Head of AI – Program Technology Engineering

International Rescue Committee; New York (NY); On-site; USD 185,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Paid time off

403(b) retirement savings plans

Job summary

The International Rescue Committee is looking for a Senior Technical Leader to drive AI initiatives that provide humanitarian impact. In this role, you will oversee a team of specialized engineers in developing AI-powered solutions aimed at humanitarian needs, ensuring efficient deployment in challenging environments.

With 7-10 years of relevant experience, you will shape technical strategies and foster strong partnerships within IRC. The position offers a hybrid work environment and competitive compensation.

Qualifications

• 7-10+ years of experience in software engineering or technical product development.
• Strong understanding of AI systems, especially in humanitarian contexts.
• Ability to lead and mentor engineering teams effectively.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of engineers to deliver AI-powered solutions.
• Establish technical roadmap and engineering quality standards.
• Engage with program leaders to align AI strategies with organization priorities.

Skills

AI framework development

Full-stack development

Cloud architecture

Team leadership

Data security practices

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Python

JavaScript/TypeScript

Azure

Job description

Background

Build the AI systems that will reach hundreds of millions of people in the world’s hardest places. Nearly 240 million people will need humanitarian aid in 2026, and global funding has fallen by more than half. Closing that gap demands a different kind of humanitarian organization — one that uses AI to multiply what frontline workers can do, reaches people before crises hit, and brings diagnostic and decision-support tools to places the technology industry has historically ignored. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is already one of the most ambitious AI-deploying humanitarian organizations in the world. We are working on dozens of AI initiatives across 30+ countries: agentic systems serving millions of displaced people through Signpost; anticipatory action models that deliver aid in advance of a disaster; pocket-sized AI diagnostics and AI teaching mentors.

Job Overview

This is a senior technical leadership role for someone who wants to build at the frontier of applied AI in service of humanitarian impact. You will lead a team of engineers and AI specialists designing and shipping AI-powered, program-facing solutions — primarily agentic systems, predictive analytics, and AI diagnostics deployed in low-resource and high-stakes settings. You will own three things: Technical strategy and direction for IRC’s program-facing AI portfolio; A high-performing engineering team; Deep partnership with program leaders and strategic partners.

Major Responsibilities

• AI Strategic Leadership – Translate IRC’s AI strategy and program priorities into a prioritized technical roadmap, in close partnership with program leaders, the SVP for Research, Innovation, AI, and People & Culture, and the T4P demand pipeline.
• Stay at the edge of AI/ML advances — particularly in agentic systems, multimodal models, and edge/on-device inference — and bring promising approaches to IRC’s programs.
• Serve as a core member of IRC’s AI leadership, helping shape organizational direction alongside the SVP for Research, Innovation, AI, and People & Culture and other senior leaders.
• Champion responsible, human-centered AI deployment in some of the most sensitive humanitarian contexts in the world, with the safety standards those contexts demand.
• Represent IRC in technical discussions with partners, peer organizations, donors, and the broader humanitarian and AI sectors.
• Team Leadership and Management – Manage and develop a team of engineers, applied AI engineers, and QA specialists; hire well, raise the bar, and build a culture that strong technical people want to be part of.
• Establish engineering quality standards, development practices, and documentation protocols.
• Maintain a prioritized backlog of program innovations and manage team capacity against demand.
• Mature the team’s AI development and DevOps practices and grow stakeholder buy-in across the organization.
• Identify opportunities to secure budget resources in support of innovation priorities.
• Cross‑functional Partnership – Act as a genuine thought partner to program leaders, bring AI fluency to their problems, and collaborate on co‑designing solutions that actually work in the field.
• Partner with the Enterprise Applications team to ensure smooth handoffs of proven innovations for enterprise‑wide scale‑up.
• Coordinate with the Enterprise Applications DevOps team on integration touchpoints, infrastructure dependencies, and shared engineering standards.
• Flagship AI Partnerships – Serve as the technical lead on IRC’s strategic partnerships with frontier AI organizations, helping turn early relationships into long‑term, high‑leverage collaborations.
• Identify where partnership access (compute, frontier models, technical expertise) can unlock outsized program impact.
• Solution Design and Engineering – Lead the design and development of KI‑driven and program‑specific technology solutions, owning the full development lifecycle from requirements through handoff.
• DevOps and Engineering Operations – Oversee deployment pipelines, CI/CD automation, infrastructure‑as‑code, and QA processes to ensure efficient and reliable software delivery; track and optimize cloud and model‑inference costs.
• Maintain technical and policy documentation for all assets under the team’s management.

Key Working Relationships

• Position reports to: Chief Information Officer, working in close partnership with the SVP for Research, Innovation, AI, and People & Culture.
• Directly supervises: Engineers, applied AI engineers, ML specialists, and QA staff on the T4P Development team.
• Other internal contacts: Program leaders across CRRD, RAI, R&I, and Signpost; the Enterprise Applications and DevOps teams; the AI governance and policy team; AI@Scale (I@S) leadership; IT leadership across regions and HQ.
• External contacts: Strategic partners with leading AI organizations; technology vendors; AI sector peers; NGO tech community; major foundation funders.

Job Requirements

• AI and engineering depth – Hands‑on experience building and shipping production AI systems (agentic frameworks, LLM applications, RAG systems, computer vision, or applied ML pipelines).
• Solid full‑stack foundation (Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, modern frameworks) with technical credibility.
• Experience with cloud architecture (Azure preferred; AWS/GCP transferable), AI services, DevOps pipelines, and cost‑effective scaling.
• Working knowledge of data security and privacy practices for sensitive or personally identifiable information.
• 7‑10+ years in software engineering or technical product development, with 3+ years leading engineers as a manager or tech lead.
• Track record of building or growing strong engineering teams – hiring, raising the bar, and creating a culture people want to be part of.
• Ability to engage non‑technical leaders as a peer: explaining trade‑offs clearly, listening well, and translating between worlds.
• Comfort operating across global teams, time zones, and contexts very different from your own.
• Genuinely motivated by humanitarian impact; leads with humility; respects people closest to the problem.
• Technically curious and forward‑looking – reads, experiments, and brings new ideas to the team.

Nice to Have

• Experience deploying AI in low‑resource, low‑bandwidth, or offline contexts.
• Prior work with humanitarian, development, or global health organizations.
• French or Arabic language skills.

Working Environment

Standard office work environment; hybrid/remote available. Some travel may be required for partner meetings, field engagement, and sector conferences.

Compensation

US Pay Rate: 185,000‑200,000 USD; UK Pay Rate: 87,000‑100,000 GBP. Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget. Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements.

Benefits

• 10 sick days; 10 US holidays; 20‑25 paid time off days depending on role and tenure.
• Medical insurance starting at $163 per month; dental starting at $6.50 per month; vision starting at $5 per month.
• FSA for healthcare and commuter costs.
• 403(b) retirement savings plans with immediate matching.
• Disability & life insurance.
• Employee Assistance Program available to staff and families.

Professional Standards

All International Rescue Committee workers must adhere to the core values and principles outlined in IRC Way – Standards for Professional Conduct. Our Standards are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Safeguarding, Conflicts of Interest, Fiscal Integrity, and Reporting Wrongdoing and Protection from Retaliation.

Equal Opportunity Employer

IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.