AI and Data Platforms Lead – 1 year contract

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in South Africa.

📋 Description

• Oversee the technical design, development, and continuous enhancement of the online data platform and visualization tools.

• Convert user requirements into a prioritized product roadmap, prototypes, specifications, and validated releases.

• Collaborate with Ember to modify or integrate relevant platform components while establishing independent ACF-AEF capabilities.

• Ensure designs are accessible, suitable for low-bandwidth usage, maintainable, capable of multilingual expansion, and adhere to responsible open access principles.

• Execute analytics, usage monitoring, and user feedback processes.

• Construct scalable data ingestion, transformation, storage, metadata, versioning, and publishing pipelines.

• Integrate both structured and unstructured data from public, partner, and internal sources through APIs, automated workflows, and well-documented manual processes.

• Partner with the Junior Data Scientist on validation, provenance, reproducibility, access control, and release standards.

• Uphold technical documentation, source code repositories, testing protocols, backups, and business continuity measures.

• Identify, prototype, and implement AI applications for data discovery, extraction, classification, cleaning, summarization, visualization, research, and internal knowledge management.

• Develop retrieval, search, and assisted analysis tools that connect users to reliable ACF-AEF data and evidence.

• Assess build-versus-buy options and select suitable open-source or commercial tools.

• Establish human-in-the-loop evaluation processes that address hallucination, bias, confidentiality, intellectual property, and security risks.

• Keep abreast of AI advancements and deliver briefings, demonstrations, and guidance to ACF and AEF teams.

• Collaborate with analysts, program teams, communications staff, and external users to comprehend workflows and adoption challenges.

• Provide training, templates, and technical support for the safe and effective utilization of AI and data tools.

• Manage technical vendors and contributors, conducting code and security reviews as necessary.

• Report directly to the Project Director.

⛳️ Requirements

• A degree or equivalent practical experience in computer science, data engineering, information systems, software engineering, computational science, or a related field.

• A minimum of 6 years of relevant experience in software, data platform, data engineering, or applied AI roles, including the delivery of user-facing tools.

• Strong expertise in Python and SQL.

• Experience with APIs and databases.

• Familiarity with contemporary web-based data visualization techniques.

• Practical experience with cloud infrastructure, deployment, version control, testing, and secure data workflows.

• Hands-on experience applying large language models or machine learning tools to real organizational use cases.

• Ability to communicate technical decisions, risks, and trade-offs clearly to non-technical colleagues.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.

• Applicants must possess the legal right to work in the country where they are located.

• Desirable: experience with open data platforms, geospatial data, energy data, development indicators, or public-interest technology.

• Desirable: knowledge of data protection, cybersecurity, AI governance, and model evaluation in nonprofit or research settings.

• Desirable: experience supporting organizations operating across multiple African countries with varying digital infrastructures.

🏝️ Benefits

• Fixed-term contract for 12 months, with the possibility of renewal based on mutual agreement and project success.

• Remote work options available for candidates located on the African continent.

• Opportunity to engage in African energy transitions, data platforms, applied AI, research, grant-making, and knowledge management.

• Training, templates, and technical support provided for colleagues utilizing AI and data tools.

• Multidisciplinary collaboration with ACF, AEF, Ember, and other partners.