Associate Director South India in Chennai/ Bengaluru | Avanti Fellows

Avanti Fellows

Avanti Fellows is a nonprofit that works to improve access to quality education and career opportunities for students from low-income backgrounds in India. Avanti partners with state governments to set up Centres of Excellence (CoEs) and test preparation programmes in government residential and model schools, helping students from underserved communities prepare for competitive exams and access higher education pathways. Avanti Fellows is a Great Place to Work certified organisation.

Role

You will lead Avanti's government partnerships and programme operations across Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. This is a senior leadership role that sits at the intersection of government relations, on-ground execution, and programme management unit (PMU) leadership. Your goal is to increase state ownership and investment, build reliable statewide systems, and ensure that government spending translates into measurable outcomes for students.

Responsibilities

• Own senior government relationships (Secretaries, Directors, key departmental heads) and use crisp evidence to secure decisions on budgets, permissions, and priorities.
• Position Avanti as a long-term technical partner and close commitments that move funding/ownership into the state.
• Open and operationalize CoEs in state residential/model institutions: approvals, access, staffing alignment, facility readiness, and ongoing governance.
• Run a tight permissions/action tracker with state counterparts and close blockers fast.
• Lead and strengthen state PMUs (program, ops, data): hiring, KRAs, cadence, performance management, and on-ground problem solving.
• Set review rhythms (weekly/fortnightly/monthly) with the state and ensure action closure, not just meetings.
• Build form-filling systems that hit near-100% completion for eligible students, including fee-waiver/state-funding coordination where applicable.
• Make result capture reliable: collect, validate, aggregate, and integrate into dashboards and review packs.
• Embed counselling and longitudinal tracking into state processes; coordinate scholarships/forms/placements with relevant state agencies.
• Own dashboards and briefing packs that senior officials actually use; translate data into clear "asks" and next actions.
• Ensure data quality and governance from field PMU Avanti state systems.
• Keep equity non-negotiable: transparent selection/migration, supports for non-CoE students, and outcome monitoring by subgroup.

Requirements

• Experience: 8-12 years in government partnerships, state education systems, PMU/program operations, or adjacent roles with credible senior-state engagement.
• Experience of running large, multi-stakeholder programs; exposure to CoEs/residential schools/test series is a strong plus.
• Strong comfort with data and dashboards-and the ability to use them to influence decisions.
• People leadership: Hiring, developing managers, setting clear expectations, and delivering through teams.
• Strength in bureaucratic navigation, structured execution (SOPs/timelines), systems thinking, equity orientation, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Qualification: A relevant degree (Masters preferred) in Public Policy, Education, Management, Development Studies, Social Work, or equivalent.

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