Organisation: Shikha Institute

Location: Mumbai, with significant travel to partner schools

Employment: Full-time

Reporting to: Founder and Director

About Shikha Institute

Shikha Institute (shikhainstitute.org) is an education research and innovation organisation working to improve the quality of education in India. We develop and test current approaches to curriculum, assessment, educator development, school improvement and educational technology—and work with schools, governments and other partners to translate these approaches into scalable systems. Our work spans research, development and technology in K-12 education.

Shikha

Academy, our K 12 Cambridge school serving underserved students in Mumbai, serves as a laboratory for developing and testing many of these ideas in practice. As we extend the Shikha model to other schools, we are seeking partnerships with philanthropically driven institutions serving students from under-resourced communities. We want to work with school owners and leaders who share our commitment to making excellent education available to children who are usually denied it.

The role

Shikha Institute is looking for a senior school operator to build and lead its portfolio of partner school engagements. The Head - School Partnerships will identify promising school partners, develop relationships with founders and trustees, conduct institutional due diligence, recommend which partnerships Shikha should pursue, and lead implementation after a partnership is approved. The Head will help each partner school establish the leadership, operating systems, implementation capacity and internal roles required to improve itself and sustain that improvement.

Key responsibilities

- Map and develop a pipeline of philanthropic schools and school networks serving students from under-resourced communities.
- Build trusted relationships with school founders, owners, trustees and governing bodies. Represent Shikha's purpose, model and expectations clearly.
- Develop and apply clear partnership-selection and school-readiness criteria. Conduct due diligence covering mission alignment, governance, ethics, safeguarding, financial stability, school leadership, staffing, operations, data, technology and implementation capacity.




- Understand each prospective partner's mission, governance, financial model, ambitions, constraints and reasons for seeking a partnership by conducting structured diagnostics.
- Coach principals and administrative leaders on prioritisation, operating rhythms, data use, accountability and implementation problem-solving. Help screen and assess candidates for key school-leadership positions and advise the owner on appointments.
- Introduce Shikha's relevant school-management frameworks, templates, checklists, review processes and data tools. Ensure that new systems are understood, used consistently and owned by designated school staff. Build an integrated deployment plan for Shikha's curricula, pedagogical frameworks, assessments, teacher development, coaching, AI applications and digital systems.
- Conduct structured school visits and use evidence to identify what is working, what is failing and why.

What we are looking for

Experience

We expect that a strong candidate will bring approximately 10-15 years of relevant experience. We are open to different career paths, but candidates should have held substantial responsibility for the functioning of a school or group of schools.

- School founding, school leadership, school operations, multi-school management or a senior implementation role in a credible school-support organization with direct experience establishing or improving the systems.
- Experience assessing, recruiting, managing or developing principals and other senior school leaders.
- Experience implementing new programmes or operating models in existing institutions and managing the resistance that accompanies change.
- Experience working in philanthropic, affordable, government or otherwise resource constrained school environments is strongly preferred.
- Experience overseeing more than one school,



leading a turnaround or replicating a model across sites is highly valuable.

Essential capabilities

- School-operating judgement: a practical understanding of what must happen for a school to function well every day.
- Institutional diagnosis: the ability to identify root causes across governance, leadership, people, processes, resources and culture.
- Partnership development: the ability to identify suitable partners, build senior relationships and structure credible engagements without becoming sales-driven.
- Leadership judgement: the ability to recognise strong school leaders, assess candidates and address poor leadership directly.
- Implementation discipline: the ability to translate a broad model into phased plans, owners, milestones, measures and follow-through.
- Change management: the ability to influence owners, principals and staff without relying solely on formal authority.
- Systems thinking: the ability to connect operational, academic, technological and organisational components without collapsing their distinct responsibilities.
- Data use: comfort using school and programme data to identify problems, test assumptions and determine corrective action.
- Team leadership: the ability to build and manage a field team while coordinating specialist contributors who may not report directly to the role.
- Travel readiness: the willingness and personal flexibility to spend substantial time working on site in partner schools.

Personal qualities

- Deep commitment to excellent education for students from under-resourced communities.
- High standards combined with respect for the people already working inside partner schools.
- Directness, judgement and the courage to deliver difficult recommendations.
- A builder's orientation: willingness to create systems, test them in practice and improve them through evidence.
- Comfort with ambiguity, travel, evolving priorities and the operational realities of schools.

Application process

Applicants should submit the following to [email protected]:

- A CV.
- A brief note explaining why this role and Shikha’s work interest them.

Compensation will be competitive for the education and social sector and will reflect the background of the candidate.

📌 Head of School Partnerships (Mumbai)
🏢 Shikha Institute of Education
📍 Mumbai