Chief Program Officer

Evidence Action

Chief Program Officer at The AI Access Initiative building and scaling AI programs in health and agriculture for low-income countries. Driving strategy and partnerships for impactful development.

Posted 6/16/2026full-timeRemote • 🇺🇸 United StatesLead💰 $210,000 - $250,000 per yearWebsite

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Serve as a core member of the executive leadership team, shaping organizational strategy, culture, and enterprise-wide priorities.
Hire and mentor a high-performing leadership team and staff, creating a highly mission-driven culture focused on moving with the scale, thoughtfulness, and urgency required.
Ensure every program has a strong learning architecture: clear hypotheses, rigorous measurement, rapid iteration cycles, and honest reporting. Use cost-effectiveness evidence to guide resource allocation — scaling what earns it, cutting what doesn't.
Develop and steward 2AI's open-sourced playbooks and insights — building durable field knowledge, not just running programs.
Set and achieve ambitious program strategies for 2AI's Agriculture and Health portfolios — vision, priorities, delivery models, and expansion roadmap — in close collaboration with the CEO and regional and program leads. Achieve high-caliber reach and impact for hundreds of millions of people.
Design and run fast, rigorous pilots. This includes strong measurement and feedback loops from day one, rapid iteration on what isn't working, and clear-eyed calls on what deserves to scale.
Stay at the frontier of AI-enabled solutions for LMICs; actively tracking, testing, and integrating emerging tools and approaches. Bring intellectual curiosity and the ability to learn rapidly in a fast-moving space, translating what's technically possible into what's practically scalable for underserved populations.
Partner with technical and research teams to ensure AI-powered approaches are grounded in rigorous evidence, adapted to local realities, and designed for sustainable delivery.
Serve as 2AI's programmatic bridge among AI labs, global development actors, leading researchers, frontline implementers, and regional governments — translating credibly across all of these worlds.
Shape technical offerings in partnership with leading AI labs, including adapting AI tools for underrepresented languages, low-bandwidth environments, and last-mile contexts.
Support regional leaders — including our India Country Director — in navigating government relationships, adoption pathways, and policy enablement, providing strategic input and senior representation where needed.
Lead efforts on fundraising — contributing to compelling narratives for major funders, leading grant development, and making the case for ambitious investment in the portfolio.
Represent 2AI at senior levels in public and private forums, building 2AI's profile as the leading ecosystem coordinator for AI deployment in LMICs.

Requirements

What you’ll need

15+ years of experience building and leading programs in global health, international development, or adjacent fields, with a demonstrated track record of scaling complex initiatives to national or regional scale in low and middle income countries.
A track record as a successful builder: you have built new programs and organizational functions in 3-5 countries, scaled programs nationwide across these countries, recruited and developed top talent, and cultivated a culture of rigor and urgency.
Experience with AI clinical decision support, digital health, or AI in agriculture at the program design or deployment level is preferred.
Experience in fundraising or major donor engagement — comfortable making the case to large HNW or institutional funders. You have raised $5M+ annually.
Familiarity with how African and/or Asian governments operate, with enough experience to support regional leaders in navigating institutional processes.
Experience bridging technical and programmatic worlds — global health delivery, market-shaping, technology for development, or related fields. Comfort translating between AI labs, researchers, delivery organizations, and government counterparts.
Strong AI fluency: strong working knowledge of frontier AI tools and LLMs, and their practical application in low-resource settings. Active curiosity about frontier development.
Existing relationships with major global health or agriculture funders, including bilateral donors, large foundations, and tech sector philanthropists a plus.

Benefits

Comp & perks

international health care
HSA/FSA options
life insurance
disability coverage
retirement plans with a matching component
generous and flexible leave options
other employee perks on a reimbursement basis

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

AI clinical decision supportdigital healthAI in agricultureprogram designprogram deploymentfundraisingmajor donor engagementscaling complex initiativesbuilding new programsorganizational functions

Soft Skills

leadershipmentoringstrategic inputcommunicationcollaborationintellectual curiosityadaptabilitycultural sensitivityurgencyrigor