About Sand

Sand Technologies is a fast-growing enterprise AI company that solves real-world problems for large blue-chip companies and governments worldwide.

We’re pioneers of meaningful AI: our solutions go far beyond chatbots. We are using data and AI to solve the world’s biggest issues in telecommunications, sustainable water management, energy, healthcare, climate change, smart cities, and other areas that have a real impact on the world. For example, our AI systems help to manage the water supply for the entire city of London. We created the AI algorithms that enabled the 7th largest telecommunications company in the world to plan its network in 300 cities in record time. And we built a digital healthcare system that enables 30m people in a country to get world-class healthcare despite a shortage of doctors.

We’ve grown our revenues by over 500% in the last 12 months while winning prestigious scientific and industry awards for our cutting-edge technology. Our success is supported by about 300 engineers and scientists working across Africa, Europe, the UK, and the US. 

About the role

Sand is expanding across Africa and beyond, partnering with governments and public sector officials to deliver transformative AI and data solutions. Our flagship healthcare initiative - the Health Operating System (HOS) - is already live. 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 data products, and clinical systems to drive better outcomes - from maternal health to chronic disease management - are 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.

Now, we are scaling rapidly. By the end of 2025, our HOS will be operational in 10 countries, and by 2026, we plan to expand even further across the continent. 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 an in-country Forward Deployed Engineer, you will be responsible for the end-to-end deployment, integration, and performance of Sand’s technology systems across healthcare, water, energy, or telecommunications. This includes ensuring seamless data capture, exchange, and governance between government systems and Sand’s platforms.

This role is both strategic and hands-on - requiring a strong technical foundation, excellent problem-solving skills, and the ability to translate system performance into real-world healthcare impact. Beyond deployment, you will play a key role in engaging with ministries and IT teams to ensure access to systems, alignment on data-sharing agreements, and adherence to national data standards. Your understanding of data management processes - from data capture workflows to interoperability and quality assurance - will be crucial to enabling reliable reporting, analytics, and decision-making at national scale.

Specific Responsibilities

• System Deployment: Hands-on technical implementation and rollout of Sand’s solutions in-country.
• Integration Management: Ensure interoperability with existing systems and technologies.
• Technical Leadership: Build and mentor local technical teams to manage and maintain Sand’s platforms.
• Data Partnership Facilitation: Act as the primary technical counterpart to secure system access, enable data capture and sharing, and establish sustainable governance frameworks.
• Data Awareness: Flag any anomalies or risks to the central engineering and data teams for resolution
• Quality Assurance: Monitor and troubleshoot technical issues, ensuring uptime and reliability.
• Collaboration: Work closely with the engagement, product, solutions and engineering teams and government counterparts to align technical requirements with implementation needs.

Requirements - Essential

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related technical field.
• 5+ years’ experience in system deployment, IT project management, or technical leadership.
• Strong knowledge of system integration, networking, and troubleshooting.
• Awareness of data management principles - able to identify data capture issues, understand data flows, and escalate concerns appropriately.
• Experience engaging with ministries or public-sector teams to coordinate system access, data-sharing agreements, and integration requirements.
• Proven experience leading local technical teams and capacity-building efforts.
• Excellent problem-solving, communication, and documentation skills.
• Language: Fluent in French with professional working ability in English (for French-speaking countries).

Requirements - Additional

• Experience in health informatics or digital health projects.
• Familiarity with open-source health platforms (e.g., DHIS2, OpenMRS).
• Comfort working with data dictionaries, reporting requirements, and identifying common data quality issues during deployment.
• Knowledge of data security, privacy, and interoperability standards in healthcare.
• Advanced degree or certifications in technical leadership or systems engineering.

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 Imagine Worldwide

All children have immense potential, but hundreds of millions don’t have access to the learning they need. Imagine Worldwide believes that every child should be empowered with the basic right to literacy and numeracy. We provide an innovative education technology solution and implementation model to the global literacy/numeracy learning crisis using the onebillion application and various toolkits and systems to support implementation. Our model is massively scalable, evidence-based, and can deliver foundational learning to millions of the most marginalized children.

Imagine Worldwide partners with governments, organizations, and communities to provide child-directed, tablet-based learning that is accessible, effective, and affordable. We are incorporated in California (United States) as a nonprofit organization, but operate in Sub-Saharan Africa through locally-registered entities in Malawi, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. Learn more on our website.

About the Role

The Senior Director of Delivery is the second most senior leadership role in the organization, reporting directly to the Executive Director and serving as a key driver of Imagine Worldwide Sierra Leone’s strategy and impact. This position plays a central role in advancing Imagine’s mission to design, deliver, and scale high-quality tablet-based learning solutions that enable children across Sierra Leone to achieve foundational literacy and numeracy at national scale.

This role carries significant organizational value and influence. The Senior Director of Delivery is responsible for translating strategy into execution by ensuring that programs, technology, logistics, data systems, and partner engagement are aligned and operating effectively. The position provides executive-level oversight to ensure that implementation plans move beyond design into measurable, real-world impact in schools and communities.

Working across both global and in-country teams, the Senior Director of Delivery drives alignment, accountability, prioritization, and cross-functional problem-solving. The role ensures that learning programs launch successfully, operate reliably, and continuously improve through strong systems, data-driven decision-making, and collaborative leadership. As a senior organizational leader, the Senior Director of Delivery also contributes to shaping institutional culture, strengthening operational excellence, and guiding teams through periods of growth and scale.

The successful candidate will join a highly committed and collaborative leadership team dedicated to empowering every child, everywhere to reach their full potential. This position requires a strategic thinker with strong execution skills, the ability to lead across diverse teams and stakeholders, and a passion for delivering large-scale education transformation in Sierra Leone.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Delivery Leadership

• Provide leadership and accountability for coordinated delivery across Programs, MEAL, Logistics, and Technical Services, ensuring work is coordinated to achieve program outcomes and operational reliability
• Serve as the country's primary integrator for delivery execution, ensuring leadership receives one coherent view of delivery progress, constraints, and decision needs.
• Shape and translate the country scale plan into clear delivery outcomes (e.g., launch readiness, device uptime, training completion, data completeness, time-on-task enablement) and hold delivery leaders accountable.
• Ensure coordination with global functions as needed and alignment with Imagine’s key performance areas and indicators.
• Contribute to discussions, policy notes, etc., as needed, on national scale and government transition.
• Represent Imagine Worldwide Sierra Leone across any external delivery platforms and/or as designated by the Executive Director.

Delivery Planning 

• Develop and own a single integrated delivery plan that synchronizes all delivery workstreams (launch preparation and recurring operations), with clear milestones, dependencies, resourcing assumptions, and accountable owners.
• Establish and lead a delivery operating rhythm (planning, execution reviews, performance reviews, and retrospectives) that drives disciplined execution, early risk detection, and timely decision-making.
• Balance competing priorities across delivery functions and make unified prioritization calls grounded in mission outcomes, data, capacity constraints, and delivery risk.
• Define and monitor delivery KPIs; track performance trends via a delivery performance dashboard; and drive corrective actions through structured data reviews and cross-functional problem-solving.
• Own delivery risk management and escalation by maintaining a delivery risks and issues register, proactively identifying material risks, defining mitigation plans with clear owners and timelines, and ensuring risks are escalated early through agreed pathways.
• Lead incident response for material delivery disruptions (e.g., rollout delays, uptime failures, safety/security incidents impacting learning, partner underperformance) by coordinating rapid triage, containment, root-cause analysis, and prevention of recurrence.
• Ensure transparent progress and governance reporting, including decision logs, escalation pathways, and measurement systems that support delivery improvement through data quality assurance and actionable insights.

Operational Excellence

• Build and maintain standardized training systems, SOPs, and capacity-building programs that ensure consistent, high-quality delivery at scale. Oversee delivery-critical partner performance (e.g., ISPs and service providers), ensuring clear expectations, coordinated work, and timely issue resolution.
• Codify best practices and policies that reduce institutional knowledge gaps and increase delivery resilience.
• Partner with the ED as a senior leader, providing integrated delivery oversight and escalating only the highest-priority issues requiring ED intervention. Contribute to the country leadership team by role-modeling Imagine values, driving organizational health, and leading through ambiguity and change.

People Management

• Line manage the delivery function leads (Directors of Program, Director Technical Services, Logistics Manager, and MEAL Manager). 
• Lead and manage staff reporting to them, setting clear expectations, priorities, and performance standards.
• Develop leadership capacity through coaching, feedback, performance management, and succession planning to support scale and sustainability.

Requirements

The successful candidate will possess the following competencies, experiences, and qualities:

Education and Work Experience

Bachelor's degree or higher with a minimum of 10 years of progressive experience in operations leadership, program delivery, or a similar senior role, including at least 5 years managing teams. Management consulting experience is a plus. 

Role-Specific Skills Required

• Significant experience in managing successful program scaling.  
• Proven track record in managing scale operations in complex environments working with multiple partners 
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English
• Strong ability to analyze and interpret data to inform decisions, coupled with proven project management skills to plan, execute, and deliver projects effectively.
• Strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills and ability to proactively manage and resolve conflicts
• Excellent understanding of budgets, financial processesR, reporting requirements, and compliance regulations within donor-funded grants and contracts
• Ability to work effectively in multicultural environments and teams 
• Strong organizational skills, superior attention to detail, ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines
• Compensation & Benefits

Location

This position is open to candidates based anywhere on the African continent who are willing to relocate. Employment will be on in-country terms (salary scale and benefits aligned with the host country). Imagine Worldwide will support work permit sponsorship and provide relocation assistance where required.

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis

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Imagine Worldwide is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.