Director – Government Partnerships, Policy & Advocacy
Posted Updated
Description
We Want To Change The World. We Believe It Starts With Education.
In India, 100 million children from low-income communities grow up without access to the 21st-century skills they need to thrive — from emotional intelligence and digital literacy to everyday money management. This gap leads to a lifetime of limited opportunity, intergenerational poverty, and rising mental health concerns.
What Are We Doing?
At The Apprentice Project (TAP), we're building India's boldest bet on education equity — an AI-powered learning buddy that helps thousands of government school students unlock 21st-century skills. We don't just teach coding or financial literacy — we spark self-confidence, creativity, and lifelong curiosity in children who've been told to "stay in their lane."
We're not looking for employees. We're looking for co-builders — people who want to create generational change, one student at a time.
The Opportunity
What if an approach to learning could move beyond individual schools and become part of how India educates an entire generation?
That's the ambition at TAP. We aim to reach 10 million children by 2030 — not just through NGO-led delivery, but through government systems that can own, sustain, and expand what we build. The problem we're working to solve is much larger: education inequity affects 100 million children from underserved communities across India.
We're looking for a leader who can make government-led scale real. Someone who can build partnerships, win the trust of senior decision-makers, influence policy, and turn TAP's approach into programmes that governments adopt and run.
About The Role
Location: Pan-India (preference for Maharashtra, Delhi, or Uttar Pradesh; candidates from other locations welcome)
Compensation: ₹30 LPA onwards, based on experience and role fit
Reports to: Co-founders
Type: Full-time
What You'll Do
Government Partnerships
- Build and close strategic partnerships with central and state governments.
- Build trusted relationships with senior decision-makers and represent TAP in high-stakes government engagements.
- Turn initial partnerships into long-term government commitments that deliver at scale.
Policy & Advocacy
- Make the case for integrating 21st-century skills and project-based learning into school education.
- Identify opportunities to embed TAP's approach within government priorities and programmes.
- Develop policy recommendations and implementation frameworks that translate ideas into action.
Strategy & Performance
- Own the department's strategy, operating plan, and overall results.
- Set and deliver targets for partnership onboarding, activation, project completion, and student learning outcomes.
- Review performance regularly, solve bottlenecks, and course-correct quickly.
State Leadership & Execution
- Lead Associate Directors and State Leads — including state-level hiring and team development.
- Establish and strengthen state-level Programme Management Units (PMUs).
- Turn government commitments into effective, sustained implementation across states.
Cross-Functional Alignment
- Align Government Partnerships with Fundraising, Product, Technology, Programme, and M&E teams.
- Ensure solutions developed for government partners are practical, scalable, and aligned with TAP's goals.
- Resolve cross-functional dependencies and ensure commitments translate into delivery on the ground.
Financial & Operational Ownership
- Own departmental budgets, resource allocation, and expenditure.
- Ensure resources are deployed against strategic priorities and expected outcomes.
- Manage operational risks and maintain accountability across the department.
Who We're Looking For
We're looking for a leader who understands that the path to educational equity in India runs through government — and who has spent years learning how to navigate that path. You've built partnerships at the highest levels of state and central government, you know how decisions get made inside education systems, and you've turned those relationships into programmes that actually reached children. You think strategically and execute relentlessly. You build teams, hold them accountable, and create the systems that let implementation happen at scale. You can represent TAP in a Secretary's office in the morning and review state-level implementation data in the afternoon — and you bring equal credibility to both. If you believe that India's education challenge can only be solved through government — and you want to be the person who builds that bridge for TAP — you'll thrive here.
Who You Are
- Significant experience in government partnerships, public policy, or education systems — with a track record of building and closing high-value government relationships.
- Deep understanding of how state and central education systems work — decision-making processes, stakeholder hierarchies, and implementation realities.
- Demonstrated experience leading senior teams and managing complex, multi-geography programmes.
- Strong advocacy and communication skills — able to make the case for TAP's approach to education officials, policymakers, and civil servants.
- Comfortable owning budgets, setting targets, and holding yourself and your team accountable to outcomes.
- Experience navigating cross-functional environments and aligning teams with competing priorities around a common goal.
- A builder's mindset — you create structures and systems, not just relationships.
Skills You Bring
- Government Partnership Building: Proven ability to build, negotiate, and close strategic partnerships with state and central government — and to sustain them over time.
- Policy & Advocacy: Ability to develop policy positions, build coalitions, and influence education priorities at the system level.
- Strategic Leadership: Experience owning a department's strategy and operating plan — setting targets, managing performance, and course-correcting at pace.
- Team & State Leadership: Track record of building and leading senior teams across multiple geographies, including establishing PMUs and field operations.
- Cross-Functional Execution: Ability to align product, technology, programme, and fundraising teams around government partnership needs and delivery commitments.
What Success Looks Like
- Strategic government partnerships are closed, activated, and delivering measurable student outcomes.
- TAP's approach to 21st-century skills is embedded in government priorities and programmes across multiple states.
- State-level PMUs are functioning effectively, with clear targets and strong implementation systems.
- The Government Partnerships team is high-performing, well-resourced, and operating with clarity and accountability.
- Cross-functional alignment is strong — commitments made to government partners are consistently delivered.
- TAP is on a credible path to reaching 10 million children through government-led scale.
Why Join Us?
Because this is one of the most consequential roles in Indian education right now. The partnerships you build and the policies you influence will determine whether TAP's approach to learning reaches a million children or ten million. You'll work directly with TAP's co-founders, lead a growing team of state and partnership leaders, and operate at the highest levels of India's education system. If you want to spend the next chapter of your career building something that genuinely changes how a country educates its children — this is it.
What You Can Expect?
- Founder proximity: Work directly with TAP's co-founders on the organisation's most strategic priority.
- National mandate: Own the function that determines how far and how fast TAP can scale through government.
- Team to build: Lead and grow a team of Associate Directors and State Leads across India's most important education geographies.
- Competitive compensation: ₹30 LPA onwards, based on experience and role fit.
- Supportive culture: Collaborative teams, open communication, and shared purpose.
You can always reach out to us for any questions on hr@theapprenticeproject.org