Job at a glance
About the Role Girl Effect is recruiting a Data Scientist for its Nairobi office on a full-time basis. This is a senior technical position within an organization that has spent over a decade building safer digital platforms for young users. The role sits at the core of Girl Effect’s shift toward generative AI, where you will design, build, and oversee machine learning systems that power conversational AI features deployed across WhatsApp, Telegram, MoyaApp, and custom web applications.
The organization has already processed over 150,000 user submissions through its custom generative AI feature, which operates behind strict safety guardrails. Girl Effect is now expanding this capability to support mixed-coded languages across South Africa, Kenya, and India, and moving toward more complex, long-term conversational pathways—including Single Session Interventions for mental health support.
This Data Scientist at Girl Effect position requires someone who understands both the technical depth of large language models and the behavioral science that underpins safe, effective digital interventions for vulnerable populations. Key Responsibilities Design, build, and maintain Python-based services that integrate multiple large language models including GPT (OpenAI), Gemini (Google), and Claude (Anthropic), ensuring reliable orchestration across these systems.
Develop and refine the custom Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipeline hosted on Azure, optimizing accuracy and performance across real-time user interactions. Establish and oversee rigorous safety guardrails and evaluation metrics to ensure all chatbot interactions are accurate, secure, and appropriate for young users; conduct ongoing safety audits and risk assessments. Guide architectural decisions on the technical roadmap, including the expansion to mixed-coded language support and the deployment of long-term conversational pathways such as Single Session Interventions.
Conduct code reviews, design and run experiments to validate model performance, and document findings in a way that informs both technical and non-technical stakeholders. Collaborate with cross-functional teams including mental health experts, safeguarding specialists, and evaluation researchers to translate behavioral science requirements into technical specifications. Represent Girl Effect’s data science vision in external forums, partner meetings, and public events to communicate the organization’s approach to responsible AI in youth-focused digital health.
Maintain real-time performance monitoring dashboards and establish standards for model evaluation, bias detection, and user safety across all deployment channels. Requirements & Qualifications Postgraduate degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, or a closely related discipline. Proven hands-on experience building production systems with large language models and generative AI frameworks; demonstrated expertise with OpenAI, Google, or Anthropic models in real-world applications.
Deep understanding of the full software development lifecycle, including deployment, monitoring, and iteration in production environments. Strong technical acumen with the ability to guide architectural decisions on digital platforms, cloud infrastructure (Azure preferred), and AI orchestration systems. Experience designing and implementing safety measures, evaluation metrics, and responsible AI practices for systems serving sensitive user populations.
Exceptional organizational and multitasking skills, with the ability to prioritize a technical roadmap in an agile environment and manage competing demands. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills; ability to translate between technical and non-technical stakeholders and explain complex AI concepts to subject matter experts in mental health and safeguarding. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with demonstrable ability to design experiments, interpret results, and iterate based on evidence.
What to Expect You will work in a mission-driven environment where technology is directly tied to measurable outcomes for vulnerable young users; your technical decisions will have real-world impact on user safety and wellbeing. The role requires collaboration across disciplines—you will partner regularly with data scientists, mental health researchers, safeguarding teams, and product managers, and must be comfortable translating between these worlds.
You will own significant technical responsibility, from guiding big architectural choices to conducting code reviews and representing the organization’s data science strategy externally. This Data Scientist at Girl Effect position in Nairobi is open to qualified candidates. Click Apply below to submit your application.