AI and Data Scientist – Food Systems

About the Program:

The Food Program at WRI Africa aims to transform the food systems in Africa to address food and nutritional insecurity for a rapidly growing population, while achieving institution’s goals for people, nature, and climate. The program prioritizes three key areas: (i) promoting sustainable, nature-positive agriculture practices, including agroecology and regenerative farming to improve soil health and sustainably increase yields for smallholder farmers; (ii) reducing food loss and waste, and (iii) shifting diets toward diverse, nutrient-dense foods to address malnutrition and health issues especially for women and children. The program embraces circularity for food to address the interconnected goals of improving human well-being, protecting nature, and combating climate change.

Job Highlight:

In this role you will work in the intersection of cutting-edge research and practical engineering in developing and harnessing earth observation and Geospatial AI to support acceleration of Sustainable agricultural productivity gains in Africa. You will support Food Program’s work in the counties of focus, including Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, DRC and Burundi. You will report to the Regional Lead for Sustainable Improvement of Food Productivity in the Food Program.

What you will do:

Research and Analysis (80%)

• Design and development of novel machine learning algorithms for Earth Observation focused on end-use cases that directly drive sustainable agricultural productivity (crop-type mapping, yield estimation, stress detection, and practice adoption signals).
• Lead and collaborate with WRI Data Lab and other program teams to develop scalable geospatial services for supporting sustainable agricultural productivity, embedded with existing GIS platforms and apply AI where it adds measurable value.
• Design, run, and analyze scientific experiments to advance WRI’s understanding of AI for Nature – e.g. benchmarking crop yield models against field trials, testing resilience indicators, quantifying environmental co-benefits
• Optimize and scale WRI’s AI models and infrastructure to improve efficiency and reliability of internally developed models.
• Improve and implement a workplans plans for collecting crop-type, yield and use data in priority geographies and countries aligned with WRI Africa strategy – combining field enumerations, rapid rural appraisals, and partner datasets
• Develop analysis frameworks for integrating biophysical (climate, soil, precipitation, temperature etc) and socioeconomic (demographic, farmer management practices etc) to diagnose yield drivers and constraints
• Convene and formalize data partnerships with national research institutions, ministries and other government offices, research partners, NGOs and private sector to access and harmonize relevant datasets
• Conduct data cleaning and integration into GIS and GEOAI databases, ensuring metadata standards and fair principles
• Support food team colleagues with targeted analyses to answer specific research questions, including yield gaps and best-bet practices for increasing yields sustainably
• Synthesize findings on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in crop-type mapping, yield estimation, field delineation, best-best practices for increasing yields sustainably and translate technical results into guidance
• Support the engagement of targeted decisionmakers (ministries of agriculture, extension services, development partners, agri-development finance providers etc) to co-design products and meet program and policy needs  
• Produce written and graphic content for research reports, internal briefs, blogs, presentations, press releases, etc
• Support editing, peer review, and production process to publish research and communication outputs.

Program Development and Administration (20%):

• Convene and work with different stakeholder groups to build collaboration across policy, research, and supporting local implementation
• Work closely with Food team and Land and Carbon lab teams to develop crop type analysis and fields mapping for yields monitoring of key crops
• Contribute to concept notes, funding proposals, and donor reports, clearly articulating impact pathways and measurable indicators
• Support development of workplans and related internal systems and procedures to ensure timely execution of activities and delivery of outputs
• Liaise with external partners and WRI colleagues across programs and countries  
• Support the implementation of the WRI Africa food strategy with all aspects related to yields, nature and climate
• Drive the organization’s overall goals and technical directions by training, presenting, and implementing projects in the priority landscapes of WRI.

What will you need:

• Education: You have a completed master’s degree in Geographic Information Sciences, Geo-Statistics, Remote-Sensing, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or a related field with equivalent practical experience in agri-food systems
• Experience: You have 6+ years of relevant full-time work experience
• Proven software engineering skills with a proven track record of industry experience focusing on geospatial and remote sensing data systems
• Expertise with Python code and deep learning frameworks (such as Pytorch & TensorFlow)
• Experience with GIS architect data services in leveraging formats like STAC, Cloud Optimized GeoTiffs and Cloud platforms like Google Earth Engine
• Experience with training deploying accurate Machine Learning Models on cloud platforms in agri-food system decision making
• Experience working with high-performance, large-scale ML systems for distributed training of large geospatial and satellite images
• Ability to collaborate with engineering teams through version control platforms, e.g. GitHub
• Proven ability to think through engineering problems pragmatically, clearly communicate decisions and discuss technical tradeoffs with technical and non-technical audiences
• Experienced in proactive program management
• Experienced in managing complex situations involving numerous and sometimes competing organizational constituencies
• Willingness and ability to carry out field work in Africa and travel internationally
• Experience working with a diverse group of farmers, government officials, and researchers in the field
• Knowledge of remote sensing, image interpretations, and earth observation technologies and methods, time-series analysis, sampling design, and sustainability challenges related to land and natural resource management
• Proven quantitative research and writing skills
• Languages: Verbal and written proficiency in English. Working knowledge of French would be desirable.
• Requirements: Existing work authorization is required at the time of application submission for the position. WRI is unable to sponsor work authorization for this role.