General Manager – Primary Schooling

The General Manager, Primary Schooling is a senior executive responsible for the design, implementation, and quality assurance of early and primary education programs across a national network. This role blends academic expertise with operational insight, owning the strategy for foundational years and ensuring consistent application of program models across diverse contexts. As the organization’s subject-matter expert in foundational education, the GM is accountable for driving student learning outcomes and maintaining high standards.

Key Responsibilities

Program Strategy & Scalable Model Development
Develop and maintain a comprehensive, country-wide curriculum framework and operational playbook for foundational years, designed for replication and scalability. Utilize research and evidence to refine delivery models suitable for low- and mixed-resource environments. Align program priorities with organizational growth plans, managing phased rollouts and change management processes. Define program non-negotiables such as standards, pedagogy, time-on-task, and assessment cycles, ensuring operational feasibility.

Quality Assurance, Impact Measurement & Execution Enablement
Establish organization-wide key performance indicators and contribute to the development of a robust monitoring and evaluation framework. Oversee the design and implementation of assessment tools, from formative to summative, and set routines for data utilization to analyze trends and inform program adjustments. Ensure all programs meet or exceed national education standards and benchmarks. Define fidelity criteria, conduct quality assurance reviews across regions, and lead corrective action plans for underperforming sites. Maintain accountability for literacy and numeracy outcomes, even when execution is led by field teams.

Leadership, Capability Building & Cross-Functional Alignment
Lead Curriculum and Instructional Design teams and provide dotted-line leadership to regional implementation managers. Mentor and coach leaders, set clear performance expectations, and build leadership bench strength and succession plans. Strengthen systems and processes to minimize single-point dependencies and ensure sustainability at scale. Clarify decision-making authority, escalation paths, and governance structures to ensure alignment across functional, cross-functional, and operations teams.

Stakeholder Relations & Advocacy
Represent the organization in engagements with government bodies and education ministries, advocating for policies that support foundational education. Collaborate closely with the Development Team on funding proposals and rigorous outcome reporting. Build strategic alliances with thought leaders, research institutions, and NGOs to position the organization as a national authority on foundational literacy and numeracy.

Required Qualifications

- Master’s degree in Education, Public Policy, Nonprofit Management, or a related field.
- 8 to 10 years of experience in the education sector, with significant exposure to foundational or primary education.
- At least 4 years in a senior management or executive role leading multi-site education programs.
- Demonstrated expertise in curriculum development, assessment design, and monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) at scale.

Preferred Skills

- Strong strategic thinking, communication, adaptability, and mentoring capabilities.
- Experience integrating teacher professional development with curriculum and assessment cycles.
- Proficiency with EdTech tools, data dashboards, and data visualization to support informed decision-making.

This leadership role offers the opportunity to shape foundational education programs at scale, driving measurable impact and fostering sustainable growth through strategic partnerships and operational excellence.