Program Associate, Telangana
About Dream a Dream
Dream a Dream is a non-profit organization working to transform the experience of education for the 130+ million children living in poverty in India. Our aim is to change the purpose of education towards the idea of Thriving for every child. Since 1999, Dream a Dream has mainstreamed life skills as a critical approach to help children overcome adversity and learn to thrive. Today, the organization is transforming the Indian education ecosystem through its own programmes, through curriculum and pedagogical innovations and through the development of holistic assessment frameworks while also shifting the narratives around the purpose of education. Dream a Dream’s work is spread across 7 Indian states with a reach of over 3.6 million children through strategic partnerships with state governments and collaborations with other non-profits and funders in India.
Role: Consultant – Program Associate
Dept/Programme: Systems Demonstration – South Hub
Job Location: Telangana
Hiring Manager: Associate Lead – South Hub
Gender: Women candidates with fluency in Telugu
Salary: 9,00,000 to 9,50,000
Last date of application: 15th September
Role Summary:
We are seeking an experienced professional to lead a Specialized life skills intervention in Telangana through a hybrid management and facilitation role. The ideal candidate will bring a strong background in life skills education, mental health awareness, project management and proven facilitation experience across diverse stakeholders including teachers, students, and government officials.
Key Responsibilities:
Project management (60 %)
- Lead planning and implementation of specific life skills interventions in Telangana’s education ecosystem.
- Collaborate with government officials to understand program requirements and seamlessly integrate Dream a Dream’s life skills approach and mind sets.
- Manage data collection, analysis, and reporting systems.
- Serve as primary liaison between Dream a Dream, partner NGOs, and state Education departments pertaining to the specific life skills project.
- Ensure program alignment with government frameworks while maintaining organizational standards
Facilitation (40 %)
- Facilitate training sessions and capacity-building programs for Government officials’ educators and students.
- Work closely with internal teams and government stakeholders to co-create and facilitate relevant workshops and learning spaces. Through this, you will role-model facilitation that is empathetic, rooted in purpose, and responsive to the lived realities of the public education system.
- Bring energy, structure, empathy, and a facilitation mindset to enable young people, teachers, and systems to thrive.
- Designing and Training Co-design session plans and training modules based on the needs of Telangana Residential Schools. Incorporate participant and team feedback to strengthen design and delivery continuously.
Other requirements:
- Female applicants sought in accordance with institutional policies for girls’ residential facilities
- Strong facilitation skills (with both students and teachers).
- Background in life skills education and mental health.
- Preferred Graduation: Counselling and Psychology would be a plus
- Proficiency in Telugu (spoken and written).
- Ability to coordinate with multiple stakeholders and manage reporting requirements.
- Commitment to working on-site as per schedule. (4 Days a week from the State office in Telangana).
Internal Collaboration and Culture:
- Participate actively in team check-ins, learning spaces, and planning conversations.
- Share personal and professional reflections on vulnerability and openness.
- Bring ground-level perspectives to state and national conversations.
- Collaborate cross-functionally and contribute to org-wide learning and documentation efforts.
General Responsibilities:
- Contribute to achievement of strategic goals set by the organization.
- Understand, embody, and practice organizational values (Equity, Dignity, Inclusivity)
- Ensure that the work is aligned with the organization’s intention and goals.
Core Competencies and Skills:
- Passion for meaningful work with government systems, young people, and schools.
- Some experience in facilitation or education/training preferred.
- 3-5 years of experience in government system, trainings, Ensure implementation of the SEL curriculum
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (Telugu, English and Hindi ).
- Commitment to inclusion, empathy, and continuous learning.
- Comfort with MS Office tools and willingness to learn data tracking/reporting tools.
Working Location & Schedule:
- Monday to Friday – Telangana Residential School – Head office
- Saturday – Need based.
- Timing – 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. Need based.
You will thrive in this role if you:
- Are deeply reflective and believe in transformation over transaction.
- Understand government systems, systems change and can navigate power with empathy and invitation.
- Love balancing structure with fluidity and plans with emergence.
- Are passionate about building long-term public systems capability.
- Enjoy holding vision, complexity, nuance, and conflict as part of change work.
How to Apply:
Please email to nanjegowda@dreamadream.org with the job title in the subject line along with resume and cover letter
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Dream a Dream is committed to upholding diversity and inclusion in our workplace, and we strongly encourage people from underrepresented groups, within the organization and outside, to apply to open positions. We embrace our employees’ differences of religion or belief, caste, race, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation gender, gender identity or expression, language differences, family or marital status, physical, mental and development abilities, social or economic class, education, work and behavioral styles, political affiliation, and other characteristics that make us unique.
