Officer – School Partnerships & Outreach in Pune | Lend A Hand India

Lend A Hand India (LAHI)

Lend A Hand India is a national think tank and NGO with over 20 years of work in India's skill and vocational education system. Its mission is to equip school students to reach their full potential through skill education. It works directly in schools, partners with central and state governments to shape and scale policy, and builds Centres of Excellence that act as lighthouses for new ideas. More than 250 LAHI team members are embedded inside state education systems across 20+ states and union territories, helping governments turn policy into practice, and the work currently reaches 15,000+ schools and over 15 lakh students. This role sits within LAHI's school partnerships and outreach function, which opens and grows direct relationships with schools so LAHI's skill education offering reaches more classrooms.

Role

This is a frontline school partnerships role. You will find the right schools, particularly CBSE schools, get in front of Principals and academic leaders, understand what each school is trying to solve, present LAHI's offering, agree terms, and carry the conversation through to a signed partnership and onboarding. Selling to schools here is about trust, educational value and long relationships, not calls made. It is not a lead generation or telecalling role: you own the whole journey, from getting the first meeting with a Principal to finalising the partnership.

Responsibilities

• Identify and build a pipeline of relevant schools, with a focus on CBSE schools.
• Reach out to Principals, Directors, Academic Heads, Coordinators and other decision makers.
• Set up meetings and product demonstrations with school teams.
• Build long-term relationships with school leadership, including with schools that are not ready to partner yet.
• Learn each school's priorities, challenges, academic approach and how it makes decisions.
• Create and present proposals and partnership plans that fit what the school needs.
• Handle questions and objections from school leaders with confidence.
• Negotiate pricing, commercial terms and partnership structures within agreed limits.
• Own the partnership journey from first conversation to proposal, negotiation, closure and onboarding.
• Track every conversation, meeting, proposal and closure in the CRM and keep the pipeline organised.
• Report regularly on pipeline health, conversion rates, blockers and new openings.
• Gather what schools say and feed it back to the product and programme teams.
• Follow developments in the school and education ecosystem and improve outreach approaches based on what works.

Requirements

• 4+ years of experience in school-facing sales and partnerships.
• Direct experience working with CBSE schools.
• Prior experience in EdTech, education services, curriculum, publishing, school programmes or a related education business.
• A track record of taking a conversation from first outreach through to a successful closure.
• Strong communication and presentation skills.
• Strong negotiation and persuasion skills.
• Comfort holding a real conversation with Principals, School Directors, Academic Heads and senior educators.
• Ability to work independently and own targets and outcomes.
• Bachelor's degree in business administration, marketing, management, education, commerce or a related field.
• A master's degree or MBA in marketing, business development or education is an advantage.
• An understanding of how CBSE schools operate and make partnership decisions is preferred.
• Persistent and resilient without being pushy, since school partnerships take time.
• Resourceful, able to find the right introduction and open a new school relationship.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and willing to try new approaches to school outreach.
• Based in Pune, with travel as the project needs.

Benefits

• Work with a 250-person team embedded in state education systems across 20+ states and union territories.
• Direct influence on how many schools and students LAHI's skill education work reaches.
• Exposure to both grassroots school delivery and national policy work.
• Ownership of a full partnership journey rather than one narrow stage of it.
• A permanent, full-time position with an organisation of over 20 years' standing in skill education.

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