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 Zambia.

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 Zambia.

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 Zambia. Unlike our roaming FDE roles, this is a permanently embedded position. You will be based full-time within the Ministry of Health in Zambia, 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 Zambia

• 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 Zambia 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 Zambia 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 Zambia 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.

LEAP Program Description

Global Solutions Ventures (GSV) – a joint-venture partnership between ZemiTek, LLC and Dexis Consulting Group – is implementing the Long-term Exceptional Technical Assistance Project (LEAP Global), a mechanism originally used by USAID to battle against infectious diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, neglected tropical diseases, and pandemic influenza. As of July 1, 2025, LEAP Global transitioned to the U.S. Department of State (DOS). This initiative aims to address the complex human resource challenges faced by national infectious disease programs in the USA-supported countries.

The intervention of this project is to hire and embed technical expert advisors and subject matter experts within government entities. By directly embedding the technical expertise within the national programs, LEAP provides long-term, sustainable lifesaving support to empower host governments to lead and manage key aspects of their infectious disease portfolios and improve coordination between the U.S. Government and the host country.

About the Position

The Finance Advisor will provide targeted HIV-specific technical support to strengthen program implementation, financial compliance, and reporting accuracy across all HIV-related activities, in alignment with the Presidential Executive Order (EO) directives on life-saving humanitarian assistance (LHA). This support will include guiding the National HIV/AIDS/STI/TB Council (NAC) on budget alignment with HIV program priorities and enhancing the capacity of implementing teams to plan, track, and report HIV expenditures effectively. The aim is to improve the quality, efficiency, and accountability of HIV program financing while supporting timely and accurate financial documentation. The Finance Advisor will report to the Team Leader and the NAC-appointed finance/resource tracking focal person. Outputs will be reviewed by NAC and relevant counterparts as designated. The Finance Advisor will report to the U.S. Department of State on monthly basis, as detailed in the “Reporting” section. The Advisor will support the NAC in carrying out life-saving humanitarian assistance (LHA) service delivery in full alignment with the new Presidential Executive Order (EO) directives. 

Responsibilities

To provide costing, resource mapping, and financing analysis inputs that strengthen the feasibility and sustainability of the NAC three-year strategic projection. The role will strengthen the National AIDS Strategic Framework (NASF)-aligned results framework and ensure the three-year strategic projection is supported by a clear, measurable, and feasible indicator and target package aligned with national data systems and Global Fund performance requirements.

Specific responsibilities and tasks in relation to the Grant Cycle 8 Global Fund application:

• Review existing costing, expenditure, resource tracking and financing analyses relevant to the NASF 2023-2027 and the planned priorities.
• Develop a high-level costing estimate for the three-year strategic projection, including key assumptions, unit costs where available, and linkages to prioritized interventions.
• Conduct resource mapping and financing gap analysis for the next three years (domestic resources, partner resources and anticipated Global Fund contributions), as feasible within available data.
• Support articulation of the financing and sustainability narrative for domestic resource mobilization in line with sustainability road map including considerations and financial risk mitigation.
• Propose a practical costing and resource summary table (and supporting notes) that can be adapted into the grant budget narrative and implementation arrangements.
• Support consultations and validation meetings, including documenting finance-related feedback and incorporating it into final deliverables.

Role-specific deliverables in relation to the Grant Cycle 8 Global Fund application:

• Costing and resource mapping summary for the three-year projection (with assumptions and limitations clearly stated).
• Financing gap analysis and suggested options to address key gaps (brief narrative note).
• Costing/resource tables suitable for inclusion in the strategic projection.
• Necessary inputs for a complete GC8 Application (to be determined)

REPORTING

The Senior Advisor/Team Lead will submit monthly reports to the U.S. Department of State submitted by the 5th day of the following month. Reporting to and receiving technical guidance from the NAC Director General (DG) or his designate, the Advisor will work closely with the U.S. Department of State (DoS)/Zambia and LEAP Global teams. Based at the NAC Secretariat in Lusaka, the Advisor will coordinate site visits and any extended off-site work with the NAC DG or designate and DoS/Zambia. Quarterly meetings will be held with DoS/Zambia to review progress and priorities.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in financial management or accounting, management or business administration is required.
• Postgraduate qualification in health economics, public finance, accounting/finance, public health, development economics, or a related field.
• At least 5 years of experience in health programme costing, budgeting, financing analysis, and/or resource mapping, preferably in HIV/TB programmes.
• Demonstrated experience with donor-funded programme budgeting.
• Strong analytical skills, including the ability to work with incomplete data and transparently document assumptions.
• Excellent writing skills and ability to communicate technical costing information to non-technical audiences.
• Experience with national health financing reforms, domestic resource mobilization, and sustainability planning.
• Familiarity with Zambia’s public financial management context and health financing landscape (advantage).
• Advanced Excel-based costing and modelling skills.
• Proven team leadership and mentorship skills.
• Demonstrated experience aligning work to results and performance frameworks.
• Strong facilitation and stakeholder engagement skills, including working with government, local organizations, and community representatives.
• Excellent analytical, writing, and synthesis skills, with demonstrated ability to deliver high-quality outputs under tight timelines.
• Demonstrated technical leadership, programme management, and problem-solving skills.
• At least five years of experience with, or strong knowledge of, Global Fund operating procedures and financial management processes.
• Understanding of USG rules and regulations preferred.
• Ability to work effectively with a broad range of Ministry of Health, NAC, and USG personnel and partners.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively to achieve consensus on policy, programme, and administrative matters.
• Strong communication skills for both health and non-health audiences.
• Proven ability to communicate clearly and concisely in English, both orally and in writing.
• Excellent verbal communication skills, tact, and diplomacy to build sustainable working relationships with public and private organizations.
• Excellent written communication skills for preparing reports, documentation, and briefing papers.
• Strong computer skills for implementing, analyzing, monitoring, and managing activity goals, inputs, outcomes, and achievements.
• Experience in teaching, training, and capacity building.
• Experience working with key stakeholders in HIV/TB/STI programming, preferably national stakeholders and international donors.
• Work authorization in Zambia is required.