(Associate) Director, Expansion & Partnerships, AI Access Initiative

About the role

The AI Access Initiative (2AI) is a new organization incubated at Evidence Action, focused on scaling AI-enabled programs that reach tens or hundreds of millions of people in poverty in low- and middle-income countries. Its agriculture portfolio is expanding AI-enabled weather forecasting services to smallholder farmers in India, and this role owns the expansion end to end, from market selection and government and telco partnerships to setting up offices and teams in new markets. The position is based in India, reports to the VP, Agriculture, and includes people leadership of at least one senior manager.

Key responsibilities

• Identify new markets for forecast delivery with the VP, Agriculture, and set criteria and priorities for country expansion.
• Support the set-up of offices and hiring of skilled staff in new markets.
• Collaborate with academics to develop, test and prepare forecasts for new regions, including hiring and managing post-doctoral students.
• Lead telco partnerships: identify targets, negotiate and manage relationships to set up sustainable dissemination systems.
• Hire and oversee in-country scoping support such as short-term consultants.
• Build and nurture relationships with government bodies (agriculture departments, meteorological agencies) and with academic institutions and delivery partners.
• Develop best practices and toolkits, and share learnings through blogs and other public-good resources.

Required profile

• 7-10+ years of experience as a builder in international development, consulting or an agriculture-related organization.
• Proven track record of scaling organizations or programs, preferably with national governments; direct experience entering a new region is a plus.
• Experience building and negotiating partnerships with governments and the private sector; experience with telcos, mobile network operators or platform partners is a strong plus.
• Background in a high-rigor environment (management consulting, NGO program leadership, strategy/econ research) and ability to learn quickly about AI/ML forecasting.
• Strong people manager with a track record of leading distributed and field-based teams.
• Experience working with Asian and/or African governments, with a strong preference for ministries of agriculture or meteorological agencies.
• Ability to travel extensively internationally (about 40-50%).

Required skills

• Strong English communication and ability to explain complex technical ideas to different audiences.
• Fluency with AI tools and eagerness to experiment with emerging technologies.
• Comfort with ambiguity, fast iteration and hypothesis testing.