Director, Finance and Operations, The AI Access Initiative

About The AI Access Initiative

We're at an inflection point in artificial intelligence - presenting both tremendous potential opportunity and risk for people in developing countries. Low-income countries have an opportunity to leapfrog development milestones with AI-powered innovations. Incubated at Evidence Action, we're launching The AI Access Initiative, an organization focused on scaling AI-enabled 'big bets' to benefit tens or hundreds of millions of people in poverty in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

We will operate at the intersection of global development actors, top AI labs, and leading researchers to drive meaningful access to the benefits of AI for the 3.5 billion people living in poverty globally. We will create "public good," open-sourced playbooks, toolkits, and insights that define how to design and launch tractable and impactful AI-enabled programs.

This work builds on Evidence Action's track record reaching 530M+ people with cost-effective, evidence-based programs across 9 countries in Africa and Asia, with a focus on last-mile delivery. Our approach is to scale AI-enabled big bets to benefit tens or hundreds of millions, focusing on delivering near-term, tractable direct impact and supporting governments to establish an enabling environment for the 'AI for Good' ecosystem.

Role

We are seeking a high-ownership and rigorous finance and operations leader to help architect the institutional backbone of a rapidly scaling AI-focused global development organization. This founding role will partner closely with the CEO and leadership team on financial strategy, organizational scaling, and operational infrastructure.

• Establish high-caliber financial systems and reporting
• Run analyses to drive strategic organizational decisions
• Drive organizational spinout and setup
• Design, procure, and oversee a lean, high-performing finance and compliance ecosystem
• Enable our expansion
• Drive high-leverage resource allocation
• Build and own compliance infrastructure
• Support governance and board operations
• Manage legal affairs & contracting

Requirements

• 8+ years in finance, strategic operations, consulting, nonprofit leadership, startup operations, or related fields, including significant experience managing organizational finance and budgeting
• Experience sourcing and managing outside counsel, accounting firms, auditors, insurance brokers, and payroll providers — you know how to get the most out of external partners
• Comfort operating at both strategic and operational levels: you can set policy and also handle the detail work required to ensure nothing slips
• Strong written communication skills; able to translate complex financial and legal concepts clearly for board members, program staff, and funders
• CPA, JD, or equivalent professional credential strongly preferred; nonprofit-specific training or certification (e.g., CGAP, CNAP) a plus
• Experience with nonprofit finance, compliance, and 501(c)(3) environments strongly preferred: e.g., Form 990, single audit, charitable solicitation registration, IRS rebuttable presumption, and state-level tax exemptions

Traits

• High ownership mindset: you hold yourself accountable for outcomes, not just tasks, and you proactively surface and resolve problems before they escalate
• Comfortable with ambiguity and early-stage environments; you can build structure from scratch without waiting to be told exactly how
• Collaborative and low-ego; you work well with a small, fast-moving leadership team and can flex between big-picture strategy and detailed execution
• Mission-aligned: you are motivated by the opportunity to ensure that the legal and financial infrastructure of this organization is a platform for impact, not a bottleneck