AI and Data Platforms Lead (1 year contract)

Background
The African Climate Foundation (ACF) is the first and only African-led climate change re-granting organisation on the continent. Through a combination of grant making, fellowships, transformational research, technical assistance, coalition building and advocacy the ACF seeks to support interventions at the nexus of climate change, and development that have the greatest potential to deliver long-term socio-economic transformation and inclusive development. ACF also provides Fiscal Hosting (also called Fiscal Sponsorship) services to support emerging and mission aligned organisations and initiatives

All African countries should have the capacities, resources, and tools to shape their own energy transitions. African Energy Futures (AEF), housed within the African Climate Foundation, will fund African institutions to build energy systems knowledge and tools that meet African needs; train the rising generation of African energy system analysts; strengthen local energy policy and decision-making; and ensure Africa plays a greater role in shaping energy research, policy, and investment.

Purpose

The African Climate Foundation (ACF) and African Energy Futures (AEF) are establishing a shared Strategic Data & Intelligence Unit to improve how African energy and development data are gathered, governed, analysed, visualised and used.

The unit will build and maintain an online data visualisation platform, develop compelling evidence-based narratives that can shift public and policy understanding, and provide strategic analytical services to grant-making and regranting organisations. It will work closely with Ember during the platform’s initial development, while progressively building independent African capability in data infrastructure, analysis and storytelling.

The initial four-person team is intentionally multidisciplinary. It combines strategic intelligence and philanthropy engagement, applied artificial intelligence and platform development, rigorous data science and governance, and sustained hands-on data acquisition and cleaning.

Scope of the role

Reporting to the Project Director, the AI & Data Platforms Lead will design and deliver the digital and AI-enabled capabilities of the unit. The role combines product thinking, data engineering, applied AI and practical software development. You will work with Ember and other partners to develop the online data storage and visualisation platform, create efficient data workflows, and identify responsible AI applications that improve research, grant-making, communications and knowledge management across ACF and AEF. This is an applied role: the successful candidate must be able to move from experimentation to reliable tools that colleagues can use.

Responsibilities include but not limited to:

Platform and product development

• Lead the technical design, development and iterative improvement of the online data platform and visualisation tools.
• Translate user needs into a prioritised product roadmap, prototypes, specifications and tested releases.
• Work with Ember to adapt or integrate relevant platform components while building a pathway to independent ACF-AEF capability.
• Design for accessibility, low-bandwidth use, maintainability, multilingual expansion and responsible open access where appropriate.
• Implement analytics, usage monitoring and user-feedback processes to improve product relevance.

Data engineering and architecture

• Design scalable data ingestion, transformation, storage, metadata, versioning and publishing pipelines.
• Integrate structured and unstructured data from public, partner and internal sources using APIs, automated workflows and documented manual processes.
• Collaborate with the Junior Data Scientist to implement validation, provenance, reproducibility, access control and release standards.
• Maintain technical documentation, source-code repositories, testing processes, backups and business-continuity arrangements.

Applied AI and automation

• Identify, prototype and deploy useful AI applications for data discovery, extraction, classification, cleaning, summarisation, visualisation, research and internal knowledge management.
• Develop retrieval, search and assisted-analysis tools that connect users to trusted ACF-AEF data and evidence.
• Evaluate build-versus-buy choices and select appropriate open-source or commercial tools.
• Create human-in-the-loop evaluation processes to manage hallucination, bias, confidentiality, intellectual-property and security risks.
• Monitor relevant AI developments and provide practical briefings, demonstrations and guidance to ACF and AEF teams.
• User enablement and collaboration
• Work closely with analysts, programme teams, communications colleagues and external users to understand workflows and adoption barriers.
• Provide training, templates and technical support that help colleagues use AI and data tools safely and effectively.
• Manage technical vendors and contributors where necessary and conduct appropriate code and security reviews.

Requirements include but are not limited to:

• Degree or equivalent practical experience in computer science, data engineering, information systems, software engineering, computational science or a related field.
• At least 6 years of relevant experience in software, data-platform, data-engineering or applied-AI roles, including delivery of user-facing tools.
• Strong proficiency in Python and SQL, experience with APIs and databases, and familiarity with modern web-based data visualisation approaches.
• Practical experience with cloud infrastructure, deployment, version control, testing and secure data workflows.
• Hands-on experience applying large language models or machine-learning tools to real organisational use cases.
• Ability to explain technical choices, risks and trade-offs clearly to non-technical colleagues.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.

Desirable Experience

• Experience with open-data platforms, geospatial data, energy data, development indicators or public-interest technology.
• Knowledge of data protection, cybersecurity, AI governance and model evaluation in nonprofit or research environments.
• Experience supporting organisations operating across multiple African countries and variable digital infrastructure.

Start date: Position available immediately.

Location: ACF’s operational hub is in Cape Town, South Africa. Remote working will be considered for candidates based on the African continent.

Contract duration: 12 months (renewable based on mutual agreement and project success).
Closing date: 4 October 2026.

For further information about the ACF, visit www.africanclimatefoundation.org

For further information about the AEF, visit www.africanenergyfutures.org

Should you not hear back from us by 30 November 2026, please consider your application to be unsuccessful.

The ACF strives to be an equitable organisation with a team which reflects the diversity of Africa. 

In compliance with the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), The ACF assures all applicants that any personal information provided during the recruitment process will be treated with the utmost confidentiality and used solely for recruitment purposes. Your privacy and data security are of paramount importance to us. By applying for this position, you consent to the collection, processing, and storage of your personal information for recruitment-related activities only. The ACF is committed to safeguarding your privacy and maintaining the trust you place in us.