Chief People Officer, The AI Access Initiative

Evidence Action

9d•$220,000 - $240,000•Remote

About The Position

The AI Access Initiative (2AI) is an organization focused on scaling AI-enabled 'big bets' to benefit people in poverty in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Incubated at Evidence Action, 2AI operates at the intersection of global development actors, top AI labs, and leading researchers to drive meaningful access to AI's benefits for the 3.5 billion people living in poverty globally. The organization is scaling two programs focused on AI in Agriculture and AI in Health across Africa and Asia. 2AI is led by former Evidence Action CEO Kanika Bahl and advised by prominent figures in AI and global development. The organization builds on Evidence Action's track record of reaching over 530 million people with cost-effective programs. 2AI plans to spin out as an independent organization on November 1, 2026, and new employees will be hired directly by 2AI.

Requirements

12+ years in human resources, people operations, or talent roles, including senior leadership of a people function.
Meaningful time spent in organizations that required you to build rather than inherit.
A track record as a builder: designed hiring, performance, or compensation systems from scratch.
Demonstrated experience in full-cycle recruiting, including sourcing and closing senior hires in competitive or thin-talent markets.
Experience working in or across LMIC contexts, understanding distributed workforce dynamics, labor law variability, compensation equity across geographies, and cultural nuances of feedback and performance conversations.
A track record of credibility with senior leaders.
Strong analytical instincts; ability to build tools and analyze data independently.
Curiosity and creativity with AI tools, including a testing mindset and eagerness to experiment with emerging technologies.
Comfort with ambiguity and fast iteration.
Ability to manage multiple competing deadlines, dynamically reprioritize, embrace and structure ambiguity, and drive tasks to completion in a fast-paced environment.
Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. for roles based in the U.S.

Nice To Haves

Experience standing up employment infrastructure for a new or spinning-out entity is a strong plus.

Responsibilities

Design and execute the strategy for the People function, setting the vision and building out the strategy for the talent structure and function, driving effective and high-quality execution, and ensuring an integrated people function (acquisition, retention/development, and HR administration) is aligned to organizational values and priorities.
Create an AI-native set of people systems and processes, using AI to drive efficiencies across recruitment, onboarding, hiring, and performance management, while helping create an AI-native culture.
Own recruiting end to end, running every stage of the hiring process in partnership with program teams, including sourcing, pipeline development, structured assessment design, offer construction, and close.
Build hiring capacity across the organization by coaching hiring managers to be exceptional interviewers, give calibrated feedback, and make decisions efficiently.
Design structure ahead of growth, partnering with leadership on role design, team boundaries, reporting structures, and the sequencing of hires.
Build and maintain high talent density by creating a culture where excellence is recognized and areas of growth are rapidly addressed.
Navigate performance issues with good judgment, coaching leaders to move quickly from diagnosis to clear feedback to decisive action.
Connect talent insights to organizational planning, translating the talent picture into concrete decisions on headcount, development investment, and role structuring.
Own the cultural formation in a global context, building and supporting cross-cultural teams and maintaining a shared, global culture across the people process.
Design onboarding that sets people up for success, building a structured experience that orients new hires to the mission, role, values, team, and performance expectations.
Design a performance system that is genuinely useful for people, creating a process for honest conversations, meaningful development, and clear expectations.
Build compensation frameworks that are equitable and defensible across geographies, developing a philosophy and structure that is fair, transparent, grounded in data, and explainable to staff.
Use data and AI to drive people decisions, building and maintaining tools and dashboards for leadership visibility into headcount, attrition, hiring velocity, compensation equity, and team health.
Stand up the people infrastructure for an independent entity, sourcing and managing a PEO or EOR, and building the employment contracts, payroll, benefits, and policies required for post-spinout operation.
Ensure compliance and safeguarding across operating jurisdictions by understanding labor law, establishing a code of conduct, reporting channels, and investigation protocols.
Own workforce planning and the people budget, partnering with the CFO to build headcount plans and cost models, and holding the plan as roles are added, changed, or deferred.
Act as a strategic thought partner, being brought in early on people decisions, pushing back when something doesn't feel right, and handling sensitive employee situations with discretion and judgment.