Senior Program Officer, AI

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About the Organization

We are the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. We believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve. We provide an exceptional benefits package to employees and their families which include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with no premiums, generous paid time off, paid family leave, foundation-paid retirement contribution, regional holidays, and opportunities to engage in several employee communities. As a workplace, we’re committed to creating an environment for you to thrive both personally and professionally.

Job Description

The Senior Program Officer, AI will lead and manage a portfolio of investments in AI, working in close partnership with program teams across health, education, agriculture, and gender equality. A key component of this role involves supporting the Government of India in achieving its strategic goals in AI adoption, while ensuring that AI solutions can be scaled effectively across India and facilitate adoption of relevant use cases across other priority geographies of the foundation. The role will focus on advancing AI use cases that address critical societal challenges, while fostering a strong ecosystem for AI innovation and deployment in India.

The postholder will be based at the foundation’s ICO office in New Delhi, and report to the Director, Health R&D, Digital Innovation and AI.

Job Responsibilities

AI Strategy & Portfolio Management

• Develop and oversee a cross-sectoral portfolio of AI investments spanning health, education, agriculture, and gender equality.
• Closely collaborate and coordinate across the various functional teams within the foundation to think through and develop use cases, which provide key proof points for adoption and product acceleration. Identify high-impact AI use cases and drive their implementation, scale-up, and adoption in India. 
• Align AI initiatives with digital public infrastructure strategies and key development priorities in India and the broader region.
• Establish structured processes for transitioning AI projects from proof-of-concept to large-scale deployment.
• Monitor AI project effectiveness, scalability, and ethical considerations, ensuring alignment with responsible AI principles.

Partnership Development & Government Engagement

• Serve as a trusted partner to the relevant MDAs (Ministries / Departments / Agencies) under the Government of India and select States in India, providing technical guidance on AI investments and policy development.
• Work closely as a trusted partner with AI research institutions, policymakers, startups, philanthropists, and industry players to strengthen the AI innovation ecosystem.
• Engage with multilateral organizations, donors, and philanthropic partners to mobilize co-investment in AI initiatives.
• Support work related to pathways for scale for AI along with governance frameworks aligned with the principles of inclusive AI.

Enabling ‘AI for Social Good’ work in India

• Support AI model evaluation, benchmarking, and deployment pathways in India’s public and private sectors, as may be applicable for each of the priority areas for the foundation.
• Work with relevant stakeholders to help unlock constraints such as data access, compute infrastructure, and workforce capabilities.
• Facilitate knowledge sharing and best practices across AI projects to enhance learning and impact measurement.
• Strengthen and actively support approaches to successfully scale AI solutions aligned with foundation priorities and principles.
• Advocate for bias mitigation, inclusive AI, and equitable access to AI-enabled services.

Investment & Grant Management

• Design, structure, and manage grants and contracts across a significantly funded portfolio to support AI-driven solutions across priority areas of the foundation.
• Establish funding mechanisms that enable the sustainable scaling of AI solutions.
• Ensure investments are well-aligned to strategy, structured for sustainable impact, and effectively managed.
• Prepare briefs, reports, and presentations for internal and external stakeholders on AI initiatives.

Education Qualification/Required Skills & Experience

• This role presents a unique opportunity to shape the trajectory of ‘AI for Social Good’ in India. If you are passionate about the intersection of AI, policy, and development, we invite you to join us in driving transformative change at scale.
• Advanced degree in management, computer science, data science, public policy, or a related field preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in AI, digital technology, or data science, with a focus on development sector applications (e.g. health, education, agriculture, gender).
• Demonstrated track record of managing AI projects from research to implementation in a low and middle-income country or emerging market context.
• Strong familiarity with India’s AI policy landscape, digital public infrastructure, and innovation ecosystem.
• Collaborative track record of partnering at senior level with governments, startups, multilateral organizations, philanthropists, and academic institutions, including playing a technical advisory role.
• Strong program and project management skills, with experience structuring and overseeing AI investments.
• Comfort navigating ambiguity and solving complex problems in a rapidly evolving AI landscape.
• A high-level of personal initiative and ability to be proactive, combined strong relationship management skills and the ability to stay focused on the long-term vision.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to engage a diverse set of stakeholders.
• A commitment to ethical AI, responsible innovation, and equitable technology access.

Other Attributes

• Comfortable in a wide range of cultural, geographic and operational situations, demonstrating culturally sensitive behaviour with a diverse range of people and a deep commitment to development issues and high standards of personal integrity.
• Ability to travel regionally up to 30% largely to engage with stakeholders and oversee AI projects.

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