Job Opening-Program Manager, Foundational AI- Remote

Job title: Program Manager, Foundational AI

Reporting to: Programs Lead

Location: Africa, remote, with continental and global travel as required

Contract Type: Full time

Compensation: USD 62,400 per annum / USD 5,200 per month (inclusive of applicable

taxes, and subject to statutory deductions)

Benefits: Remote working set-up support

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and we encourage early submissions

About Masakhane

Masakhane is a pan-African initiative aimed at tackling the under-representation of African languages in natural language processing (NLP) and AI. Our mission is to bring together researchers, technologists, linguists, and community members from across the continent to collaborate on AI that is inclusive and representative of Africa’s linguistic diversity. By working collectively, we are democratizing access to cutting-edge AI research and contributing to the global growth of African NLP.

About Masakhane African Languages Hub

The Masakhane African Languages Hub (“the Hub”) is a new initiative to address the critical underrepresentation and misrepresentation of African languages in artificial intelligence (AI). Anchored by the Masakhane Research Foundation (MRF), the Hub will develop community-centered open-source datasets, models, and use cases to catalyze innovation in sectors such as healthcare, education, and agriculture. With a vision to unlock AI’s benefits for over 1 billion Africans, the Hub fosters community-driven approaches and long-term, sustainable partnerships across the African NLP ecosystem.

Our goal is to empower one billion Africans by 2029 with locally relevant AI tools and resources, unlocking opportunities for economic development, local innovation, and the preservation of Africa’s linguistic heritage.

Position Overview

The Program Manager – Foundational AI leads the delivery and strategic alignment of a portfolio

of foundational AI investments, including datasets, speech technologies, benchmarking, model development, and related AI research infrastructure. The role ensures that these investments are technically sound, well coordinated, and aligned with the Hub’s broader strategic objectives.

Operating at the intersection of programme management and technical delivery, the role provides strategic oversight of assigned sub-awards and builds strong partnerships with technical awardees and research teams. It facilitates cohort-based approaches to delivery and ensures projects produce scientifically rigorous, high-quality outputs that advance the Hub’s broader mission of strengthening African language AI.

While the role is not intended for a primary NLP researcher, the successful candidate must have sufficient technical fluency to understand, assess, challenge, and guide a highly technical research portfolio.

Key Responsibilities

1. Portfolio Leadership and Technical Alignment

• Lead a portfolio of foundational AI investments, taking full ownership of project delivery

against agreed objectives, milestones, technical quality standards, and budgets.

• Maintain 360-degree visibility over portfolio performance (both technical and

operational), proactively identifying opportunities, mitigating risks, and driving strategic

alignment.

• Monitor and audit technical development across datasets, benchmarking, and model

training to ensure compliance with the Hub’s baseline technical standards.

2. Awardee Partnership and Technical Support

• Serve as the primary technical and programmatic liaison for assigned sub-awardees,

cultivating trusted partnerships with research and data science teams to guide projects

through the entire lifecycle.

• Proactively evaluate project health and unblock technical bottlenecks in critical areas

including data annotation, model training, and evaluation through active collaboration

with domain experts.

• Coordinate and deploy targeted technical assistance, empowering partners to overcome implementation barriers and consistently deliver high-performance, high-quality AI outputs.

3. Cohort Management and Quality Assurance

• Pioneer cohort-based management frameworks across data collection and foundational

AI initiatives, driving peer learning, cross-project problem-solving, and collaborative technical delivery.

• Architect and continuously refine standardized tools, templates, and quality assurance frameworks to ensure seamless interoperability, absolute consistency, and rigorous

scientific standards across the portfolio.

4. Portfolio Delivery and Risk Management

• Audit implementation progress and rigorously verify technical milestones, proactively

mitigating portfolio risks and orchestrating rapid interventions to overcome emerging

challenges.

• Drive cross-functional collaboration with awardees, consultants, and internal teams to resolve complex operational and technical dependencies such as compute bottlenecks and data validation hurdles ensuring uninterrupted project velocity.

5. Stakeholder Engagement and Communications

• Build and maintain effective relationships with awardees, academic researchers, AI engineers researchers, consultants, funders, and ecosystem partners.

• Prepare high-quality portfolio reports, presentations, and briefings that communicate progress, challenges, lessons learned, and emerging opportunities.

6. Learning and Continuous Improvement

• Partner closely with the MEL & Learning Officer to synthesize evidence, capture actionable lessons learned, and drive portfolio-wide adaptive management and strategic iteration.

• Cultivate a vibrant knowledge-sharing ecosystem across the cohort, championing peer collaboration, resource exchange, and continuous technical improvement among awardees.

7. Strategic and Portfolio Evolution

• Steer the strategic evolution of the Hub’s foundational AI roadmap, injecting deep

technical and programmatic insights to shape long-term research directions and

investment priorities.

• Champion the Hub’s mission as a key representative and thought leader at international

workshops, conferences, and high-level engagements, driving global advocacy for African

language AI and foundational technologies.

Requirements

Fluency in English, as well as one or more African Languages would be considered a strong asset.

Academic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Computational

Linguistics, Information Systems, or a related technical/scientific field,

• Master’s Degree (M.Sc.) in any of the fields mentioned above is preferred

Key Competencies

• Proven ability to manage a diverse portfolio of projects, balancing strategic priorities,operational delivery, risks, budgets, and stakeholder expectations.

• Proven Ability to build trusted relationships with awardees, researchers, consultants, funders, and ecosystem partners while working collaboratively across cultures and disciplines.

• Strong organisational skills with the ability to coordinate multiple concurrent projects, manage competing priorities, and ensure high-quality implementation.

• Ability to quickly understand AI, NLP, and digital innovation concepts and work effectively with technical experts, even without being the primary technical specialist.

• Ability to facilitate peer learning, coordinate collaborative approaches, and build communities of practice across multiple awardees and projects.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to prepare reports, facilitate meetings, and communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences.

• Ability to identify implementation challenges early, analyse options, exercise sound judgement, and recommend practical solutions.

• Ability to work effectively across programmes and functions, collaborating closely with Finance, Grants, Partnerships & Community, Research, and MEL colleagues.

Values & Mindset

• Deeply aligned with Masakhane’s mission to advance African languages and inclusion in AI.

• A strategic and systems-minded thinker who translates vision into effective operations.
• Highly organized, proactive, and self-directed, thriving in remote and distributed environments.

• Transparent, accountable, and process-oriented, with a commitment to excellence and integrity.

• Collaborative and culturally attuned, able to work effectively across diverse African contexts.

Why Join Us

• Play a central leadership role in operationalizing one of Africa’s most visible AI research initiatives.

• Shape the administrative foundations of a growing pan-African research entity.
• Work alongside leading researchers and technologists across the continent.
• Contribute to high-impact work that advances linguistic equity and inclusive AI.
• Grow with an organization entering its next phase of institutional maturity.

Reporting Line

This position reports to the Programs Lead at the Masakhane African Languages Hub.

Application Process

Please submit your CV and a brief cover letter outlining your experience in research

administration or program management, and how you would contribute to strengthening

Masakhane’s operational systems.

Applications should be submitted via the following link