Department: External Affairs
Team: AI for Impact, SDG Accelerator
Location: London with hybrid working
Position type: FTC until 31 March 2028, Full-time
What the hiring manager says
"In an era where AI's transformative power is rewriting industries, this role offers a unique opportunity to support the development and adoption of AI in low-middle income countries by and for underserved communities. Your role will be pivotal in creating cutting-edge, innovative technologies and ensuring that no-one is left behind in capturing the positive benefits of AI. While supporting the mobile operators and partners in this fast-moving space, you will also ensure ethical principles are at the heart of your work and deliver responsible AI by design. You will be part of a diverse team that is committed to foster AI innovation whilst also prioritising societal well-being, making a tangible impact on how AI shapes our world."
Mojca Cargo, AI for Impact Director
About the Team
The GSMA founded the AI for Impact initiative in 2017, to drive collaboration with partners across the public and private sector to commercially scale AI while protecting privacy and implementing ethics by design. Working with AI Leads from 29 mobile operators accounting for over 2 billion connections in 100+ countries and a network of global thought leaders from UN agencies, governments, international organisations, academia and private sector. The GSMA also facilitates collaboration and knowledge sharing for a sound policy and regulatory environment and has been invited to support various regional and global AI initiatives and coalitions (OECD, UNESCO, AI Verify Foundation, etc).
About the Role
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You will be at the forefront of supporting AI development and uptake in LMICs, by creating and delivering projects that help unlock its potential to enhance digital inclusion, provide innovative services and create new economic opportunities for underserved communities.
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You will kick off and manage a new stream of work funded by development partners of the GSMA, that is part of a wider Emerging Tech programme by the GSMA Mobile for Development team, including Central Insights Unit and Innovation Fund.
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You will develop and run a multi-year programme across the emerging Asia Pacific and African regions until March 2028, working closely with partners and leading experts from across the public and private sector.
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You will collaborate extensively with other GSMA colleagues and teams, including the M4D Central Insights Unit, to ensure your work is informed by the latest global industry insights and trends.
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You will also build your work on findings from previous in-country pilots, for example on local language models, and collaborate with expert colleagues from across the GSMA to shape and deliver impactful projects.
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As part of your role, you will be able to select and prioritise key activities, depending on the country requirements and key stakeholders’ needs. This could include:
Identify and assess AI adoption opportunities across emerging Asia-Pacific and Africa, and design projects in collaboration with operators and partners
Implementation support and/or provision of technical assistance to a shortlisted number of in-country projects to test, validate and scale use cases in collaboration with operators and partners.
Facilitation of partnerships (eg. Cross-sector engagement) to support the development of the local AI ecosystem in selected countries through which you will bring together key stakeholders, including private sector (mobile operators and big tech), government, international development actors (e.g. UN agencies), start-ups and academia; as also help raise policy makers and partners awareness and understanding of how they can support AI use cases and capabilities. -
You will be responsible to identify external contributors such as consultants and researchers to deliver your objectives. You will further recruit and manage two market engagement leads that will help you deliver the longer-term programme activities in selected markets.
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You will be working in a matrix-structured team, reporting into the AI for Impact Director, whilst delivering the activities in close collaboration with and under the oversight of the Mobile for Development team. Furthermore, you will collaborate with other subject matter experts across the GSMA, including colleagues in the Technology, Advocacy and Marketing departments, as well as our regional offices.
About You
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You are passionate about digital innovations and their transformative role in business, society and public sector. You have demonstrable experience in AI, big data, digital innovation, or any other emerging technology projects and eager to learn more. You have worked in the telecoms sector or adjacent industries, in subjects covering AI, technology innovations, and impact.
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You have a good knowledge of the broader AI landscape, and ideally have undertaken market engagement activities and digital innovation projects that helped the underserved in LMICs. You collaborated with the government as also international organisations and NGOs and have a strong understanding of LMICs landscape.
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You understand how to engage various stakeholders within the AI eco-system, at national, regional and international levels; through workshops, co-creation activities, and high-level conversations.
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You are familiar with responsible design practices and have affinity with considering ethical principles and their implications across the product cycle and relevant business processes.
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You have excellent cultural awareness and a desire to work with teams around the world.
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You are able to work in a small team and to show the necessary flexibility to ensure the collective job gets done, and that resource gaps are filled when and where necessary.
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You have experience in delivering results both through individual contribution and through leading culturally diverse, collaborative teams.
Contract type
Fixed Term Contract (Fixed Term)
Worker type
Employee
What We Offer
Working at the GSMA offers you unparalleled access to the mobile industry. We offer a chance to truly shape the direction of mobile, whatever your role. By joining the GSMA, you will be exposed to a fast-paced rapidly evolving environment, working on global solutions, genuinely fascinating and industry-changing projects and a stimulating and dynamic environment designed to enable you to flourish.
In addition to architect-designed offices and competitive compensation, our benefits include fantastic learning & development opportunities, generous holiday allowances, four additional days off for professional development and many others.
To learn more about the GSMA, visit our career site, our LinkedIn page and our Twitter page.
Being You at the GSMA
We care deeply about diversity, equity and inclusivity and aspire to be the best at it. Your well-being and work/life balance is important, so flexi-time and remote working is available to all staff. We're keen to ensure everyone is equal, represented and connected so we particularly encourage applications from all demographics. The sucess of the GSMA year on year will continue to be contributed by people from all walks of life.
GSMA Values
Our values not only drive our culture – they shape how we work and interact inside and outside our global organisation.
Passionately driven
We approach everything we do with unparalleled capability, tenacity and commitment, knowing that the challenging scale, pace and complexity of our work is what leads to its world-changing impact.
Insightful leaders
We continually develop and engage our expertise, insight and creativity so that we’re always ready to respond to the changing landscape with authority, agility and nuance.
Stronger together
We lean on each other so the industry can lean on us, embracing our diversity by actively seeking out perspectives and skill sets beyond our own, fuelling each other’s successes and constantly asking how we can help.
Underpinning our values is our collective mindset to show up purposefully as good human beings every day, in every situation. When we’re at our best – we are collaborative, considerate and compassionate to others, and we create a safe space for one another to thrive, assuming positive intent in our colleagues. And if we aren’t at our best and the pressure is on – we feel free to be ourselves but still remain curious, lean into the tough stuff and we are always respectful to others and accountable for the part we play.
