Website:
problemsolverslab.org
Job details:
Location: Pune, Maharashtra (with regular travel to partner school networks)
Reports to: Founder of ProblemSolvers Lab
Start Date: Immediate
About the Organization
ProblemSolvers Lab (PSL) began with a simple idea: all students, regardless of their background, can engage in deep, higher-order thinking in the right environment.
Across many classrooms in India, students rarely get opportunities to think aloud, explore structure, make conjectures, work with peers, or experience the satisfaction of figuring something out. PSL was created to bring these opportunities into everyday instruction.
Our work is grounded in a few design principles:
- Low-floor, high-ceiling tasks that allow every student to enter and stretch
- Productive struggle, where students test ideas, revise, and persist
- Students as visualizers, experimenters, and problem-solvers, not passive recipients
Everything we do, with teachers and with students, rests on this approach.
About PSL Advanced Pathway
ProblemSolvers Lab has partnered with Central Square Foundation (CSF) to build a problem-solving and mathematical thinking program for high-potential students in Grades 6- 9. Through open-ended problems, puzzles, and games that develop strong reasoning, communication, and collaboration skills, the program takes student learning beyond traditional academics. We are currently piloting our advanced curriculum with 80 Grade 7 students at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Satara and plan to expand to multiple JNVs next year.
Over sustained engagement, students develop the willingness and ability to tackle unfamiliar problems. The skills, knowledge, and dispositions students gain – such as persistence, strategic thinking, and comfort with complexity – prepare them for rigorous higher education pathways and for the problem-solving demands of future careers.
About the Role
The Head of Advanced Pathway will lead the scale-up of this flagship program across large public-school networks such as the Navodaya Vidyalaya system, Delhi SOSE, and other model schools, building on learnings from an initial pilot implemented in one school and grade. The role involves designing and leading a phased expansion to 3–4 JNV schools in 2026–27, while building the operational and facilitation backbone required for scale across additional school networks over the next three years.
In this role, the focus will be on building a strong, replicable model through high-quality facilitation, structured facilitator development, and systematic learning from implementation. The goal is to ensure that the program can be delivered with depth and consistency across diverse school systems while preserving its core focus on rigorous problem-solving and mathematical reasoning.
Key Responsibilities
- Vision, direction & system alignment: Ensure that the program’s focus on problem- solving, reasoning, and student dispositions is clearly reflected in classroom practice, while adapting delivery to the structures and realities of different school systems.
- Strategic planning for scale and sustainability: Design and periodically refine multi-year strategies that balance program impact, scalability across regions, and operational feasibility within government school systems.
- Facilitator and program staff leadership and capability building: Recruit, develop, and manage facilitators and program staff, building strong content understanding, facilitation skills, and consistency of student experience across schools.
- Stakeholder engagement: Build and sustain strong working relationships with principals, teachers, government officials, and partners; act as the primary bridge between school systems and the organization.
- Program implementation & quality assurance: Oversee end-to-end implementation across schools, ensuring strong planning, high-quality facilitation, and effective navigation of operational complexity.
- Impact measurement, learning & course correction: Define and track success metrics for student problem-solving growth, facilitator quality, and program consistency, using data and field insights to continuously refine and strengthen the model.
Skills and Experiences
- 6-8 years of experience leading programs within public or large-scale education systems, preferably government or JNV-like contexts
- Ability to develop systems and teams that are ready to scale across multiple geographies
- Strong program management capability across planning, implementation, quality assurance, and impact tracking
- Proven ability to envision and implement training and coaching for facilitators
- Ability to use data to identify success metrics and check progress to goals by creating accurate and reliable data dashboards
- Proven ability to influence educators and system stakeholders without formal authority
- Strong team leadership, including building and managing facilitator or program teams
- Ability to lead subject matter experts, without requiring personal expertise in maths
Mindset and Values:
- Adaptive Leadership: is excited by the opportunity to balance design and execution in a fast-paced start-up setting
- Respect for educators: leads with humility, professionalism, and trust in teachers and principals
- Passion for maths and belief that all students can engage in deep, joyful problem-solving
What We Offer
- A chance to lead a national-level program at an exciting stage of growth
- Opportunity to shape a model that will expand to many more school networks over the next few years, reaching hundreds of students and teachers
- Deep professional learning in problem-solving pedagogy and facilitator development
- Collaborative, mission-driven culture built around curiosity, reflection, and learning
- Competitive compensation commensurate with education, experience, and readiness for the role
Click on Apply to know more.