HR (Associate) Director, AI Access Initiative

About the role

The AI Access Initiative is incubated at Evidence Action and is scaling AI-enabled programs for people in poverty in low- and middle-income countries, starting with agriculture and health. 2AI India is being incubated as a project within EAII Advisors, Evidence Action's technical partner in India, with plans to spin off into an independent entity at the end of the year. The role is a founding member of the leadership team, responsible for the cultural foundation and talent engine that will sustain quality through rapid growth.

Key responsibilities

• Culture design and stewardship: own the founding culture infrastructure, ways of working and norms, and maintain it as the organization grows
• Talent strategy: advise on team structure, hiring needs and sequencing, and design an onboarding experience
• Talent sourcing and assessment: attract talent through non-standard channels, manage part-time or consultant recruiters, and run structured, criteria-based hiring processes
• Talent density and performance: identify who is performing, developing or at risk, and coach leaders through underperformance
• HR systems and compliance: build right-sized HR systems, manage compliance and employment obligations, and use data on headcount, hiring velocity, attrition and compensation equity
• Strategic thought partnership: advise on people decisions and handle sensitive situations with discretion

Required profile

• 10-12 years in HR, people operations or talent roles, with meaningful time in organizations where you had to build rather than inherit
• Experience building and maintaining a strong, positive culture during a period of growth
• Experience with a globally distributed team and understanding of time-zone and cultural differences
• Full-cycle recruiting, including sourcing and closing senior hires in competitive markets through non-traditional channels
• Structured assessment instincts and proven onboarding or development designs
• Judgment on what HR infrastructure an organization of this size actually needs