Job Description

The Foundation

We are the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. We believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve.We provide an exceptional benefits package to employees and their families which include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with no premiums, generous paid time off, paid family leave, foundation-paid retirement contribution, regional holidays, and opportunities to engage in several employee communities. As a workplace, we’re committed to creating an environment for you to thrive both personally and professionally.

The Team

The India Country Office (ICO) plays a pivotal role in advancing the Foundation’s mission through strategic engagement with government, partners, and stakeholders across sectors. As one of the Foundation’s largest and most active country programs, ICO supports a broad portfolio spanning health, gender equality, agriculture, and digital transformation. We work closely with national and state-level institutions to pilot and scale innovations, strengthen systems, and deliver meaningful impact for the people of India and beyond.

The Digital, Health Innovation and Artificial Intelligence (DHAI) cluster at ICO advances digital, health, and AI innovation by partnering with governments, research institutions, and the private sector to develop and scale affordable, high-impact solutions—including vaccines, diagnostics, data science, and AI-enabled tools—while strengthening India’s research ecosystem and promoting responsible, inclusive AI adoption across sectors such as health, education, gender, and agriculture to improve outcomes for vulnerable populations.

Our Foundation's mission is to use the power of AI to reduce the digital gap, focusing on the ethical and fair use of AI to help low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). As Large Language Models become more advanced, we are committed to unleashing AI’s untapped potential to create development solutions in LMIC. Our initiatives are diverse, not only help create new applications for AI in decision support and chatbot interventions but also those covering health, education, and agriculture sectors. Building on the success of proof-of-concept projects, we aim to make sure that the progress of AI reaches and benefits all segments of the population. The AI Fellows Program at the Gates Foundation is designed to accelerate the responsible and impactful use of AI in global health, development, and education. Our goal is to attract top-tier, mission-aligned AI talent to drive innovation in these areas. As a Gates Foundation AI Fellow, you will join a prestigious cohort applying AI for public good and gain career-defining experience, access to the Foundation’s powerful network, and exposure to senior leadership.

This role offers the unique opportunity to collaborate across multiple program strategy within India Country Office—all of which are leveraging AI to accelerate progress toward their strategic goals and objectives.

*Note: This is a 12-month limited-term employment, and we are looking to hire five vacancies. Candidates must be legally authorized to work in India. Visa sponsorship and relocation assistance will not be provided for this role. Remote Work Arrangements may be considered based on the nature of the project.

Please apply by EOD Monday, April 13th.

Your Role

As an AI Fellow you will drive end-to-end AI innovation by identifying real-world problems, rapidly prototyping and scaling LLM-powered solutions, building robust and ethical AI systems, and enabling teams and partners through training, collaboration, and responsible AI practices across diverse development contexts.

Over the course of 12 months, each AI Fellow will be assigned to high-priority projects, embedded within Strategic Initiatives or relevant Programmatic Strategy Teams (PSTs). Each fellow will have a mentor from ICO assigned. Potential project areas for each of the five fellow vacancies are outline below:

AI Fellow #1: Maternal & Fetal Health Risk Stratification – Pregnancy Continuum AI

• Applying AI to longitudinal pregnancy datasets for maternal and fetal risk stratification
• Exploring multimodal models (clinical, imaging, biomarkers) for early detection (e.g., Gestational Diabetes Mellitus, preeclampsia)
• Developing prototype risk scoring tools to inform screening protocols and Front-line worker decision support

AI Fellow #2: AI Agricultural Advisory:

• Integrating Earth Observation, weather, and agronomic datasets into unified advisory engines
• Building conversational (voice/text) interfaces for smallholder farmer engagement
• Piloting multimodal AI tools for climate risk prediction and crop advisory in selected geographies

AI Fellow #3: AI for Immunization Coverage:

• Applying AI/ML to routine immunization efforts to identify zero-dose and dropout children
• Developing micro-targeting and prioritization algorithms for outreach
• Creating dashboards and tools to support last-mile delivery and coverage monitoring

AI Fellow #4: AI for Drug Discovery:

• Exploring AI applications across target identification, molecule design, and compound screening
• Leveraging multimodal datasets (genomics, assays, clinical data) for translational R&D
• Mapping and engaging Indian research institutions and partners for AI-enabled discovery pipelines

AI Fellow #5: India Country Office - Rapid Prototyping of Applied AI Solutions Across ICO Program Teams

• Working with program teams across health, education, agriculture, and economic opportunity to
  • Rapidly prototype solutions using established AI building blocks (chatbots, knowledge graphs, agentic frameworks, AI workbenches etc.) to develop a stronger understanding of potential as well as limits of how AI can be leveraged to maximize impact.
  • Demonstrate how responsible AI practices can be applied in specific program-related contexts and developing toolkits, templates, and guidance for responsible AI adoption suited to geographical and demographic contexts
  • Supporting comparative analysis of solution approaches presented by partners and developing a library of archetypes that can be referenced on an ongoing basis
  • Develop an internal learning series to cascade learning, enhance the team’s collective AI literacy, and provide the Fellow unparalleled access and connections across the ICO

What You’ll Do

Problem Identification & Scoping

• Identify, frame, and prioritize real-world challenges in collaboration with program teams, ensuring solutions are grounded in user needs and local realities.

Prototyping & Rapid Experimentation

• Prototype rapidly with modern LLM and AI tools in partnership with the ICO AI Team (and partners where relevant) to test feasibility, generate insights, and create lightweight demos.
• Document learnings from prototypes and translating them into actionable recommendations for scale or next steps.

Design and Deliver AI Solutions

• Support with design and testing of AI/ML models in partnership with the ICO AI Team and partners, to address challenges in global health, development, agriculture, R&D, or education.
• Conduct rigorous model evaluation and validation, ensuring accuracy, fairness, and real-world applicability.
• Prepare, curate, and manage datasets, ensuring data integrity, security, and ethical use.
• Develop high-quality, reliable software, applying strong engineering practices such as clean code, version control, and robust testing.
• Leverage large language models (LLMs), including deployment, fine-tuning, and adaptation to specific use cases.

Teaching & Capacity Building

• Support in development and delivery workshops, guides, and playbooks to enable Foundation staff and partners to use LLM tools effectively in their own work.
• Mentor program teams and local partners in applying AI responsibly, with a focus on usability and adoption in LMIC contexts.

Collaborate Across Teams and Partners

• Apply interdisciplinary problem-solving skills to translate AI research into practical solutions across multiple domains.
• Communicate technical concepts effectively to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, enabling shared understanding and informed decision-making.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams across disciplines and geographies to co-design and deliver impactful solutions.
• Facilitate workshops and training sessions to demystify AI tools, enabling teams to directly apply solutions to their workflows.

Advancing Responsible and Ethical AI

• Embed equity, bias mitigation, and data privacy in all technical approaches in line with Govt. of India’s guidelines.
• Ensure prototypes are designed with explainability in mind, making them accessible to non-technical stakeholders.
• Application of prior academic knowledge, or professional experiences to advance the responsible and impactful use of AI in the abovementioned projects/ areas of work.

Your Experience

We are looking for fellows who represent a balance of technical competence and alignment with Foundation values.

• Education Candidates preferably with a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree (in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, Applied Math, or relevant field).
• AI Technology Proficiency in ML/AI modeling, software engineering, model evaluation, LLM deployment, and data wrangling, with evidence of applied coursework, research, internships, or early professional experience.
• AI Applications & Professional Experience: Early-career builders with demonstrated applied experience in-line with the projects mentioned above (via internships, research, or 3+ years of work), with enthusiasm and literacy to use modern AI tools safely and pragmatically (direct AI research experience not required).
• Collaborative Mindset: Strong teamwork and adaptability, with experience working cross-functionally in complex environments.
• Communication Skills: Demonstrated ability to clearly articulate technical concepts and recommendations to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Mission-Driven Ethos: Deep motivation to apply AI responsibly for public good, with alignment to equitable development and global health impact.
• Builder and Teacher Mindset Hands-on experience building prototypes with LLMs (e.g., using open-source tools or API-based platforms) and a willingness to share learnings openly. Ability to teach and enable others, not just deliver technical outputs.

Travel Ability to travel up to 30% domestically and globally.

Why you should consider becoming a Gates AI Fellow

• Apply AI where it matters most Work on problems core to the Foundation’s mission—health, development, and education so more people can live healthy, productive lives.
• Drive outsized results in LMICs Aim solutions at countries and communities the Foundation prioritizes, where innovation can move the needle fastest.
• Advance digital public goods: Contribute to safe, inclusive digital public infrastructure and health innovation efforts where AI can accelerate access and equity. Partner with Program Strategy Teams to deliver tangible prototypes, tools, and analyses.
• Tap into a uniquely powerful network: Collaborate across multilaterals, NGOs, academia, and industry through the Foundation’s partnership model.
• Stand on a global platform Benefit from the credibility and reach of a foundation funding work in over 140 countries.
• Lead from day one: Own high-priority projects with clear outcomes and stakeholders.
• Grow faster with expert mentorship: Learn from leaders across AI, health, development, and policy while building a portfolio of real-world impact.

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Hiring Requirements

As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.

Candidate Accommodations

We’re committed to providing an inclusive and accessible hiring experience for all candidates. If you have a disability or medical condition and need an accommodation at any stage of the application or interview process—such as an ASL interpreter, alternative interview format, or physical accessibility support—we’re happy to help. Please contact HR@gatesfoundation.org with the position number and a brief description of your accommodation needs. Requests will be handled confidentially.

Inclusion Statement

We are dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We strive for a global and cultural workplace that supports ever greater diversity, equity, and inclusion — of voices, ideas, and approaches — and we support this diversity through all our employment practices.

All applicants and employees who are drawn to serve our mission will enjoy equality of opportunity and fair treatment without regard to race, color, age, religion, pregnancy, sex, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, and prior protected activity.