Job Openings Head, Artificial Intelligence

About the job Head, Artificial Intelligence

Location: Kigali, Rwanda
Travel Expectation: Up to 25%
Job Type: Full-time, 3-year contract
Reports to: Director, Rwanda AI Scaling Hub

About the Rwanda Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The Rwanda Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) is a partnership between the Government of Rwanda and the World Economic Forum committed to advancing the responsible and inclusive adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies to accelerate Rwanda's national development priorities.

As part of the World Economic Forums global network of over 20 centers, C4IR serves as a public private collaboration platform that shapes policy, fosters innovation, and builds strategic partnerships with national and international stakeholders to ensure that technology benefits all of society.

About the Rwanda AI Scaling Hub

The Rwanda AI Scaling Hub (the Hub) aims to harness the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to accelerate national development outcomes safely and sustainably delivering evidence-based impact that deepens regional knowledge and shapes global benchmarks for inclusive, context-responsive innovation.

As a multi-stakeholder platform, the Hub enables the scaling of AI solutions that address Rwanda's development priorities, ensuring safety, sustainability, and public ownership while catalyzing investment and building an inclusive ecosystem that drives innovation across Africa and beyond.

Description
The Head, Artificial Intelligence will lead the technical direction, AI strategy, and research agenda for the AI Scaling Hub and in alignment with Rwanda's national AI priorities, ensuring world-class standards of innovation, safety, and impact.

Key Responsibilities

  • Serve as the primary technical point of contact for government, funders, and external collaborators, ensuring solutions meet ethical, inclusive, and safety standards.
  • Collaborate with program managers and technical implementation partners to validate the technical readiness, performance, and robustness of AI products across use cases.
  • Set the technical architecture and MLOps strategy for scalable, secure, and maintainable AI deployments across use cases.
  • Work with product owners and implementation partners to adapt solutions to real-world contexts.
  • Implement and champion MLOps practices for continuous integration, monitoring, and model versioning.
  • Advise the MINICT on AI infrastructure and policy to support the success of the Hub and Rwanda's national AI priorities
  • Provide technical leadership for C4IRs broader AI project portfolio and represent C4IR in global AI innovation and governance fora.


Key Qualifications and Experience

  • Extensive experience: Minimum of 8 years of proven experience in Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications, with a deep technical understanding of AI/ML systems, architectures, and deployment models.
  • Applied innovation: Demonstrated ability to evaluate, design, and deploy AI solutions for feasibility, scalability, and impact particularly in low-resource or data-constrained environments.
  • Cross-sector expertise: Strong grasp of sectoral applications of AI and its intersection with the broader digital economy and society, including health, agriculture, education, and public service delivery.
  • Ethical leadership: In-depth knowledge of AI ethics, safety, governance, and regulatory frameworks, and commitment to responsible, human-centered AI.
  • Strategic communication: Exceptional analytical, communication, and stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into actionable insights for diverse audiences.
  • Local knowledge with global perspective: Experience working in mature and emerging AI ecosystems, with an understanding of contextual challenges and opportunities for the Rwandan ecosystem.

Our Values

  1. Responsible impact: We take initiative aligned with institutional and personal goals. We solve problems with practicality, efficiency, and rigor. We create opportunities that broaden and maximize impact for our stakeholders.
  2. Technical excellence: We think and act innovatively
    We contribute expertise valued by others.
  3. Principled collaboration: We believe in empathy and empowerment of self, colleagues and external stakeholders. We establish trust-based relationships and collaborate effectively with internal and external stakeholders.
  4. Effective communication: We engage and communicate effectively with all audiences.