Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Department: The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT
Deadline: April 11, 2024
Job Description
The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) seeks to engage consultant to develop an AI-Powered Tool Developer who specializes in creating software applications that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to augment various tasks. He/she will work very closely with project leaders and individual project scientists in designing and developing AI powered tools that handle data pre-processing, model execution, and dissemination of model outputs for different user groups. He/she works closely with the research and geospatial data analytics team to support the overall data analytics workflow using AI powered tools.
The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) hereafter Alliance delivers research-based solutions that address the global crises of malnutrition, climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. The Alliance focuses on the nexus of agriculture, nutrition and environment. We work with local, national, and multinational partners across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and with the public and private sectors and civil society. With novel partnerships, the Alliance generates evidence and mainstreams innovations to transform food systems and landscapes so that they sustain the planet, drive prosperity, and nourish people.
The Alliance is organized into six key levers:
1) Food environment and consumer behavior – reshaping the food environment and consumer behavior toward healthy and sustainable diets; 2) Multifunctional landscapes – fostering innovation for environmental health and productive landscapes to improve livelihoods; 3) Climate action – mainstreaming climate action in the food system to reduce risks; 4) Biodiversity for food and agriculture – making agricultural and tree diversity available and safeguarding it for the diverse needs of food system actors; 5) Digital inclusion – promoting inclusion in the digital agriculture revolution for equitable benefits; and 6) Crops for nutrition and health – putting nutrition and health at the heart of crop improvement to address the triple burden of malnutrition.
Key duties and responsibilities:
- Explore existing AI technologies and understand their capabilities and limitations to be applied in agricultural research;
- Define technical specifications and user interface (UI);
- Identify efficient LLM (Large Language Models) and customize the models to be trained on agricultural data, including any necessary prompt engineering implementations;
- Train and fine-tune LLM models using relevant agricultural datasets to ensure accurate and efficient performance.
- Create linkage between CGIAR literature such as GARDIAN and the LLM model;
- Develop LLM-based AI tool that provides agricultural good agronomic practices (GAPs) for different spatial and temporal context;
- Conduct tests to evaluate the accuracy, efficiency, and robustness of different components;
- Deploy the tool in a production environment, ensuring its reliability and scalability;
- Integrate LLM models into different software applications seamlessly;
- Gather user feedback and perform maintenance tasks to address any issues or bugs that arise;
- Document the methodology, architecture, and best practices for utilizing the LLM for different agriculture applications.
Required qualifications:
- BSc degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering
- Familiarity with AI frameworks and libraries relevant to agricultural research.
- Experience in software development.
- Familiarity of agriculture and agriculture challenges
Experience:
- 1 years’ experience in agriculture data, AI application for Agricultural sector.
Technical Skills:
- Programming Languages: Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, R, Java, HTML, JavaScript.
- Machine Learning and Deep Learning: A solid understanding of these concepts is essential for designing, training, and evaluating AI models.
- Data Science: Skills in data wrangling, analysis, and visualization are necessary to work effectively with the data used to train and refine AI models.
- Software Development: Familiarity with software development principles, best practices, and tools.
- Cloud Computing: Knowing how to leverage cloud platforms for data storage, model training, and deployment.
- AI Frameworks and Libraries: Familiarity with artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms like LLMs.
Soft Skills:
- Strong problem-solving skills to identify solutions and navigate technical hurdles.
- The ability to analyze data, evaluate results, and make sound decisions.
- Effective communication skills are essential for collaborating with cross-functional teams, explaining technical concepts to non-technical audiences, and documenting work clearly.
- Thinking outside the box and coming up with innovative solutions is valuable for developing unique and impactful AI-powered tools.
- Staying updated with the latest advancements and embracing continuous learning.
Duty Station: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Consultancy fee: birr 30,000 per month
Terms of appointment: The consultancy appointment is for a maximum of six months contract duration.
How to Apply
Applicants should provide a cover letter and curriculum vitae; names and addresses (including telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience to be included in the curriculum vitae.
The position and reference number: REF: C/ABC/13/24 should be clearly indicated in the subject line of the cover letter. All applications to be submitted online on our recruitment portal: http://ilri.simplicant.com/ before 10 April 2024.
ABC/ILRI does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing or training).
To find more about the Alliance, visit our Website at https://alliancebioversityciat.org
Suitably qualified women are particularly encouraged to apply.