Senior AI/ML Engineer at Healthy Learners Zambia

Healthy Learners is recruiting a full-time Senior AI/ML Engineer in Lusaka to lead the design, development, quality assurance, deployment and ongoing management of machine-learning, health-data and digital-health application systems. The role reports to the Chief Technology Officer within the Digital Health and Innovation department and is classified at Manager or Associate Director level. The engineer will build and maintain production machine-learning models and AI-enabled systems, establish model evaluation and quality-assurance frameworks, monitor performance and drift, and manage model versioning, retraining, releases and rollback procedures. The role also covers data pipelines, architecture, APIs, databases, analytical datasets, dashboards and systems integration. A major part of the work involves sensitive paediatric and school-health data. The successful candidate will apply appropriate privacy, pseudonymisation, encryption, access-control, audit, retention and deletion practices. Models must be validated, explainable, documented and subject to human review. Solutions should work in Zambia's operating context, including mobile-first use, intermittent connectivity, offline data capture, device constraints and varying levels of digital literacy. The post will coordinate data-integration planning with Zambia's Ministries of Health and Education and collaborate with clinical, programme, monitoring and evaluation, product, engineering and operations teams. Healthy Learners says the position offers competitive compensation and benefits, professional-development and leadership opportunities, and the chance to support digital systems serving more than 1.4 million learners across Zambia. The official vacancy page is currently accepting applications and does not state a closing date. Candidates should review the full role description and apply while the listing remains open.

Applicants should have a bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Science, Health Informatics, Public Health Informatics, Statistics or a related field, together with three to eight years of relevant experience in ML engineering, data engineering, software engineering, health informatics or digital health. Required experience includes deploying and monitoring production ML models, model quality assurance and performance management, data pipelines, architecture, APIs, databases and systems integration. Applicants should also have experience handling health, paediatric, school-health or other sensitive clinical data, plus strong Python and SQL skills. Healthy Learners prefers candidates with experience in Zambia or Sub-Saharan Africa; mobile, edge, embedded or resource-constrained ML deployment; government health or education systems; health-information and digital-health platforms; interoperability and offline-first applications; cloud platforms; or MLOps. The role requires strong analytical, communication, documentation, stakeholder-management and problem-solving skills. It is classified as a low-contact position under the organisation's Child Safeguarding Policy.