General Manager – Primary Schooling

About the job

The General Manager, Primary Schooling is a senior executive accountable for the design, implementation, and quality assurance of early and primary education programs across the organization’s national footprint. The GM combines academic rigor with operational pragmatism, owns the Foundational Years strategy, and ensures consistent adoption of program models across varying contexts. The role serves as the organization’s subject-matter authority on foundational education and is accountable for student learning outcomes.

The GM will lead Curriculum and Instructional Design (standards, scope & sequence, instructional materials, teacher guides) and Assessment Approaches (formative, summative; standards alignment; data use); and will work in close partnership with functional teams of Staff Learning and Development, Evaluation and Examinations, and cross functional teams including Operations and HR to drive adoption, fidelity, and scale.

Program Strategy & Scalable Model Development

Outcome: Cohesive, data-driven national strategy that improves early learning outcomes across sites.

• Build and maintain a country-wide foundational years curriculum framework and operational playbook designed for replication and scale.
• Use research and evidence to refine delivery models effective across low- and mixed-resource environments.
• Align program priorities with growth plans; sequence roll-outs and change management.
• Define program non-negotiables (standards, time-on-task, pedagogy, assessment cycles) and ensure feasibility with Operations.

Quality Assurance, Impact Measurement & Execution Enablement

Outcome: Robust systems that monitor quality, drive improvement, & demonstrate measurable impact.

• Establish organization-wide KPIs and contributes towards a monitoring and evaluation framework.
• Oversee assessment tools (formative to summative), set data use routines, and analyze trends to inform program pivots.
• Ensure programs meet or exceed national standards and benchmarks.
• Define fidelity criteria and conduct quality assurance across regions; lead corrective action plans for under-performance.
• Maintain accountability for literacy and numeracy outcomes, even where execution is field-led.

Leadership, Capability Building & Cross-Functional Alignment

Outcome: Strong leadership capacity and alignment across teams delivering foundational education.

• Lead Curriculum and Instructional Design teams; provide dotted-line leadership to regional implementation managers.
• Coach leaders, set clear expectations, and build bench strength and succession.
• Strengthen systems and processes to reduce single‑point dependencies and ensure sustainability at scale.
• Clarify decision rights, escalation paths, and governance for initiatives; ensure alignment with functional, cross functional and operations teams.

Stakeholder Relations & Advocacy

Outcome: Partnerships that enhance funding, policy influence, and program sustainability.

• Represent the organization with government bodies and education ministries; advocate for supportive policy.
• Collaborate with Development Team on proposals and rigorous outcome reporting.
• Build alliances with thought leaders, research institutions, and NGOs; position the organization as a national voice on foundational literacy and numeracy.

Skills

• Strategic thinking, communication, adaptability, and mentoring skills.
• Experience integrating teacher professional development with curriculum and assessment cycles.
• Comfort with EdTech tools, dashboards, and data visualization for decision-making.

Education

Master’s in Education, Public Policy, Nonprofit Management, or related field

Experience

8–10+ years in the education sector, with significant exposure to foundational/primary education.

4+ years in a senior management/executive role leading multi-site programs.

Proven expertise in curriculum development, assessment design, MEL at scale.