The AI Access Initiative, Program Lead

About The AI Access Initiative, incubated at Evidence Action

We're at an inflection point in artificial intelligence – presenting both tremendous potential opportunity and risk for people in developing countries: rather than allowing the poverty gap to expand, low-income countries have an opportunity to leapfrog development milestones with AI-powered innovations. Incubated at Evidence Action, we’re launching The AI Access Initiative, an organization focused on scaling AI-enabled ‘big bets’ to benefit tens or hundreds of millions of people in poverty in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). 

We will operate at the intersection of global development actors, top AI labs, and leading researchers to drive meaningful access to the benefits of AI for the 3.5 billion people living in poverty globally. We will create “public good,” open-sourced playbooks, toolkits, and insights that define how to design and launch tractable and impactful AI-enabled programs. Given the scale of opportunity, we expect our portfolio to expand substantially, but to start, we’re scaling two programs focused on AI in Agriculture and AI in Health.

We are led by CEO Kanika Bahl, a founding member of Anthropic’s Long-Term Benefit Trust, and advised by Nobel Laureate Michael Kremer; Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic; and Kent Walker, President, Global Affairs for Alphabet and Google. This work builds on Evidence Action’s track record reaching 530M+ people with cost-effective, evidence-based programs across 9 countries in Africa and Asia, with a focus on last-mile delivery.

Our Project’s goal is to build an AI-native organization capable of scaling big bets with the potential to reach tens or hundreds of millions of individuals living in poverty. We will focus both on delivering near-term, tractable direct impact and supporting governments to establish an enabling environment for the ‘AI for Good’ ecosystem, including: 

• Scaling “big bet” AI interventions to impact tens or hundreds of millions, such as delivering AI-enabled forecasts to smallholder farmers to improve yields and earnings, leveraging AI to dramatically improve medical diagnosis and treatment, implementing frontier systems to identify and mitigate disease outbreaks, or putting personalized AI tutors into the hands of students to drive reductions to system-level educational attainment gaps. As part of this work, we will create “public good,” open-sourced playbooks, toolkits, and insights that define how to design and launch tractable and impactful AI-enabled programs. When relevant, we will partner with leading AI labs to shape technical offerings, including adapting for underrepresented languages, bandwidth constraints, etc.
• Partnering with governments in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to drive regulatory changes, policy, and investments necessary to unlock beneficial use cases at national scale, while proactively mitigating the downside risks of AI.

Building on our recent Cross-Sector Analysis of near and medium-term AI opportunities in LMICs, we are advancing the highest-scoring interventions through a rigorous vetting process, including evidence reviews, cost-effectiveness analyses, risk assessments, and early operational/technical scoping. We are excited about the opportunity to deliver AI-enabled weather forecasting for smallholder farmers, and are now running deeper analysis on opportunities in global health.

We are seeking two rigorous, high-ownership, and fast-paced Program Leads to join our founding team and lead the design and execution of high-quality programs that harness frontier AI for large-scale impact in LMICs.

You will play a pivotal role in translating cutting-edge science into government-ready solutions - bridging worlds between AI labs, global development experts, researchers, frontline implementers, and people living in poverty in low- and middle-income countries.

We’re entering a new phase in global development and AI – the next five years may have an outsized effect on the next century of impact. History shows that without a clear driver and coordinated action, complex innovations in the developing world are at risk of languishing or taking decades to drive uptake. This is an opportunity to ensure that AI’s breakthroughs reach those who stand to benefit most yet are at greatest risk of being left behind.

You will:

• Shape and lead program strategy for one or more priority verticals (e.g., health, agriculture/weather, education) while remaining a strong generalist across the portfolio.
• Engage with governments and partners: Build trusted relationships at national and state levels to support adoption, policy, and delivery at scale.
• Design and oversee pilots that rigorously test whether AI-enabled approaches improve outcomes and can scale cost-effectively.
• Translate between sectors: Serve as an effective bridge among researchers, AI labs, implementers, funders, and government counterparts.
• Build and lead teams: Recruit, coach, and manage high-performing staff and partners to deliver results.
• Drive learning and quality: Ensure that our programs use evidence, measurement, and feedback loops to improve quickly.
• Operate in ambiguity: Chart paths forward in new problem spaces with urgency and pragmatism.

To start, we expect the Program Lead role to run either our AI Agriculture portfolio or AI Health portfolio, with each portfolio requiring a different mix of stakeholder management skills and technical aptitude. During the later rounds of interview selection, we’ll prioritize candidates for one of these verticals based on the best match for their background and skillset.

Position Location

This role location is flexible anywhere within the United States for fully remote candidates. Please note this role requires significant travel (~30-60%) to partner countries.

The ideal candidate is an exceptional Program Lead with strong initiative and the ability to drive outcomes in a fast-moving, high-stakes environment. Given the startup nature of this work, we seek contributors with high throughput, strong work ethic, and willingness to lean in and work extended hours. Ideal candidates can excel as both an individual contributor and team leader. 

You will likely have:

• 5+ years’ experience as a builder in international development, global health, or adjacent fields. A proven track record of significantly scaling organizations and/or programs and delivering last-mile impact. Familiarity with LMIC health or agriculture/weather is a plus.
• Training or early career experience in a high-rigor environment (e.g., top-tier management consulting, high-growth NGO program leadership, strategy/econ research) and the ability to rapidly get up to speed in new technical areas.
• Demonstrated success leading programs or pilots from idea to scaled delivery, including managing multi-stakeholder coalitions and field teams.
• A track record as a strong people manager and builder: able to set clear standards, empower others, and cultivate a high-performance culture.
• Experience working with African and/or Asian governments to drive large-scale change.
• High EQ and the ability to influence across diverse partners - from AI lab researchers to frontline delivery staff to senior government officials.
• Strong fluency with AI tools, and eager to experiment, learn, and adapt to emerging technologies.
• Comfort with ambiguity and fast iteration; can define and test hypotheses, adapt quickly, and maintain focus on impact.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; able to synthesize complex technical ideas into crisp narratives for different audiences.
• Willingness and ability to travel extensively internationally (~30-60%).
• Passion for the mission of ensuring that the benefits of frontier AI reach the world’s poorest populations, while mitigating its downside risks.

We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of a U.S. employment visa at this time. Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. for roles based in the U.S.

Evidence Action is an Equal Opportunity Employer with a commitment to diversity. All individuals, regardless of personal characteristics, are encouraged to apply.

The expected role range for this US position is listed below. We consider multiple factors when determining the base salary for a role, including but not limited to: role scope, program budgets, internal equity, and a candidate's qualifications and/or prior experience.

Note: Pay and benefits will be commensurate with the role specifications, local statutory requirements, and the cost of labor in the markets where we operate.

The pay range for this role: $150,000-$155,000 per year

This role will initially be housed at Evidence Action, with the explicit plan to transfer with the AI Access Initiative as a founding member of the team when that project is spun out as a new entity later this year.  At that point, benefits and policies may change. For US based roles, Evidence Action provides comprehensive benefits including international health care, HSA/FSA options, life insurance, disability coverage, retirement plans with a matching component, generous and flexible leave options, as well as other employee perks on a reimbursement basis. For more information visit our careers page or ask our recruiting team!