About Sand

Sand Technologies is a global Physical AI company using data and AI to make critical industries work better. We partner with governments, cities and enterprises to improve how essential systems operate across healthcare, water, energy, telecommunications and infrastructure.

Our work delivers proven real-world impact. We have built AI systems that help manage London’s water supply, supported telecom network planning across hundreds of cities, and developed digital healthcare platforms serving tens of millions of people across Africa. From intelligent command centers to AI-powered infrastructure platforms, we help organizations sense, analyze and act in complex environments.

Our people are ambitious, curious and relentlessly practical. Our teams work alongside clients in the field, solving hard problems and deploying solutions that last. With colleagues across Africa, Europe, the UK and the US, we operate across the full stack - from research and engineering to deployment and capability building.

Our mission is simple: to harness AI to solve humanity’s most pressing challenges.

About the role

Sand is expanding across Africa and beyond, partnering with governments and public sector officials to deliver transformative AI and data solutions. We have deployed our flagship platform - the Health Operating System (HOS) - in more than 5 countries already. 

In Rwanda, hundreds of clinics have already been digitized, transforming rural facilities into next-generation health centers that are redefining care in Africa. Sand’s groundbreaking HOS integrates data and services to drive better outcomes - from maternal health to chronic disease management - already reaching more than 1 million patients. Designed for digital empowerment, the HOS equips thousands of frontline health workers with the tools and support they need to magnify their impact and strengthen community health.

The HOS is already operational across multiple countries, with plans to expand to 16 countries by the end of 2026, led by our Country Directors. 

This is not an idea — it’s already happening, and the momentum is accelerating. But healthcare is only one example; Sand is growing in various industries, namely water, energy, and telecommunications.

We are looking for an Operations Specialist who will own the last mile—ensuring equipment, systems, and teams are ready to launch. This is a logistics-heavy, action-oriented role perfect for detail lovers who like fieldwork.

Specific Responsibilities

• Own & coordinate tech and hardware deployments to health posts and ICs.
• Ensure deployment readiness: power, internet, devices, trained users.
• Maintain deployment logs and timelines.
• Work closely with integrators and support teams post-deployment.

Requirements - Essential

• 2–4 years of experience in field logistics, operations, or deployments.
• Basic tech troubleshooting and configuration knowledge.
• Strong organizational skills and resilience under pressure.
• Field readiness—able to travel frequently, often to rural areas.
• Must be in Kenya.

Work Environment

This is a hybrid role with significant in-person requirements. While some responsibilities can be performed remotely, the role demands regular presence on the ground to build relationships, oversee implementation, and liaise with local stakeholders. At the same time, given the high degree of virtual collaboration with colleagues and partners across multiple geographies, the successful candidate must be highly self-driven, comfortable working in small in-person teams while contributing to larger efforts virtually, and disciplined in using online collaboration tools and video conferencing to maintain constant communication.

ABOUT SAND

Sand Technologies is a global Physical AI company using data and AI to make critical industries work better. We partner with governments, cities and enterprises to improve how essential systems operate across healthcare, water, energy, telecommunications and infrastructure.

Our work delivers proven real-world impact. We have built AI systems that help manage London’s water supply, supported telecom network planning across hundreds of cities, and developed digital healthcare platforms serving tens of millions of people across Africa. From intelligent command centers to AI-powered infrastructure platforms, we help organizations sense, analyze and act in complex environments.

Our people are ambitious, curious and relentlessly practical. Our teams work alongside clients in the field, solving hard problems and deploying solutions that last. With colleagues across Africa, Europe, the UK and the US, we operate across the full stack - from research and engineering to deployment and capability building.

Our mission is simple: to harness AI to solve humanity’s most pressing challenges.

ABOUT THE ROLE

Sand is expanding across Africa and beyond, partnering with governments and public sector officials to deliver transformative AI and data solutions. We have deployed our flagship platform - the Health Operating System (HOS) - in more than 5 countries already. 

In Rwanda, hundreds of clinics have already been digitized, transforming rural facilities into next-generation health centers that are redefining care in Africa. Sand’s groundbreaking HOS integrates data and services to drive better outcomes - from maternal health to chronic disease management - already reaching more than 1 million patients. Designed for digital empowerment, the HOS equips thousands of frontline health workers with the tools and support they need to magnify their impact and strengthen community health.

The HOS is already operational across multiple countries, with plans to expand to 16 countries by the end of 2026, led by our Country Directors. 

This is not an idea — it’s already happening, and the momentum is accelerating. But healthcare is only one example; Sand is growing in various industries, namely water, energy, and telecommunications.

As a Solution Manager you will work closely with the Ministry of Health (MoH) and our health system clients. You will be the strategic and operational anchor for all in-country activities—from managing the intelligence center launch to driving partnerships with Ministries of Health. You’ll wear two hats: country representative and solutions champion. 

Our ideal candidate for this role is customer-obsessed, deeply curious, and adaptable in a dynamic environment. We’re looking for someone who will help define and scale our healthcare solutions as we continue to grow and expand. 

RESPONSIBILITIES 

•  Own & drive the product backlog, and manage the configuration, testing, and rollout of products and solutions at rural health Facilities and Intelligence Centers & 

• Act as the HOS’s first user advocate, capturing feedback and identifying gaps in usability, workflow integration, and performance. This will involve going into the field to understand users across the spectrum; from Community Health Workers to Ministers of Health. 
• Lead user training and change management efforts—ensuring frontline health workers and supervisors can effectively adopt and use digital tools. 
• Actively troubleshoot and triage issues, working closely with the central product and engineering teams to prioritize fixes and feature improvements. 
• Collaborate cross-functionally to support data quality improvement, ensure consistent reporting, and enable value-based decision-making at all levels of the health system. 
• Contribute to product documentation, internal playbooks, and user-facing materials to ensure knowledge is codified and shared. 
• Support value use case development by linking product features with impact metrics, surfacing what’s working and where the next opportunity lies. This will require being able to quickly identify value delivery opportunities and execute on them independently and in collaboration with the rest of the team. 

REQUIREMENTS

•  5+ years of experience in health IT, EMR systems, or digital health delivery—ideally in low-resource settings. 

• Strong experience in product or implementation roles where you've supported tool deployment, end-user onboarding, or process rollout. 
• Familiarity with platforms such as DHIS2, OpenMRS, CommCare, or similar. ● Demonstrated ability to synthesize user feedback into actionable product insights. 
• Clear, empathetic facilitation and training skills—you can turn confusion into confidence. 
• Ability to work comfortably in rural or under-resourced environments and maintain tight feedback loops with distributed teams. 
• Must be based in Kenya.

Work Environment 

This is a hybrid role with significant in-person requirements. While some responsibilities can be performed remotely, the role demands regular presence on the ground to build relationships, oversee implementation, and liaise with local stakeholders. At the same time, given the high degree of virtual collaboration with colleagues and partners across multiple geographies, the successful candidate must be highly self-driven, comfortable working in small in-person teams while contributing to larger efforts virtually, and disciplined in using online collaboration tools and video conferencing to maintain constant communication.

About Sand

Sand Technologies is a global Physical AI company using data and AI to make critical industries work better. We partner with governments, cities and enterprises to improve how essential systems operate across healthcare, water, energy, telecommunications and infrastructure.

Our work delivers proven real-world impact. We have built AI systems that help manage London’s water supply, supported telecom network planning across hundreds of cities, and developed digital healthcare platforms serving tens of millions of people across Africa. From intelligent command centers to AI-powered infrastructure platforms, we help organizations sense, analyze and act in complex environments.

Our people are ambitious, curious and relentlessly practical. Our teams work alongside clients in the field, solving hard problems and deploying solutions that last. With colleagues across Africa, Europe, the UK and the US, we operate across the full stack - from research and engineering to deployment and capability building.

Our mission is simple: to harness AI to solve humanity’s most pressing challenges.

About the role

Sand is scaling rapidly across Africa, partnering with Ministries of Health to deploy the Health Operating System (HOS) — a decision-support and execution platform that transforms how health systems sense, analyze, and act on data. The HOS is already operational across multiple countries, with plans to expand to 15 countries by end of 2026, supported by 80+ Forward Deployed Engineers.

As a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), you are the technical spearhead of our client engagement in Kenya. Unlike our roaming FDE roles, this is a permanently embedded position. You will be based full-time within the Ministry of Health in Kenya, becoming a long-term extension of the client's operational team. Your mandate is to build deep institutional relationships, develop comprehensive understanding of the national health system, and deliver sustained value over an extended engagement — not just rapid sprints, but lasting transformation.

This is not staff augmentation. You are an amalgamation of three roles:

1. The Software Engineer — Deep technical acumen to build and deploy production-grade solutions using Sand's product suite
2. The Product Manager — Strategic foresight to understand client problems, influence business objectives, and identify expansion opportunities
3. The Consultant — Client-facing finesse to navigate complex stakeholder relationships, manage scope, and transfer knowledge

Your primary mission is to prove our value fast, delivering functional solutions rapidly using Sand's products, playbooks, and tools, and then maturing those solutions into mission-critical infrastructure that the Ministry depends on daily. Over time, you become the institutional memory of the deployment — the person who understands the data landscape, the stakeholder dynamics, and the operational realities better than anyone.

Who We're Looking For

The Forward Deployed Engineer is a highly ambitious individual. You are someone who is deeply keen on learning — someone who dives in headfirst to solve some of the hardest, most complex problems in global health. You thrive on understanding the technology, understanding the stakeholders, understanding our product suite, and weaving all three together to deliver solutions that change how health systems operate.

This role is not for someone looking for comfort or routine. It is for someone who wants to step outside of their comfort zone, build something they can be proud of, and grow faster than they thought possible. The FDE programme is a career accelerator — an intensive rotation that exposes you to technical depth, strategic thinking, and client leadership in equal measure, all while working on problems that matter for millions of people.

For this permanently embedded role, you also need the maturity and resilience to sustain deep client relationships over months and years — not just weeks. You will become the face of Sand in Malawi, and that requires patience, cultural fluency, and the ability to navigate institutional complexity while maintaining momentum.

Key Responsibilities

Serve as Sand's Permanent Technical Presence in Kenya

• Embed full-time within the Ministry of Health, becoming a trusted member of the client's extended team
• Develop deep, longitudinal understanding of the national health data landscape, institutional dynamics, and operational priorities
• Build and maintain relationships across all levels of the Ministry — from frontline data officers to senior leadership
• Act as the primary technical point of contact for all Sand activities in-country, coordinating with launchers, country directors, and visiting FDE teams

Drive On-Site Value Delivery

• Rapidly unlock, explore, and integrate client data sources (e.g., DHIS2, SCADA systems, network management platforms, operational databases)
• Understand client problems through prototyping and rapid value delivery — deploying POCs and MVPs using Sand's product components and playbooks
• Transition initial solutions into hardened, production-grade systems that the Ministry relies on daily
• Own the long-term health of deployed solutions — monitoring adoption, troubleshooting issues, and iterating based on user feedback
• Deliver and track value generated through deployment of Sand products

Enable Product-Led Growth

• Lead with Sand's existing product suite — know the products by heart and where each solution is most effective for the domain you're deployed in
• Document learnings, client challenges, and successful solutions as reusable patterns for the broader FDE community
• Drive discovery and expansion by uncovering new opportunities on the ground

Build Local Capacity and Sustainability

• Work alongside Ministry teams to co-create solutions and progressively transfer knowledge, ensuring they can operate and maintain systems independently
• Identify, recruit, and mentor local data engineers, scientists, and analysts to build sustainable in-country capacity
• Develop training materials and documentation tailored to the local context, language, and skill level
• Be the continuity that ensures handover isn't a cliff — you bridge the gap between Sand's deployment and the Ministry's long-term ownership

Feed the Platform Feedback Loop

• Channel field learnings back to improve the core product through structured mechanisms (Technical Deep Dives, Solution Swarms, pattern documentation)
• Turn "gravel roads" into "paved superhighways" — document solution patterns so the next FDE can move faster
• Contribute field feedback that influences 30% of the product roadmap

Requirements — Essential

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related technical field
• 5+ years of experience in software engineering, data engineering, data science, system deployment, or technical leadership
• Proficiency in at least one of: Python, SQL/PostgreSQL, JavaScript — with ability to write production-grade code
• Strong problem-solving skills with a bias toward action and rapid prototyping
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills — comfortable presenting to senior government or corporate stakeholders and translating between technical and non-technical audiences
• Experience working with or deploying to government, public sector, or large institutional clients
• Proven ability to lead local technical teams and build capacity
• Willingness to relocate and be permanently based in Kenya for the duration of the engagement (12-24+ months)
• Language: Local language proficiency is a significant advantage

Requirements — Preferred

• Experience with data integration, ETL pipelines, and working with diverse data sources
• Experience in one or more of Sand's focus domains: health informatics/digital health, water utility operations, telecommunications network operations, or energy systems
• Familiarity with domain-specific platforms (e.g., DHIS2, OpenMRS for health; SCADA, GIS for water/energy; OSS/BSS for telecom)
• Experience with BI and dashboarding tools, particularly Apache Superset
• Experience with data transformation tools such as dbt or Airflow
• Comfort working with data dictionaries, reporting requirements, and identifying common data quality issues
• Knowledge of data security, privacy, and interoperability standards (e.g., FHIR for healthcare, GDPR, local data sovereignty requirements)
• Experience operating in resource-constrained environments (unreliable power, limited connectivity)

Work Environment

This is a permanently embedded role. You will work on-site at the Ministry of Health in Kenya 4 days per week, with 1 day for focused remote work, internal collaboration, and knowledge sharing with the broader FDE community. You should expect to be based in Kenya for a minimum of 12-24 months.

You must be self-driven, comfortable operating as Sand's primary technical representative in-country, and disciplined with online collaboration tools to stay connected with the broader Sand team across geographies. Cultural sensitivity, adaptability, and genuine interest in the local context are essential — you are not passing through, you are putting down roots.

About One Acre Fund

Founded in 2006, One Acre Fund equips 5.5 million smallholder farmers to make their farms more productive. Across nine countries that together are home to two-thirds of Africa's farmers, we provide high-quality farm supplies, tree seedlings, accessible credit, modern agronomic training, and a wide range of other agricultural services. On average, this model enables any farmer to increase their income and assets on supported land by more than 35 percent, while permanently improving their resilience. This is all made possible by our team of 9,000+ full-time staff, drawn from diverse backgrounds and professions.

To learn more, please see our Why Work Here blog post.

About the Role

We believe that new technology is critical to building the most effective rural distribution network on the African continent. Today, we reach over 1.6 million farm families and we aspire to serve more than 10 million households in the coming decade. Reporting to the Chief Technology Officer, you will lead the development of our technology, focusing on a mobile tech transformation: providing our field staff with the mobile-based tools to reach more farmers; developing scalable, direct communication channels with farmers to improve customer service; and digitizing and decentralizing data collection tools to speed up data flows and improve efficiency.

We are looking for someone with the technical experience to bring this vision to life; the Director of Engineering will transform our technology into a core organizational strength, working through several development teams that cross our tech stack

Responsibilities

• Own the tech stack and overall architecture and strategic direction: You will guide our team to work toward a common vision of our tech stack, ensuring a robust solution across all of our technical needs whether back-office, client-facing, or business intelligence needs.
• Lead efficient delivery of impactful software products: Provide detailed, hands-on guidance for tech projects based on an intimate understanding of our clients and internal users. Maintain a robust and well-documented architecture, balancing elegant design with practical requirements across our functional needs.
• Leverage Talent into an Agile Center of Excellence: Support a talented team to work at their best - support Agile processes that go beyond scrum ceremonies to drive efficiency and excellence in all areas. Use new technologies to support the velocity and quality of deployments.
• Develop Leaders and Build Team: Manage a leadership team of ~5 senior-level direct reports, and increase career growth and performance across the division.
  • Grow the careers of leaders across the tech division through weekly check-ins and workshops, ongoing development feedback, and regular career reviews.
  • Provide technical mentorship to the team.
  • Lead recruitment efforts to ensure we are building our team with top talent.
  • Set clear performance expectations and support the team to build itself as a center of excellence.

Career Growth and Development

We have a strong culture of constant learning and we invest in developing our people. You’ll have weekly check-ins with your manager, access to mentorship and training programs, and regular feedback on your performance. We hold career reviews every six months, and set aside time to discuss your aspirations and career goals. You’ll have the opportunity to shape a growing organization and build a rewarding long-term career.

Qualifications

Across all roles, these are the general qualifications we look for. For this role specifically, you will have:

• 10+ years of industry experience with 5+ years leading and managing technology teams.
• Experience working with mobile technology solutions.
• Passion for providing hands-on execution guidance for large teams.
• Experience managing Agile software engineering teams successfully deploying solutions to support complex processes.
• Experience translating complex customer needs into high-quality tech solutions that deliver impact.
• Experience with our tech (C# .Net Core, CouchBase, React Native, and Kubernetes) and our tooling landscape (GitHub, JIRA, and Azure DevOps).
• Humility. We are looking for a passionate professional who combines a focus on excellent performance with good humor, patience, and a service mindset interested in joining our family of leaders.
• Language: English is required in all locations.

Preferred Start Date

As soon as possible

Job Location

Nairobi, Kenya; or Kigali, Rwanda (these two locations are preferred but we are open to locations within our program countries)

Benefits

Health insurance, housing, and comprehensive benefits

Eligibility

One Acre Fund can support a work permit for this role. However, nationals of (or those with an extensive professional background and work history in) our countries of operation are preferred.

Application Deadline

9 February 2026

One Acre Fund never asks candidates to pay any money or pay for tests at any stage of the interview process. Official One Acre Fund emails will always arrive from an @oneacrefund.org address. Please report any suspicious communication here (globalhotline@oneacrefund.org), but do not send applications or application materials to this email address.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI), and anti-racism are deeply connected to our organization’s mission and purpose. One Acre Fund aspires to build a culture where all staff feel consistently valued, represented, and connected – so that our team can thrive as professionals, and achieve exceptional impact for the farmers we serve.

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.