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.
We’re building an AI-native organization focused on designing solutions to reach tens or hundreds of millions of individuals living in poverty. We will focus both on delivering near-term, tractable direct impact as well as assisting governments to grow capacity and build enabling environments for the AI for Good ecosystem, including:
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 ambitious, analytically rigorous, and mission-driven team members at Manager or Senior Manager level to join our founding team and support the design, research, and execution of high-impact AI programs in LMICs. Reporting to our Program Lead, you will be at the heart of translating frontier AI research into scalable, government-ready solutions - helping to shape the work our growing organization does building and influencing this new sector of development. You will play a critical supporting role in bridging researchers, AI labs, implementing partners, and government counterparts to ensure our programs are evidence-based, rigorously tested, and positioned to reach 10M+ beneficiaries.
Every day, you’re likely to be:
Requirements
You are a strong fit for this role if you thrive in changing environments where you might analyze user data on Monday, prototype an AI solution on Tuesday, and present recommendations to partners on Wednesday, all while priorities shift based on what's most urgent. You approach ambiguous problems with structured thinking, breaking down "How do we improve X?" into testable hypotheses, clear success metrics, and actionable next steps within days, not weeks. You take ownership of problems end-to-end without needing detailed instructions, whether that means sourcing missing data independently, running calls and investigations with field-leading experts, or translating between technical and program teams to move work forward. If this sounds like you, you might be a great fit for our team.
In return, our team has a lean, get-things-done, start-up energy. We’re committed to providing you a high-trust and opportunity-heavy experience, helping to shape the work our growing organization does. We’ll provide continuous feedback and learn from each other along the way.
The ideal AI Program Manager will join us with:
Position Location
This role location is flexible anywhere within the United States for fully remote candidates. Please note this role may require travel (~10-30%) to partner countries.
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.
Benefits
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 requiremen