AI Lead

Job Title: AI Lead

Organisation: Emata

Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda

About Organisation:

Emata is a Ugandan fintech and licensed MFI. We embed finance directly into agricultural value chains, so farmers can invest in their farms, and agri companies can plan with confidence.

Job Summary: We’re looking for an experienced AI professional with both technical hands-on and leadership experience to take our algorithms to new crops and countries, and bring GenAI and agentic AI into the way we work.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• You’ll lead our algorithms and applied AI work – making our credit models work in new places, and putting AI to work across the business. Specifically:
• Take our methods to new places : work out what carries over to a new crop, partner or country, what needs to change, and how to make each expansion faster
• Make our algorithms better : run experiments, test assumptions, and find out why models behave differently in different places
• Put GenAI and agents to work : pick use cases by value, cost and risk, take the best ones into daily use with the right human checks, and be honest about what to grow, change or stop
• Run AI reliably in production : with our ML engineering team, move models from experiment to dependable services, and help shape the platform as we grow
• Tie the work to results : faster partner onboarding, better lending decisions, less manual work
• Lead and explain : coach the people in your area, and explain your work plainly to partners and investors
• Your first year
• You’ll work closely with our Chief AI Officer (CAIO), who has 18 years in top-tier tech consulting. The CAIO sets direction; you bring your own judgement and own the delivery.
• First 3 months – learn and plan. Learn our methods, data and platform, spend time in the field, and agree a roadmap with the CAIO.
• By 6 months – deliver. Ship model improvements, show evidence for new crops or markets, and get the first GenAI use cases live.
• By 12 months – scale. AI runs reliably in production and delivers measurable value. Expansion is faster, and the team is ready for a bigger business.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• Experienced – 6+ years in data science, ML or AI, including 2+ years leading technical delivery
• Broad – you’ve applied AI to very different problems, and adapted when the first approach didn’t work
• Production-proven – you’ve deployed AI and scaled it, and kept quality, reliability and cost in check
• Technically strong – stats, ML, programming and hands-on GenAI, with a quantitative degree or equivalent
• A fast learner – no credit or agri finance background needed, we’ll teach you our methods
• You’re hands-on – team before titles – and you build your own playbook. You’re at ease with everyone from farmers to investors, and you want your work to matter.
• We prefer candidates with experience working/living in frontier markets, especially Africa.
• If you are not based in Uganda, we facilitate relocation to Uganda (flight, work permit, and housing allowance).

How to Apply:

All suitably qualified and Interested applicants should apply online at the link below.

Click Here

NB: Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

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Level of Education: bachelor degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: 72