Research Scientist - Gender & AI

MBZUAI is seeking a Gender and AI Research Scientist responsiblefor embedding gender equity, inclusion, and social impactconsiderations across all Institute for Agriculture & AI (IAAI)research, technical development, and deployment activities. Therole will provide subject-matter leadership on gender-responsive AIresearch, advisory system design, and evidence-based interventions,with a particular focus on improving outcomes for women smallholderfarmers and marginalized groups through AI-enabled agriculturalsolutions.

Key Responsibilities Gender Strategy and Institutional Integration

• Develop and lead the Institute's gender and inclusion strategy,ensuring systematic integration into research agendas, governanceframeworks, operational guidelines, and program design.
• Embed gender considerations into standard operating procedures,ethical guidelines, and institutional practices across all IAAIactivities.

Gender-Responsive Research and AI Design

• Advise AI researchers, data scientists, and agronomy experts ongender-sensitive research design, data collection, annotationpractices, model evaluation, and bias mitigation.
• Support the development of AI models and advisory systems thataccount for gendered access, constraints, and decision-makingcontexts.

Women-Focused Advisory and Interventions

• Design and support targeted interventions that improve theaccessibility, relevance, and effectiveness of AI-enabled advisoryservices for women smallholder farmers.
• Ensure advisory content, delivery channels, and interactionmodalities reflect women lived realities, constraints, andinformation needs.

Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Integration

• Integrate gender-disaggregated indicators into MEL frameworksand research protocols.
• Analyze adoption, usage, and outcome data to identify gendergaps and inform adaptive improvements to research and deploymentstrategies.

Capacity Building and Partnerships

• Provide technical guidance and capacity building togovernments, partners, and innovators on gender-responsive AI anddigital agricultural advisory systems.
• Support inclusive pilot design, implementation, and scale-upstrategies in collaboration with national and internationalpartners

Academic Qualifications Required

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Computational Science,Data Science, Applied Mathematics, or a related field.
• PhD or equivalent applied research experience will bepreferred.

Professional Experience Required Essential:

• Minimum of ten (10) years of progressive experience intechnical assistance, program implementation, or adoption-focusedroles within gender equity & inclusion, development, orinnovation ecosystems.
• Demonstrated experience working with governments andpublic-sector institutions, particularly in low- and middle-incomecountries.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams and managingcomplex, multi-country initiatives.

Preferred:

• Exposure to policy engagement, institutional reform, ornational advisory system strengthening.
• Experience working within international research or developmentorganizations.