The Foundation
We are the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. We believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve. We provide an exceptional benefits package to employees and their families which include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with no premiums, generous paid time off, paid family leave, foundation-paid retirement contribution, regional holidays, and opportunities to engage in several employee communities. As a workplace, we’re committed to creating an environment for you to thrive both personally and professionally.
The Team
The Global Development Division (GD) works with partners to expand access to life-saving health products and services in under-resourced communities, supporting countries in strengthening health systems and advancing essential services for women, children, and families. The division includes teams focused on Emergency Response, Exemplars in Global Health, Global Health Agencies and Funds, Immunization, and Polio - stewarding approximately $1.5 billion in annual grant funding across a team of roughly 185 staff.
The Exemplars in Global Health (EGH) team equips decision-makers with the evidence, insights, and practical “know-how” needed to accelerate and scale interventions that improve the health of the world’s most vulnerable populations. Working with a global network of partners, EGH identifies and studies exemplars and best practices across health outcomes, primary health care systems, and service delivery strategies.
Through rigorous research, evidence synthesis, and timely analysis, EGH translates lessons from what works into actionable insights that help policymakers, practitioners, and funders strengthen systems, improve service delivery, and address pressing global health challenges.
We pursue this through:
1. The study of “positive outliers”- identifying countries or regions that have achieved exceptional progress in health outcomes and analyzing the drivers behind their success;
2. The study of emerging practices with global learning value, using prospective research and real-time analytics alongside implementation to meet the ambition of ‘learning by doing’;
3. The provision of internal advisory services to support teams in pursuit of the foundation’s three goals toward 2045; and
4. External partnerships to scale exemplary practices with governments, policymakers, global health initiatives, and multilateral development banks.
This role is embedded within the Africa Team, formalizing a learning partnership between Africa’s AI & Digital function and EGH's AI & Digital Health Evidence & Learning sub-team, and helping ensure EGH's research and evidence offerings are tailored to Africa and priority-country needs, while Africa Team's frontline experience informs EGH's global learning agenda.
Your Role
The Senior Program Officer (SPO), AI & Digital Health Delivery will play a critical role in advancing AI-driven solutions to strengthen primary health care and health systems in Africa. This is an individual contributor role which will shape and manage a portfolio of AI and health delivery investments across multiple geographies and multiple levels of a health system, focusing on solutions that align with government priorities and the foundation’s health goals. This position is part of the Exemplars in Global Health (EGH) team, embedded in the Africa Regional Office (ARO), and will focus on building and evidence and learning portfolio across Africa to inform how AI and digital health delivery can effectively scale. As such, the role will also provide technical expertise at the intersection of AI, digital health, and health delivery, to the Ethiopia Country Office (ECO), the Nigeria Country Office (NCO), ARO; and EGH.
The successful candidate will bring technical expertise in AI and digital systems in healthcare, a deep understanding of primary health care and health systems programming in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and a passion for improving evidence-based health outcomes through innovative technology.
This is a limited-term employee (LTE) position with a three-year term, based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The postholder will report directly to the Deputy Director, Leadership Advising, Africa.
What You’ll Do
- Identify, develop, and manage a multi-country portfolio of investments in AI and digital health that strengthen primary health care delivery and health systems in priority geographies and/or which complement EGH’s broader learning agenda (e.g. Ethiopia, Nigeria).
- Lead due diligence, define results frameworks, milestones, and KPIs, monitor performance against them, and make clear recommendations on renewal, restructuring, or exit.
- Ensure investments demonstrate a credible pathway to government adoption and public value, including how AI can improve quality, coverage, workforce productivity, or resource allocation within constrained government budgets. Assess recurrent costs, affordability, and sustainability - not only technical performance.
- Lead bidirectional engagement between the EGH team and ECO and NCO - ensuring that AI and digital health delivery investments are informed by global research and evidence; and that global research and evidence is informed by lessons from on-the-ground delivery and government priorities.
- Serve as the day-to-day technical resource to the ECO and the NCO on the design, procurement, deployment, scaling of, and evidence generation from AI and digital health solutions for primary health care.
- Strengthen government capability to identify high-value AI opportunities, make informed build/buy/partner decisions, procure and govern AI responsibly, manage technology partners, and integrate successful solutions into routine government systems and budgets.
- Support counterparts in the ARO on their AI and digital health investments - sharing evidence and learnings from EGH’s work to inform design and deployment decisions.
- Provide day-to-day technical and analytical support to teams considering or managing investments in AI and digital health, including reviewing proposals and preparing technical inputs, with lens of how to accelerate real-time learning during implementation.
- Advise on use cases across consumer, provider, and program intelligence: including patient engagement and self-care, clinical decision support in the hands of frontline health workers, and tools for health system administration.
- Support effective bidirectional engagement between primary care platforms and priority health areas (e.g. immunization, maternal newborn child health and nutrition, family planning, malaria, HIV and TB), to identify how AI investments can strengthen the platform rather than fragment it.
- Provide technical support and guidance to ensure new tools integrate with, rather than sit alongside, existing systems and workflows.
- Partner with the Deputy Director, AI & Digital, ARO, and other AI program leads to represent Africa Team and EGH on internal AI for health committees (as relevant) and contribute to the development of AI and digital health strategies and frameworks at the foundation.
- Identify how real-time learning at the country-level can inform EGH’s cross-country and global learning agenda, intended to shape how governments and global health institutions further invest in AI-enabled tools for health delivery.
- Identify how factors in the broader infrastructure and ecosystem - such as ethics, data governance, regulatory, and other policy considerations - influence AI deployment. Bring a strong monitoring and evaluation (M&E) perspective to identify when and how AI makes a difference in impact outcomes.
- Synthesize lessons from the investment portfolio and from country delivery experience into a practical evidence base on when and how AI and digital tools strengthen health systems - and when they do not - in partnership with EGH’s AI & Digital Health Evidence & Learning sub-team.
- Identify and track promising innovations from proof-of-concept to sustainable scale, flagging risks, capability gaps, and opportunities to country office, Africa Team, and EGH leadership.
- Prepare briefs, technical inputs, investment memos, and presentations that translate complex technical and research findings into clear, actionable recommendations for internal and external audiences, including senior foundation leadership.
- Build and maintain working relationships with regional technical partners, government counterparts, and academic institutions engaged in AI and digital health. This includes serving as a trusted partner to government counterparts, providing strategic advice and connecting them with relevant regional and global expertise, evidence, resources, and networks to advance shared priorities and strengthen impact.
- Map and coordinate the AI and digital-health ecosystem in priority countries, helping government and Foundation teams align technology companies, local innovators, academic institutions, implementers, and funders around country priorities; identify duplication early and promote interoperable, reusable approaches rather than parallel solutions.
- Stay current on the fast-evolving AI and digital health landscape, particularly as it applies to African health systems and primary health care delivery, and flag relevant developments to Africa Team and EGH leadership.
Your Experience
- Education: Advanced degree in public health, medicine, data science, computer science, engineering, or a related field; or equivalent experience.
- Technical background: At least 10 years of senior-level experience advancing digital and AI-driven solutions to strengthen primary health care and health systems in Africa and/or leading related learning initiatives focused on applied data science, AI, digital health, or a related technical field, including applying innovative technologies to improve evidence generation, decision-making, and health outcomes is essential. Experience in global health programming - ideally focused on primary health care and health systems strengthening - is strongly preferred.
- Expertise: Familiarity with AI applications in healthcare and public health contexts, particularly in low-resource settings.
- Programmatic knowledge: Proven knowledge of primary health care delivery and health systems strengthening in LMICs, including the interface between primary care platforms and priority health areas such as immunization, maternal and child health, malaria, HIV and TB, and nutrition.
- Investment and portfolio management: Grant making and portfolio management experience, including due diligence, investment structuring, and managing a portfolio of grants or projects through to results.
- Government and partner engagement: Experience engaging governments, Ministries of Health, NGOs, implementing partners, academic institutions, and global funders, with a demonstrated ability to rapidly build trusted-advisor relationships with senior counterparts.
- Communication skills: Strong written and verbal communication skills in English, with the ability to engage and influence stakeholders at all levels, including preparing technical materials for varied audiences and working effectively across barriers of language, culture, and distance.
- Problem-solving: Ability to identify key issues, design innovative solutions, and execute them effectively within complex healthcare environments, with comfort in highly unstructured and ambiguous situations.
- Strategic thinking: Ability to align AI solutions with long-term programmatic goals and impact metrics, and to identify second-order implications and evidence gaps.
- Cultural and contextual fluency: At least three years’ experience living and working in LMICs. Comfortable operating across diverse country contexts, with cultural sensitivity and adaptability.
- Collaboration: Ability to work effectively in a multi-disciplinary, cross-functional team and across a matrix.
- Innovation: Capacity to drive innovative thinking and bring creative AI solutions to global health challenges, with intellectual curiosity, attention to detail, and a learning orientation in a fast-evolving field.
Other Attributes
- Demonstrates cultural sensitivity and adaptability across diverse cultural, geographic, and operational contexts, with a proven commitment to development issues and the highest standards of integrity.
- Ability to travel up to 30% within the African continent, and globally (including to the USA).
Application deadline: 25 October 2026
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Hiring Requirements
As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.
Candidate Accommodations
We’re committed to providing an inclusive and accessible hiring experience for all candidates. If you have a disability or medical condition and need an accommodation at any stage of the application or interview process—such as an ASL interpreter, alternative interview format, or physical accessibility support—we’re happy to help. Please contact HR@gatesfoundation.org with the position number and a brief description of your accommodation needs. Requests will be handled confidentially.
Inclusion Statement
We are dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We strive for a global and cultural workplace that supports ever greater diversity, equity, and inclusion — of voices, ideas, and approaches — and we support this diversity through all our employment practices.
All applicants and employees who are drawn to serve our mission will enjoy equality of opportunity and fair treatment without regard to race, color, age, religion, pregnancy, sex, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, and prior protected activity.
