Deputy Director, AI Delivery & Government Partnerships at Gates Foundation

What You’ll Do

Country Delivery Leadership 

• Lead end-to-end design and implementation of AI-enabled programs in African LMIC settings working closely with the Africa Data and Digital team and have a shared understanding of core principles and preconditions necessary for successful AI deployment and data and digitalization maturity levels, with a clear emphasis on institutional adoption, operational feasibility, sequencing, equity of access, and sustainable pathways to scale. 
• Translate strategic opportunities into funded, governed programs with clear goals, timelines, budgets, and measurable outcomes, including cost reduction, productivity gains, service quality improvements, user satisfaction, equity performance across languages and demographic groups, with measurable program impact for the Foundation’s three goals. 
• Develop practical delivery playbooks built for real-world constraints: low bandwidth, intermittent connectivity, workforce shortages, limited public budgets, and multilingual environments. 

Government Partnerships & Trust-Based Adoption 

• Serve as the Foundation’s senior Africa-facing partner to Ministries and public institutions (including ICT/Digital Economy, Health, Education, Agriculture, Finance, and subnational authorities), building the trust required to unlock data access, workflow integration, and sustained institutional use. 
• Establish effective governance mechanisms with government counterparts: clear roles and accountabilities, data safeguards, human-in-the-loop protocols, incident response pathways, and transparent documentation standards. 
• Support countries to move from pilots to scale through structured adoption pathways: training, change management, procurement readiness, and integration with national digital systems. 

​​​​​​​AI Platform Partnerships – Africa Execution Owner 

• Lead testing and implementation of AI platform partnerships across Africa, enabling frontline health facilities to leverage AI-enabled tools that improve workflows, including clinical documentation support, local language access, triage optimization, and knowledge accessibility. Initial deployment includes Horizon 100 across Rwanda, Kenya, and South Africa. 
• Support testing and implementation with other AI platform provider partnerships focusing on solving tangible problems and use cases 
• Ensure deployments are genuinely fit-for-purpose: user-centered design, integration with existing tools, clear operational guardrails, and continuous improvement informed by frontline feedback. 
• Build the partner ecosystem necessary for delivery i.e., implementers, training institutions, local innovators, and digital platforms, while proactively managing delivery risk. 
• Drive “one-plan” approaches with country teams so AI investments reinforce, rather than fragment, broader reform and delivery agendas. 
• Ensure effective and critical triage of investments and partners with a keen eye on costs, duplication of efforts and a focus on strengthening local ecosystems. 

Ecosystem Building & Pan-African Engagement 

• Strengthen and connect AI hubs across priority countries (including Senegal, Nigeria, Rwanda, Kenya, and support the engagement in Ethiopia) enabling shared assets, cross-country learning, and scalable models. 
• Lead regional and pan-African engagement with Smart Africa, the Africa AI Council, AFDB and relevant AU/REC bodies to shape practical standards, shared public goods, and responsible AI adoption frameworks. 
• Identify and support bottom-up innovation – including community-based AI hubs and local-language service delivery – and connect emerging models to national-scale mechanisms. 

​​​​​​​Responsible & Equitable AI 

• Embed equity-by-design across all deployments: participatory co-design with local partners, language inclusion, accessibility, harm minimization, and transparent documentation. 
• Ensure each deployment includes clear protocols governing data use, informed consent, privacy, and safety, alongside ongoing monitoring for benefit, equity, and safety across demographic subgroups, with particular attention to women and girls. 
• Establish accountability mechanisms and incident response pathways appropriate for public sector environments. 

​​​​​​​Portfolio Management, Measurement & Learning 

• Manage a portfolio balancing scale-ready execution with disciplined experimentation, applying stage gates for evidence, adoption readiness, cost-effectiveness, and safety. 
• Produce regular delivery reviews and learning syntheses that equip teams and leadership to decide what to scale, stop, or redesign. 
• Build reusable assets – playbooks, governance frameworks, evaluation methodologies, and training approaches – that accelerate responsible adoption across the continent. 

Team Leadership 

• Manage and develop a focused team of program teams, technical advisors, and implementation partners—setting clear goals, building delivery cadence, and investing in talent growth in this fast moving discipline. 
• Foster a high-performing, collaborative culture grounded in measurable impact, strong partnerships, and a commitment to learning. 
• Navigate matrixed working relationships across ARO and global teams; clear blockers efficiently and maintain clear accountability. 
• Create a strong partnership with the foundation India country office and exchange knowledge and practice accelerating innovation introduction and adaptation.

Your Experience

• 12+ years of progressive leadership experience in large-scale digital, AI, or data-enabled programs, with demonstrated results in LMIC settings and public sector delivery contexts. 
• Proven ability to translate complex technology into institutional adoption: governance design, workflow integration, change management, workforce training, and measurable performance improvement. 
• Demonstrated track record of building and sustaining partnerships with governments and public institutions—navigating political economy, incentive structures, and operational constraints to achieve results. 
• Strong program leadership capabilities: defining OKRs, managing multi-stakeholder budgets, building delivery plans, and generating credible evidence of impact. 
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; able to produce crisp decision memos, executive briefs, and compelling narratives for senior government and donor audiences. 
• Practical AI literacy—able to assess where AI adds genuine value, identify risks, and implement safely and pragmatically in resource-constrained environments.   Deep AI research credentials are not required.