, Management and Coordination

• Provide academic guidance and mentoring to state academic teams on literacy for foundational and preparatory grades.
• Develop a deep understanding of our academic approach and instructional frameworks and ensure alignment of state programs with our pedagogical approach.
• Collaborate with state teams to provide technical support to SCERTs, Samagra Shiksha, and other government teams to strengthen FLN implementation.
• Develop and refine academic frameworks related to literacy, including guidelines, tools, and implementation resources.
• Review academic plans and deliverables to ensure conceptual, pedagogical, and technical quality.
• Translate academic priorities into clear activities, timelines, responsibilities, and expected outputs in coordination with relevant teams.
• Develop and maintain academic trackers, progress-monitoring tools, and review dashboards to track activities, deliverables, timelines, and responsibilities across projects.
• Coordinate with state academic teams and internal teams to ensure timely execution of planned academic activities and deliverables.
• Support project leads in planning and sequencing academic activities across different workstreams and ensuring coordination between them.

2. Curriculum and Instructional Resource Development

• Review and analyse state language curricula, textbooks, other Teaching-Learning Materials (TLMs), and training materials to identify academic and pedagogical gaps.
• Lead and manage instructional design and material development processes, including teacher guides, workbooks, TLMs, resource packs, and other academic resources, in collaboration with state teams.
• Develop academic content and provide guidance to teams engaged in curriculum and resource development.
• Coordinate the development, review, and finalisation of academic resources while ensuring adherence to agreed quality standards and timelines.
• Support contextualisation and adaptation of academic resources in response to state requirements.

3. Documentation and Knowledge Management

• Develop academic frameworks, guidelines, presentations, thematic notes, and policy briefs for internal and external use.
• Contribute to documentation of field learnings, best practices, and impact case studies.
• Coordinate cross-team academic projects such as video content, blended courses, mentoring tools, and other knowledge products.
• Develop research concept notes and support short studies on academic components of the program.
• Synthesize key learnings and insights from implementation and share them with relevant teams.

4. Capacity Building and Professional Development

• Design training modules, workshop plans, and resources for professional development of teachers, mentors, and internal team members.
• Facilitate academic sessions and workshops for internal teams, teachers, mentors, and government officials.
• Contribute to strengthening the academic capacity of teams through structured support, review, and feedback.

5. Monitoring, Review and Data Analysis

• Develop and use appropriate tracking and review mechanisms to monitor progress across academic workstreams.
• Analyse data and implementation updates from the field and other sources to identify trends, gaps, challenges, and areas requiring attention.
• Present key insights and recommendations to relevant teams to support academic and program decision-making.
• Undertake field visits for classroom observations, mentoring, training facilitation, academic reviews, and program monitoring.
• Use field observations and interactions with teachers, mentors, and government teams to inform academic planning and program improvement.

6. Other Important Tasks

• Support proposal development, donor reporting, and program planning exercises by providing relevant academic inputs, progress updates, and documentation.
• Represent the organization in meetings, consultations, and technical discussions with government bodies, donors, and academic partners, as required.

Qualifications and Experience

• Graduation or equivalent degree required; a master’s degree in education or a related field is preferred.
• Minimum 5 years of relevant work experience in curriculum design, teacher training, academic resource development, academic program management, or related work in FLN/primary education.
• Strong conceptual understanding of foundational learning, NEP 2020, NIPUN Bharat Mission, and the National Curriculum Framework (NCF).
• Strong understanding of early-grade literacy and language development, curriculum and pedagogy, teacher education, and foundational learning.

Required Skills

• Strong Hindi and English communication skills, including reading, writing, and speaking; excellent academic writing ability in Hindi is required.
• Competence in MS Office, particularly Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, internet use, and Hindi typing.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and manage workplans, trackers, review mechanisms, and academic deliverables.
• Ability to use AI tools effectively for academic and professional work.
• Preferred: Experience working across multiple projects or workstreams and coordinating with diverse teams and stakeholders.

Desired Qualities

• Ability to manage multiple tasks and projects, coordinate across teams, and meet timelines effectively.
• Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively with state, central, and external teams.
• Passion for improving government school education and teacher professional development.
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Hiring Note: Applications will be reviewed on rolling basis. This job is first posted on Oct 16, 2026 on Ground Zero

For any questions, ping us on WhatsApp chat: +91-8058331557