Head of AI & Program Technology Engineering
AI summary
Senior technical leadership role leading engineers and AI specialists to build agentic systems, predictive analytics, and AI diagnostics for humanitarian programs in low-resource settings. Based in Nairobi, the position involves setting technical strategy, managing a high-performing team, and partnering with program leaders and frontier AI labs.
- Senior leadership role owning IRC's program-facing AI technical strategy and roadmap
- Lead and grow a team of engineers, applied AI engineers, and QA specialists
- Co-design AI solutions with health, education, protection, and emergency response programs
- Direct engagement with flagship partnerships including Anthropic and OpenAI
- Focus on responsible, human-centered AI in sensitive humanitarian contexts
AI job guide
Use this guide to check salary signals, requirements, documents, application steps and safety before you apply.
AI salary guide
Not enough public dataNot enough public salary data is available for this exact role. Before applying, prepare to ask about gross pay, benefits, contract length, probation period, transport and any allowances.
Can you qualify for this role?
- Required7+ years of relevant experienceThe job post includes a minimum experience signal.
- RequiredEducation or certification mentioned in the postThe captured text mentions education, a diploma, certificate, or licence.
- PreferredPractical evidence in security, internship, entregadorThe tags and summary point to skills connected with this role.
- RequiredAvailability to work in Not specifiedThe vacancy is associated with this location.
- UnclearComfort with the Full Time contract termsConfirm hours, duration, probation and benefits at the original source.
Documents to prepare
- Likely requiredUpdated CV
- Role specificCover letter or short employer message
- OptionalProfessional references
- Role specificAcademic or professional certificates
- VerifyID or passport only after verifying the employer
Application tips for this job
- Place your strongest Head of AI & Program Technology Engineering evidence in the first half of your CV.
- In your cover letter or employer message, connect your experience to International Rescue Committee and the role in Not specified.
- Add concrete examples related to security, internship, entregador, ideally with measurable outcomes or clear responsibilities.
- Follow the instructions from MyJobMag Kenya; avoid sending documents to unofficial contacts or copied links.
- Confirm the deadline, interview location and employer contact before sharing personal documents.
- Prepare a polite question about pay, benefits and contract terms for later interview stages.
Source and safety check
- MyJobMag Kenya
- Original source link available
- Application method is clear
- Deadline not specified
- No major risk signal was detected in the captured text.
Never pay for interviews, shortlisting, medical checks, uniforms, or job placement. Confirm every application at the original source before sharing personal documents. Report suspicious listing.
Interview preparation
- What experience makes you a strong fit for this Head of AI & Program Technology Engineering role in security, internship?
- How have you handled responsibilities similar to those in this job post?
- Are you available to work in Not specified under the listed contract or schedule?
- Prepare examples with clear responsibilities, tools used and measurable outcomes.
- Review the source and research International Rescue Committee before the interview.
Ask what the first priorities will be in the role and how success will be measured.
Similar jobs to consider
Use AI to apply better
After confirming the original source, use Career Assistant to check role fit, tailor your CV and prepare a cover letter or employer message.
Original source description
- Never pay for any notarisation, certificate or assessment as part of any recruitment process. When in doubt,
- contact us
- The International Rescue Committee is a global humanitarian aid, relief and development nongovernmental organization.
- Head of AI & Program Technology Engineering
- Job Type
- Full Time
- Qualification
- BA/BSc/HND
Experience
7 - 10 years
Location
Nairobi
Job Field
Data, Business Analysis and AI
,
ICT / Computer
J
ob Overview:
This is a senior technical leadership role for someone who wants to build at the frontier of applied AI in service of humanitarian impact. You will lead a team of engineers and AI specialists designing and shipping AI-powered, program-facing solutions — primarily agentic systems, predictive analytics, and AI diagnostics deployed in low-resource and high-stakes settings.
You will own three things:
Technical strategy and direction for IRC's program-facing AI portfolio.
You will help translate IRC's AI ambitions into a clear technical roadmap, make build-vs-buy-vs-partner decisions, and set the architectural direction for systems that need to work reliably in some of the hardest operating environments on earth — including AI that runs offline on low-cost smartphones, agentic systems with high safety standards, and diagnostic models trained on populations the major datasets ignore.
A high-performing engineering team.
You will manage and grow a team of engineers, applied AI engineers, and QA specialists; raise the bar on engineering quality; and build the kind of culture that attracts top technical talent to mission-driven work.
Deep partnership with program leaders and strategic partners.
You will be a true thought partner to IRC's program experts in health, education, protection, resettlement, and emergency response — co-designing solutions with them rather than receiving requirements. You will also help us get maximum value from our flagship partnerships with Anthropic, OpenAI, and other frontier labs, with direct access to frontier models, early features, and the researchers building them.
Major
building and shipping production AI systems — agentic frameworks, LLM applications, RAG systems, computer vision, or applied ML pipelines.
Solid full-stack foundation (Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, and modern frameworks) with the technical credibility to engage directly with engineers on architecture and design decisions.
with cloud architecture (Azure preferred; AWS/GCP transferable), including AI services, DevOps pipelines, and cost-effective scaling.
Working knowledge of data security and privacy practices for sensitive or personally identifiable information.
Leadership and collaboration
7–10+ years in software engineering or technical product development, with 3+ years leading engineers as a manager or tech lead.
A track record of building or growing strong engineering teams — hiring, raising the bar, and creating a culture people want to be part of.
Ability to engage non-technical leaders as a peer: explaining trade-offs clearly, listening well, and translating between worlds.
Comfort operating across global teams, time zones, and contexts very different from your own.
Mindset
Genuinely motivated by humanitarian impact
Leads with humility. Deep respect for the people closest to the problem, including those without technical backgrounds.
Technically curious and forward-looking — reads, experiments, and brings new ideas to the team.
Nice to have
deploying AI in low-resource, low-bandwidth, or offline contexts.
Prior work with humanitarian, development, or global health organizations.
French or Arabic language skills.
Check how your CV aligns with this job
Method of Application
Interested and qualified? Go to
International Rescue Committee on theirc.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
to apply
Build your CV for free.
Download in different templates.
Responsibilities
-
- AI Strategic Leadership
- Translate IRC's AI strategy and program priorities into a prioritized technical roadmap, in close partnership with program leaders, the SVP for Research, Innovation, AI, and People & Culture, and the T4P demand pipeline.
- Stay at the edge of AI/ML advances — particularly in agentic systems, multimodal models, and edge/on-device inference — and bring promising approaches to IRC's programs.
- Serve as a core member of IRC's AI leadership, helping shape organizational direction alongside the SVP for Research, Innovation, AI, and People & Culture and other senior leaders.
- Champion responsible, human-centered AI deployment in some of the most sensitive humanitarian contexts in the world, with the safety standards those contexts demand.
- Represent IRC in technical discussions with partners, peer organizations, donors, and the broader humanitarian and AI sectors.
-
- Team Leadership and Management
- Manage and develop a team of engineers, applied AI engineers, and QA specialists. Hire well, raise the bar, and build a culture that strong technical people want to be part of.
- Establish engineering quality standards, development practices, and documentation protocols.
- Maintain a prioritized backlog of program innovations and manage team capacity against demand.
- Mature the team's AI development and DevOps practices and grow stakeholder buy-in across the organization.
- Identify opportunities to secure budget resources in support of innovation priorities.
- Cross-functional Partnership
- Act as a genuine thought partner to program leaders — bringing AI fluency to their problems and humility about the field realities
- Co-design solutions that actually work in the field, not technology-first answers in search of problems.
- Partner with the Enterprise Applications team to ensure smooth handoffs of proven innovations for enterprise-wide scale-up.
- Coordinate with the Enterprise Applications DevOps team on integration touchpoints, infrastructure dependencies, and shared engineering standards.
- Flagship AI Partnerships
- Serve as the technical lead on IRC's strategic partnerships with frontier AI organizations — helping turn early relationships into long-term, high-leverage collaborations.
- Identify where partnership access (compute, frontier models, technical expertise) can unlock outsized program impact.
- Solution Design and Engineering
- Lead the design and development of AI-driven and program-specific technology solutions, owning the full development lifecycle from
Requirements
- through handoff.
- Interface with program and business stakeholders to gather requirements, define technical solutions, and recommend approaches grounded in a detailed understanding of program goals.
- Design and oversee high-availability architectures in Microsoft Azure, incorporating appropriate redundancy, security, backup, and recovery strategies — including for sensitive humanitarian data.
- Research and recommend technology products, services, and standards — particularly in AI/ML — to support procurement, development, and strategic decision-making.
- DevOps and Engineering Operations
- Oversee deployment pipelines, CI/CD automation, infrastructure-as-code, and QA processes to ensure efficient and reliable software delivery.
- Ensure ongoing availability and performance of applications through monitoring, scaling, and proactive operations management.
- Track and optimize cloud and model-inference costs.
- Maintain technical and policy documentation for all assets under the team's management.
-
- Key Working Relationships
- Position Reports to:
- Chief Information Officer, working in close partnership with the SVP for Research, Innovation, AI, and People & Culture
- Position directly supervises:
- Engineers, applied AI engineers, ML specialists, and QA staff on the T4P Development team.
- Other internal contacts:
- Program leaders across CRRD, RAI, R&I, and Signpost; the Enterprise Applications and DevOps teams; the AI governance and policy team; AI@Scale (I@S) leadership; IT leadership across regions and HQ.
- External contacts:
- Strategic partners with leading AI organizations; technology vendors; AI sector peers; NGO tech community; major foundation funders.
-
- Job
- Strong candidates will bring most — not necessarily all — of the following:
-
- AI and engineering depth
- Hands-on