About The AI Access Initiative (2AI)

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 former Evidence Action 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.

Our Approach

We’re scaling AI-enabled big bets to benefit tens or hundreds of millions of individuals living in poverty. We will focus both on delivering near-term, tractable direct impact and supporting governments to establish an enabling environment for the ‘AI for Good’ ecosystem, including: 

•  Launching AI-enabled interventions to impact tens or hundreds of millions, such as delivering AI-enabled forecasts to smallholder farmers to improve yields and earnings, leveraging AI to dramatically improve medical diagnosis and treatment, implementing frontier systems to identify and mitigate disease outbreaks, or putting personalized AI tutors into the hands of students to drive reductions to system-level educational attainment gaps. As part of this work, we will create “public good,” open-sourced playbooks, toolkits, and insights that define how to design and launch tractable and impactful AI-enabled programs. When relevant, we will partner with leading AI labs to shape technical offerings, including adapting for underrepresented languages, bandwidth constraints, etc.
• Partnering with governments in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to drive regulatory changes, policy, and investments necessary to unlock beneficial use cases at national scale, while proactively mitigating the downside risks of AI.

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.

Overview about 2AI India and the role

2AI India is being incubated as a project within EAII, but is projected to spin-off into an independent entity in the near term. 2AI is building its AI big bets strategy in India, and this role will be at the forefront of designing the strategy and execution plan. This role will entail working closely with the Country Director (CD) and Senior Leadership Team (SLT) by driving strategic initiatives, standing-up new programs, coordinating across teams, and providing management support across multiple workstreams. The Chief of Staff will be responsible for initiating and building relationships with governments and partners in the non-profit, private and global sectors across healthcare, agriculture and additional domains. 

About EAII 

EAII Advisors, Evidence Action’s technical partner in India, supports state governments in delivering evidence-based public health programs, including safe drinking water initiatives and school and Anganwadi-based National Deworming Day and iron and folic acid supplementation. Operating across 10 states, EAII Advisors provides technical assistance to ministries of health, education, water, and women and child development, reducing health burdens in impoverished communities and improving the long-term wellbeing of children and families. 

For more information, read about our work here: About Evidence Action and EAII

Roles and Responsibilities of the Chief of Staff: 

Strategic Initiatives: 

• Leads strategy design and development for 2AI's India work across health, agriculture, and other domains; Translates high-level direction into plans, milestones, and owners
• Brings structure to ambiguous problems: scope the question, gather the inputs, frame the options, and drive to a decision.
• Oversees and manages mission critical strategic projects involving cross-functional stakeholders, including growth planning, scaling of new programs, evaluation, grant reporting, and decision making

Executive Support and Communication: 

• Develops internal and external communication materials and drive decision making across the Senior Leadership Team, ensuring that leaders are able to remain focused on top priorities
• Acts as an extension of the India Director: prepare for and follow up on key meetings, draft talking points and briefing materials, and carry priorities forward so the Director can stay focused on the highest-value work
• Drives decisions to closure across the India team, making sure the right people are involved and that decisions are documented and acted on

Organizational Coordination:  

• Coordinates between the India team and 2AI's global team in the US, planning and overseeing shared workstreams and keeping both sides aligned across time zones
• Manages relationships with government stakeholders, NGO implementation partners, and other external partners, anticipating their needs and representing 2AI credibly
• Champions the use of AI tools across the organization and conducts regular, high-quality trainings and showcases for India staff and SLT on AI

Analysis & Recommendations:  

• Conduct qualitative and quantitative analysis and provide clear, calibrated recommendations to support decisions, distinguishing what the evidence supports from what is still uncertain.
• Build the analysis that informs prioritization across the India portfolio: where to invest, what to scale, and what to stop.

Deadlines and sensitivity: 

• Assists with program and goals development, tracking, and keeping the leadership team apprised of critical internal deadlines and external areas of interest that impact 2AI.
• Exercises the utmost discretion when dealing with sensitive and confidential material and safeguards all information

Disclaimer: The duties and responsibilities described are not a comprehensive list and that additional tasks may be assigned to the employee from time to time.

Requirements

Essentials :

• Relevant professional background: 5-6 years of experience in management consulting, international development, or a comparable role, ideally with exposure to both
• Passion for the mission: commitment to scaling evidence-based, cost-effective interventions that improve lives in LMICs
• Proficiency with AI development: working familiarity with how AI and ML systems are built and deployed, enough to engage credibly with technical teams and evaluate tradeoffs, without necessarily being a hands-on ML engineer
• Comfort with ambiguity: a track record of doing well in early-stage, resource-constrained environments where the path is not defined and you build it as you go
• Strong analytical skills: ability to run qualitative and quantitative analysis and turn it into a clear recommendation
• Project management: proven ability to manage complex projects with diverse stakeholders and competing demands, and to meet timelines in a fast-paced setting
• Communication: ability to communicate and present clearly to varied audiences, technical and non-technical, in writing and verbally
• Relationship management: ability to build trusting relationships with diverse stakeholders, including government and partner counterparts, and to incorporate multiple perspectives
• Self-management and prioritization: ability to manage many workstreams at once and prioritize the few that matter most
• Initiative and bias to action: ability to work independently, take ownership of unassigned problems, and get things done

Desirable Qualifications :

• Master's degree in Business Administration, Public Policy, Global Health, Public Administration, Computer Science, or a related field
• Previous experience as a Chief of Staff or in a comparable cross-functional strategy role in a fast-paced organization
• Experience working with or within government in India, or with public-sector delivery
• Direct experience standing up new programs or new ventures from scratch
• Familiarity with AI applications in health, agriculture, and other applications relevant to international development and social impact

What Success Looks Like :

In the First 6 Months

• You have built a clear picture of 2AI's India portfolio and the key stakeholders, and the India Director relies on you to carry priorities forward without close oversight.
• You own at least one mission-critical workstream end to end, from framing to execution.
• You have established working relationships with the global team in the US and with priority government and partner counterparts in India.

In the First 12 Months

• You have helped shape and operationalize the India strategy across health, agriculture, , and at least one new program has moved from concept toward delivery with your involvement.
• You are a trusted translator between technical and program or policy stakeholders, and teams route cross-functional decisions through you.
• Your analysis has shaped at least one significant prioritization or investment decision in the India portfolio.
• The India Director is measurably more focused on the highest-value work because of what you own and unblock.

Compensation

Competitive and commensurate with the individual’s credentials, experience and previous pay scale.

Benefits

EAII provides a comprehensive benefits package for employees . Benefits include:

• Comprehensive health insurance with IPD and OPD provisions,
• Life and Accidental insurance,
• PF, ESIC and Gratuity as per statutory requirements,
• Generous leave,
• Mental and physical wellbeing benefits
• Learning & Development benefits
• Avenues for engagement and recognition

Note: This role will be open for applications until July 24, 2026. Please apply at your earliest convenience. We may close this search earlier than the specified date if we find the right fit. Due to the volume of applications received, we will only be able to contact shortlisted candidates.