Language AI for Social Impact – Initiative Development Lead

Position title: Language AI for Social Impact – Initiative Development Lead

Contract length: 12 months (depending on funding)

Hours: 50% FTE

Location: Home-based

Travel: Required

Reporting to: Program Tech Lead

Remuneration: 4,800-5,400 USD/month (for full-time, prorated to part-time hours, i.e. 50%)

Deadline for applications: 14 April, 2024

CLEAR Global is an equal-opportunity employer, committed to having a diverse team where individuals of all backgrounds collaborate and learn from one another. We believe we can be most effective with diverse experience and expertise in our team. We recruit on merit, actively seek diverse applicant pools and encourage candidates of all backgrounds to apply. We do not discriminate on the basis of disability, age, gender identity and expression, national origin, race and ethnicity, religious beliefs, marital or parental status, or sexual orientation, and welcome all types of diversity.

We offer in addition to salary:

• an innovative work environment with a diverse and passionate team,
• 20 days of annual leave and 10 days of floating holidays, (for full-time employees: this is prorated for part-time employees)
• the flexibility of home-based/remote work,
• accommodation and per diems when on deployment.

The role

Language technology and AI have improved drastically over the last few years yet the 4 billion people who do not speak major languages remain largely unserved, restricting their access to digital information and services. The digital language gap is widening. To tackle this, CLEAR Global launched the “4 Billion Conversations” (4BC) initiative together with various partners from Africa and South Asia.

The 4BC initiative aims to close this gap and to make language technology in marginalized languages available to support social impact initiatives ranging from climate change resilience to addressing gender-based violence. The initiative is carried by a network of partners including program partners working on social impact initiatives and tech partners working on language technology.

As the Initiative Development Lead, you will play a pivotal role in furthering the 4BC initiative and its associated projects. The 4BC initiative is at a pivotal moment, as we and our partners work to bring it to scale while language technology and AI have the world’s attention. Your primary responsibilities will be to coordinate the conceptual development of the initiative, lead 4BC fundraising and strategic partner engagement, and manage and extend the 4BC network.

Among various other projects, we expect this role to also be engaged with CLEAR Global’s current support for the initiative by BMGF and GIZ to build language technology based agricultural information platforms in Kenya and India.

Join us in driving innovation at the intersection of language technology and the social impact sector. Be a part of the 4BC initiative, contributing to impactful solutions that improve communication and collaboration in the community.

Responsibilities

Your primary role will be to coordinate efforts across three key dimensions:

1. Conceptual development: Since envisioning the 4BC initiative, we and our partners have learned, and we are still learning, many things about what is needed and what works. We therefore continuously develop the concept and roadmap behind 4BC, and you will coordinate this alongside key CLEAR Global colleagues and partners. This might include:
   1. Preparing and facilitating workshops with CLEAR Global colleagues and partners
   2. Conducting interviews with experts and partners about their insights and needs
   3. Drafting work plans and other documents
   4. Presenting the 4BC initiative to partners
2. 4BC network: 4BC is not something that CLEAR Global does alone. The initiative lives through the network of partners who shape, contribute to and gain from it. You will be mobilizing the network, facilitating conversations with partners in the network and extending it through outreach activities to enhance the impact of the 4BC initiative. This might include:
   1. Developing an outline of what membership in the network entails and what the priorities are
   2. Developing formats to keep the network informed and engaged (e.g. through regular updates, talks or virtual meet-ups)
   3. Engaging bilaterally with existing partners, identifying new partners, introducing them to the 4BC initiative and onboarding them
3. Fundraising and strategic partner engagement: Together with our partners, we seek the resources needed to turn vision into reality. In collaboration with CLEAR Global colleagues, you will coordinate, organize and structure fundraising for the whole initiative and associated projects and foster strategic partnerships. This might include:
   1. Developing a system to bring together partners from the 4BC network for funding opportunities and indicators to monitor our success with this
   2. Work with CLEAR Global colleagues to identify relevant funding opportunities
   3. Engage with strategic partners of 4BC, these could be funders or other large organizations, to refine 4BC and attract the needed resources.
   4. Develop funding proposals in collaboration with partners and CLEAR global colleagues.
   5. Keep an overview of the overall funding situation for language tech and language AI for social impact in Africa

We envision this position to focus on Africa while building the initiative overall.

Please note that these roles and responsibilities are approximate and may change over time, for instance to include supporting the implementation of associated projects.

Qualifications

• You have proven professional experience and understanding of either the language technology sector in Africa or the humanitarian and international development sector with a proven understanding of digital technology (preferably both but we know that this is rare).
• You have a university degree in a relevant field; this could be computer science, AI, language or information technology, or something different like international development, language, design, or communication if you applied those skills in a relevant field (see above).
• You have proven professional experience of successfully mobilizing and fundraising for collective action across organizations and the coordination skills to maintain momentum towards a common vision.
• You can work with a high degree of independence, tackle challenges pro-actively and have tolerance for change and uncertainty. Please help us to understand where you have shown this.
• This role will include many conversations with different people. Therefore, you should be a great communicator and listener who can facilitate conversations and discussions towards tangible outcomes.
• You are enthusiastic about CLEAR Global’s and the 4BC vision and agree with CLEAR Global’s basic beliefs and values.
• You have an existing network in the social impact, humanitarian or international development space and the technology space in Africa.
• We are a fully remote organization and you should be able to work virtually with team members based throughout the world.
• You have strong written, oral, and presentation skills in English. Additional languages, particularly including languages of Africa, as well as French are also a great asset.

Job requirements

The successful candidate will need to have access to a stable internet connection and a computer to be able to carry out the role.

About CLEAR Global

CLEAR Global exists to help people get vital information, and be heard, whatever language they speak. We believe that everyone has the right to give and receive information in a language and format they understand. We work with nonprofit partners and a global community of language professionals to build local language translation capacity, and raise awareness of language barriers. Our network of over 100,000 community members translate millions of words of life-saving and life-changing information a year.

Core values

CLEAR Global employees and volunteers are people who believe passionately about the value of this work and take personal responsibility for achieving the mission. CLEAR Global’s mission and organizational spirit embody the core values established in its strategic framework:

• Excellence: As the leading voice for communicating humanitarian information in the right language, CLEAR Global is a leader in the translation industry and in the non-profit sector.
• Integrity: CLEAR Global believes that every person, whether it’s the people who we serve, our volunteers or our staff, has value, deserves respect and has inherent dignity.
• Empowerment: CLEAR Global believes in using language to empower people around the world to control their own development and destiny.
• Innovation: CLEAR Global recognizes and celebrates the power of innovation to address humanitarian and crisis issues around the world.
• Sustainability: CLEAR Global recognizes that meeting our mission necessitates establishment and maintenance of a solid financial and organizational infrastructure.
• Tolerance: Our staff and volunteers are highly knowledgeable and skilled; value each other, our partner and our recipients; create a supportive work environment; and, conduct themselves professionally at all times.

CLEAR Global may re-advertise the vacancy, cancel the recruitment, offer an appointment with a modified job description or for a different duration at its discretion.