AI Engineer

at  Open Function OpenFn

JOB DESCRIPTION/REQUIREMENTS

Type: 1 Year Contract (hours negotiable)
Location: Remote (prefer candidates available for work in Africa/Europe time zones)
Working Language: English
OpenFn provides a data transformation and process automation platform that enables secure, stable, scalable interoperability for lower- and middle-income country (LMIC) government and NGO customers.
OpenFn is a free and open source digital public good (DPG) used by LMIC governments and NGOs around the world to scale the next generation of health, humanitarian, and environmental protection interventions via data integration, interoperability, and process automation. We use cutting edge technologies to drive efficiency where it matters most; we do not make marginal improvements to already comfortable lives.
AI is the ultimate form of automation, and at OpenFn we are building AI tooling into our internal workflows and external products to help our core contributors and users deliver better solutions, faster.
We provide our users with a safe and secure runtime in Javascript (written in TypeScript, of course), a customer-facing SasS platform with Phoenix LiveView (Elixir/Erlang), helper libraries (adaptors) in JavaScript, and an AI platform in TypeScript and Python.
We want to harness AI to connect the most commonly used and mission-critical systems in the health and humanitarian sectors.
The role
We’re looking for an AI engineer who combines experience of machine learning and LLMs with a proven track record of delivering quality, stable software solutions within deadlines. We want experienced, methodical engineers who are able to build lasting software which puts users first.
You’ll be focusing on the design and development of a range of AI-assisted services for our users: from adaptor code generation to chatbot integration to ad-hoc, scalable integration solutions to automated migration and code quality services.
We are particularly interested in micro-agents: highly focused models which do a specific task extremely well.
It’s an experimental role for sure, supported by and working closely with our development team, but the expectation is that you’ll deliver real production software within tight deadlines.
We are learning how best to harness AI in our mission to double the efficiency of the social sector worldwide. You will play a critical role in establishing our responsible AI policy, working in the open to set best practices across the development community, and empowering human users, rather than undermining them.
As a small team working in the face of rapidly increasing demand, we move fast at times and slow at others, but we try to make sure that we’re always doing so for the right reasons. While we’re careful not to gild the lily, no one likes wading through code that could have been written more clearly or stomping bugs that might have been avoided.
If you like the idea of low-code environments and of building out in the open, of using AI for good, for reducing inequality rather than driving it, we’d love to talk to you.
What you’ll be doing
Working with whatever tools you see fit—be it ChatGPT prompts or Python libraries—you’ll work hand-in-hand with our principal Javascript Engineer to produce next-generation tooling for our open-source community.
You’ll be contributing to our TypeScript & Python AI server, building new services to be consumed by users and tools across our community.
Requirements
Things that might set you apart
You have a formal background in computer science (at least a bachelor’s degree) and two years of industry experience of delivering software solutions in a small team. In other words: you’re an engineer, not a hacker.
You are passionate and curious about deep learning, LLMs, and emerging AI technologies. You know huggingface? like the back of your hand. But you’re also conscious of the potential social impact of AI.
You bring a critical but positive mindset to your work. You’ll know the difference between a good API and a bad one, you’ll call out problems before they bite in production.
You’re a team player and bring a professional attitude to work every day (we know everyone says it, but in our small, tight-knit, remote-working team, the ability to interact positively and constructively with your colleagues is absolutely critical to our success).
Things that matter to us
Responsibility. Your time is precious, AI has a cost, our end users are some of the most disadvantaged people on the planet. Make it count.
Curiosity and pragmatism. You’ve got to enjoy trying new things; constantly think about the tradeoffs between acting early and not doing something.
A passion for tooling. Our software is used by real people, and we treat ourselves as customers as well. If we can’t easily debug something, then chances are an end-user developer at a ministry of health or refugee protection agency is going to experience UX pain as well.
An enthusiasm for open source. The majority of our code is publicly available under the LGPL-3.0 license and has already been adopted and adapted by governments and top international development organizations around the world. We want to further this with more and better tools that empower those working in the tech-for-good and gov-tech sectors.
Strong opinions, weakly held. Making decisions that affect future design paths is always difficult. We don’t sit on mistakes. And we listen carefully when someone has ideas or prior experience that contradict our own
Benefits
Financial compensation is commensurate with experience.
Flexible working schedule.
Exposure to hottest industry and technology trends and leading health, humanitarian and environmental protection interventions in the sector.
Opportunity for leadership and advancement. You will be a key contributor to our company’s technical strategy and direction.
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