Manager, Strategy and Partnership

Job Summary

World Change Starts with Educated Children

Important: All applicants must be legally eligible to work in the country where the position is located. Room to Read is not able to provide sponsorship.

Position Overview: Room to Read India is seeking a dynamic professional to operationalize the Country Strategy into actionable partnership pathways, support donor-facing concept development, and strengthen our visibility and thought leadership footprint. The role blends strategy, partnerships, proposal coordination, and system influence positioned at the intersection of donor engagement, program insight, and narrative building. This role is suited for someone who thinks strategically, writes persuasively, builds relationships confidently, and enjoys converting ideas into compelling advocacy or partnership opportunities. This position reports to Director, Program Operations.

Responsibilities

Strategic Partnerships aligned to Country Strategy

• Drive the strategic partnership agenda as outlined in the Country Strategy, focusing on expansion, innovation, and cross-sector collaborations.
• Identify, evaluate, and cultivate partnerships with Government systems for State/District integration and systemic adoption.
• Organizations with specialized expertise in early years/FLN/numeracy/life skills/edtech
• Academic, research, philanthropic multilateral bodies for joint initiatives or advocacy alliances
• Develop partnership strategies, value propositions, engagement decks, and partner briefs tailored to different stakeholder segments.
• Support high-level meetings through briefs, talking points, documentation, and follow-through.
• Track partner MoUs, deliverables, and strategic alignment to scale goals.

Strategy Expansion Support

• Assist the Country Director with periodic review, tracking and updating of the Country Strategy outcomes, progress markers, and strategic actions.
• Support development of state expansion strategies, district growth plans, and scale-up approaches in collaboration with Program Operations State Teams.
• Conduct secondary research, policy mapping, and competitor scans to inform strategic decisions.
• Maintain internal dashboards/briefs linking strategy partnerships scale pathways.

Proposal Concept Development Coordination

• Serve as the central coordination point with the Global Grant Management Team for concept notes or proposal inputs.
• Support narrative development, consolidation of program information, thought inputs, and contextual data for proposals.
• Coordinate internally with Programs, RME, Finance, Fundraising Program Operations to ensure alignment of technical inputs, costing assumptions, ME frameworks, and narrative coherence.
• Maintain proposal libraries, evidence bank, and standardized resources for faster turnaround.

Strategic Positioning Thought Leadership

• Translate implementation insights, research findings, and state-level stories into external communication pieces-blogs, briefs, op-eds, keynote notes, advocacy decks.
• Support the Country Director in thought leadership positioning in FLN and Girls Education spaces.
• Develop content for convenings, campaigns, external events, and policy dialogues.

MarCom Strategic Communications Interface

• Work closely with the Marketing Communications team on content review messaging alignment.
• Collaborate with media houses for thought leadership placement.
• Design and Execute program campaigns and branding support.
• Storytelling material, social media inputs, field story pipelines
• Support day-to-day coordination across teams to drive timely communication outputs.

Qualifications

• Master's degree preferred: Education, Development Studies, Public Policy, Communications, or related areas.
• 10-12 years of experience in partnerships, proposal support, strategy, research, or development communication.
• Demonstrated writing skill-concept notes, strategy briefs, reports, advocacy content.
• Ability to work cross-functionally and influence without authority.
• Strong analytical thinking, project coordination, communication skills.

Competencies

• Strategic thinker who connects dots between program work, partnership value and system needs.
• Collaborative and comfortable navigating multiple teams.
• Strong research and synthesis capability.
• High ownership, structured working style and deadline discipline.
• Passion for foundational learning and equity in education.

Disclaimer: This job posting has been aggregated from external source. Role details, content, and availability are subject to change. Applicants are advised to confirm the latest information directly on the company website before applying.