Founding Director Research And Development

Responsibilities

Key Responsibilities:

• Build and Lead the Research & Development Centre:
• Establish and operationalize The Circle's Research & Development Centre as the organization's engine for learning, innovation, and systems design.
• Develop the Centre's long-term vision, strategic priorities, and roadmap.
• Build and grow a high-performing R&D function that develops the Centre's five core capabilities over time.
• Foster a culture of learning, experimentation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Drive Research and Organizational Learning:
• Identify, document, and synthesize innovative practices emerging across The Circle's network.
• Research promising educational innovations, pedagogical approaches, and systems change efforts from India and globally.
• Translate research findings into practical insights that strengthen programs across the organization.
• Build mechanisms for continuous organizational learning and knowledge sharing.
• Lead Monitoring, Evaluation and Evidence Generation
• Strengthen The Circle's monitoring and impact systems across all programs.
• Design and improve assessment frameworks, tools and methodologies that capture holistic student outcomes.
• Develop systems to evaluate new innovations, identify what works and generate evidence for scaling.
• Promote evidence-based decision making by ensuring reliable data informs organizational priorities and program improvements.
• Design and Codify Scalable Models
• Convert successful innovations into practical frameworks, playbooks, toolkits and other knowledge products.
• Codify learning so that effective practices can be consistently implemented across the network.
• Develop adaptable resources and learning experiences that enable educators and entrepreneurs to adopt proven approaches.
• Ensure organizational knowledge is documented, accessible and scalable.
• Shape the Organization's Innovation Agenda
• Identify emerging opportunities for innovation based on internal learning and external research.
• Frame and recommend new areas for experimentation, incubation, and program development.
• Support rapid prototyping and iterative improvement across The Circle's initiatives.
• Help define a long-term learning agenda that advances educational reinvention across the organization.
• Build Partnerships and Enable Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Partner closely with entrepreneurs, program leaders, and educators to co-design solutions rather than prescribe them.
• Work collaboratively across The Circle's three program areas to strengthen innovation and implementation.
• Leverage strategic partnerships to enhance the Centre's research, learning, and design capabilities.
• Position the Research & Development Centre as a trusted partner that enables learning, improvement, and scale across the organization.
  
  

Summary

The Circle is entering a new phase of growth. We aspire to build a network of more than 125 schools and after-school centres, strengthen teacher preparation through Circle U, launch new innovations through The Circle Labs, and contribute to transforming India's education system. Achieving this ambition requires more than growth—it requires building an organization that continuously learns, measures, improves, and shares what works. At the heart of this vision is The Circle's first Research & Development Centre, a strategic hub designed to identify what works, measure its impact, and codify learning into scalable models, tools, and frameworks that can be shared across the network and the wider education ecosystem.

The Circle is looking for a Founding Director, Research & Development to establish and lead its first Research & Development Centre, a strategic function that will power learning, innovation, measurement, and system-wide improvement across the organization. The role will work across The Circle's three core program areas to identify successful practices, research innovations from India and around the world, strengthen measurement systems, codify learning into practical tools, and shape the organization's long-term innovation agenda. This leader will build the Centre from the ground up and develop its capabilities over time, ensuring that innovation becomes scalable, measurable, and repeatable across the organization.

---