Learning Lead, EdTech Investments
Learning Lead
Prevail is launching a focused EdTech lab - carve-out tests, frontier ideas quickly, pair them with practical product and learning science scrutiny, and generate evidence that informs scale decisions across our core portfolio.
This is an opportunity for an education expert who deeply understands how learning happens across diverse contexts. You will help inform and guide our investments toward solutions that can transform how children learn in low- and middle-income countries around the world. If you’re passionate about shaping world-class learning solutions that drive ambitious social change, we’d love to hear from you.
Note - we're open to hiring at either Senior Manager or Director level depending on experience.
We’re also open to exploring this role as either a full-time position or a consultancy arrangement, depending on what candidates prefer. The interview process may differ slightly between the two, and we’ll be happy to discuss these options in early conversations.
About Prevail Fund
Prevail is a new foundation dedicated to catalysing large-scale social change by supporting private philanthropists and field implementers to pursue more ambitious and impactful goals. We work with private philanthropists to fund specific initiatives for 10-12 years. Rather than diversifying across multiple causes, we prioritize deep, strategic investments in proven solutions with the potential to reshape global norms. For example, our first fund aims to improve foundational education for over 27.5 million children across 10 national governments in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Prevail provides patient capital to implementers – primarily in the form of grants that grow over time as our partner organisations scale. In addition to funding, Prevail also offers a suite of systems and talent development services designed to address common growth barriers and prepare partner organisations for accelerated scale.
Our roots are in building organisations from the ground up that deliver impact at scale. Our Co-Founding Board members have a track record of scaling social enterprises that together employ more than 12,000 staff and manage annual budgets exceeding $500 million. To achieve our goals, we're assembling a team of results-oriented individuals with strong implementation experience and a passion for delivering impact at scale through strategic philanthropy.
In our first two years, we've:
Made significant progress against our ambitious fundraising targets
Partnered with 25 organisations across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia
Hired 30+ mission-driven team members globally
Run dozens of execution projects to strengthen key functions for our partners
You can find a bit more information about Prevail Fund and what to expect from our recruitment process here.
About the role
As Learning Lead, you’ll shape how Prevail identifies and tests the next generation of learning technologies. You’ll ground the ‘Ed-tech carve-out’ in the science of how children learn and in practical realities of classrooms.
You will understand what the sector needs to learn to unlock more impact via ed-tech, design ways to test what works, and turn early learning into funding strategies and decisions. You work closely with Sameer and the Product Lead, as a part of a small, senior unit that explores bold ideas, learns quickly, and sets a high bar for rigor and humility in how we generate evidence and share insights.
You will
Define what good learning technology looks like in practice. Translate learning science into concrete product heuristics
Design and implement rigorous evaluation and M&E frameworks. Work with our research team to ensure we are focusing our attention on designing important learning questions, and use statistically sound methodologies practical for real-world technology settings.
Help us decide what to fund. Build and refine a shared framework to assess emerging learning tools
Manage grants and surface insights. Oversee a portfolio of learning grants, stay hands on with partners in the field, track progress, and translate field and usage data into practical lessons for our partners and team.
Publish public goods. Produce short, decision-useful notes, rubrics, and playbooks that help the sector make better EdTech choices in government systems.
Uphold ethics and inclusion. Protect students and teachers, respect language and cultural contexts, and ensure transparent communication with communities.
About you
For this role, we are looking for someone who:
Experienced EdTech leader. You have 8+ years of relevant experience (ideally as a curriculum designer or learning scientist within an ed-tech company). Experience in the development space is an asset but not required.
Learning science and technical M&E depth. You understand how children learn and how to measure it. You have applied research to product or program design and possess technical expertise in quantitative analysis.
Context fluency. You have worked in/with Africa or South Asia or in similar low-connectivity, resource-constrained environments.
For all of our colleagues at Prevail, we strive to work with people who bring:
Builder mindset. You move from literature to prototype to field test quickly. You document learning and make decisive calls, backed by data & insights.
Clear communicator. You write crisp, actionable memos and can brief developers, government partners, and donors.
Collaborative Leader. You work well with diverse teams and build strong relationships with both internal stakeholders and external partners. You can adapt quickly to new challenges and environments.
Growth Mindset. You’re open to feedback, adapt quickly, and are motivated to keep learning
Humility. You bring humor, patience, and a humble approach to service. You are ready to grow by acting on frequent, intensive feedback from your colleagues.
Fast and adaptable. You move fast, and thrive in high-pace environments. You are effective at managing competing priorities and tight deadlines. You can quickly pivot based on new information.
Why you’ll love working at Prevail
Drive real impact. Your work will directly enable large-scale social change.
Build something meaningful. Help mobilize philanthropic capital that will impact millions of lives.
Join a supportive, world class team. We’re a team of professionals who have successfully scaled operations across the world, and value humility, ownership, and collaboration.
Professional growth. We invest in your development through regular feedback, career progression frameworks, and a learning budget.
Flexibility: Work remotely from anywhere in a timezone between -5 UTC (EST) and +5.30 UTC (IST), with opportunities to travel and connect in person.
What we offer
Fully remote position, with opportunity to travel 2-4 times per year.
Full time, permanent contract.
Competitive salary based on experience, skills and location. We share salary bands with candidates; final offers are based on interview performance.
Meaningful benefits. Health insurance and wellness benefits, home workspace or co-working stipend, plus a generous learning and development budget.
Growth opportunities. We deeply care about investing in our team’s professional development. You’ll receive strong manager support, targeted feedback, performance support, clear pay progression, upwards or lateral mobility.
Flexible leave policy. Including 25 days PTO, plus public holidays.
Location & start date
This is a fully remote position. For timezone purposes, candidates must be based within -5 UTC (EST) and +5:30 UTC (IST) and legally eligible to work in their country. We’re particularly interested in candidates from the Global South. Preferred start date: as soon as possible.
Application process
Our hiring process is thorough, because there are very specific skills required for this role. Successful candidates will go through:
An initial conversation with the people team (30-45 minutes)
Hiring Manager interview (45-60 minutes)
Take-home exercise
Review of the take home exercise (45 - 60 minutes)
Panel interview (90 minutes) and 1:1 conversations with the rest of the team
Note - these steps may differ slightly depending on whether you apply as a consultant or full-time.
Ready to join us?
If you’re excited to help us scale, apply using the link below. We review every application and aim to invite successful candidates for an informational call within 3 weeks.
For more information
Feel free to check out the job FAQ. We encourage you to read this in advance of the first informational call. For more information on Prevail in general, check out this deck. For info on how we hire at Prevail, check here.
*Note: If you currently work for one of Prevail’s partner organisations, we’d love to consider you for this role as long as you can provide their express permission. If this applies to you, please ask them to confirm this with us. Thank you!
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