Job description

About the organization

Girl Effect creates media and technology products for adolescent girls in Africa and Asia that are trusted, useful, and safe to use. The organization reaches more than 50 million girls and offers access to essential information on health, education, and relationships so they can expand their choices and possibilities. Its chatbot products in India, South Africa, and Kenya have already served nearly 3 million users by answering sensitive questions at scale and guiding them toward real-world support. Over the coming five years, the aim is to grow this impact significantly, with a goal of reaching 30 million girls by 2030 through highly personalised AI-enabled chatbot experiences.

Role overview

This role sits at the intersection of data science, generative AI, product thinking, and safeguarding. The successful candidate will help shape and scale AI-powered conversational experiences, contribute to architectural decisions, and work on solutions that are designed to support young users safely and responsibly. The work includes advancing the organization’s use of LLMs, improving evaluation and guardrails, and helping move from simple Q&A to richer long-term conversational interventions that support mental wellbeing and positive behaviour change.

Technology environment

The team works with Python-based services and integrates models and platforms such as GPT from OpenAI, Gemini from Google, and Claude from Anthropic. The infrastructure includes a custom retrieval-augmented generation pipeline, real-time performance tracking, and safety guardrails hosted on Azure. Products are delivered through channels such as WhatsApp, MoyaApp, Telegram, and custom web applications.

Key responsibilities

Build and improve GenAI and LLM-based solutions using the organization’s core technical stack.
Help make major technical and architectural decisions for digital products and conversational platforms.
Set up and refine evaluation methods, metrics, and safeguards to keep chatbot interactions accurate, secure, and helpful.
Work across technical and non-technical teams to translate product goals into workable data science solutions.
Partner with mental health, safeguarding, and evaluation specialists to understand the use case and shape the experience.
Prioritise work effectively in an agile environment and manage a technical roadmap with multiple moving parts.
Review code, design experiments to test whether solutions perform as intended, and represent the data science function in external meetings or public forums.
Support the evolution from basic question-answering to more complex conversational pathways and interventions.

Requirements

Postgraduate qualification in Data Science or a closely related discipline.
Proven practical experience working with LLMs and GenAI technologies.
Strong understanding of the software development lifecycle.
Ability to influence technical choices for digital platforms and tools.
Excellent organisational and multitasking ability.
Strong communication, interpersonal, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
Comfort working collaboratively with colleagues at different levels of the organisation.
Experience contributing to or guiding broader technology decisions in a fast-moving environment.
Genuine commitment to the mission and to improving outcomes for girls.

Safeguarding, inclusion, and data use

Girl Effect is an equal opportunity employer and encourages applicants from diverse professional, academic, and cultural backgrounds. The organisation is committed to safeguarding the wellbeing and rights of all individuals, especially adolescent girls and young women, and has zero tolerance for sexual exploitation, abuse, harassment, or any safeguarding breach. Successful candidates must comply with safeguarding policies and may be required to complete background, reference, and criminal record checks where applicable.

By submitting an application, candidates consent to the use of personal data for recruitment purposes. Applications may be reviewed with secure AI-assisted tools for summarisation and comparison against role criteria, but all shortlisting and hiring decisions remain fully human-led. Applicant data is not used to train public AI systems and is handled confidentially in line with the organisation’s data privacy policy and the GDPR.

Additional information

Girl Effect is a diverse organisation spanning both non-profit and commercial experience, with expertise ranging from creative functions to gender and insight. The workplace is designed to challenge, stretch, and develop people while offering the chance to work alongside committed colleagues focused on the organisation’s mission.

Application deadline

The closing date for applications is 29 June 2026.

Data Scientist