The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

Job Background / Overview

The IRC is actively investing in enterprise AI to improve the speed, quality, and scale of its programs and operations. As the organization expands its use of AI platforms, including tools from Anthropic, OpenAI, and integrated data environments, the IT department is building dedicated technical capacity to keep these systems running reliably, securely, and effectively.

The IRC is investing in enterprise AI to improve the speed, quality, and scale of its programs and operations. As that investment grows, so does the need for someone to own the technical layer underneath it: the systems, integrations, and infrastructure that make AI tools work at scale.

The AI Platform Engineer is that person. This is a technical operations role, not a user-facing one. This role is responsible for keeping the IRC's enterprise AI environment running managing platform configurations and API access, building and maintaining integrations between AI tools and IRC systems, writing scripts and automations, and serving as the technical point of contact for data engineering and InfoSec. Day-to-day, this person is more likely to be reading logs, troubleshooting a broken pipeline, or pushing a configuration change than answering questions from end users.

The role works in close coordination with the AI Platform Support Director, who owns vendor relationships, licensing, and adoption strategy. This role owns the technical execution underneath that, ensuring the systems are reliable, observable, and properly connected to the rest of the IRC's data and operational environment.

Major Responsibilities

AI Systems Administration & Operations (40%)

• Serve as primary technical administrator across IRC enterprise AI environments, currently including Anthropic (Claude) and OpenAI platform deployments

• Manage user access, API key governance, workspace configurations, and environment-level settings across AI platforms

• Monitor system health, usage patterns, and API performance across AI tools; triage and resolve operational issues as they arise

• Maintain and improve observability across AI system

o Tracking uptime, error rates, token consumption, and integration reliability

• Oversee and document configuration changes, environment updates, and deployment procedures across managed platforms

• Support responsible use by flagging anomalous usage patterns and coordinating with InfoSec on policy adherence and access controls

Integrations & Technical Implementation (35%)

• Coordinate with the DevOps, SW Engineering and Data Engineering team(s) on deployment processes, environment access, and infrastructure dependencies required to build and maintain AI integrations

• Follow established change management procedures for all configuration changes, environment updates, and integration deployments, including documentation, testing, and appropriate approvals before pushing to production

• Develop lightweight scripts, connectors, and automations to support AI-assisted workflows across teams, primarily in Python and/or JavaScript/TypeScript

• Troubleshoot integration failures, data flow issues, and API connectivity problems across the AI ecosystem

• Collaborate with the data engineering team on AI/KM pipeline work, including vector store ingestion, retrieval configuration, and source data connections

• Contribute to technical design discussions with engineering partners, translating operational requirements into implementable solutions

• Maintain technical documentation for all integrations, including architecture notes, runbooks, and dependency maps

Monitoring, Resource Optimization & InfoSec Liaison (15%)

• Track and report on AI resource utilization across platforms, identifying opportunities to reduce waste and improve cost efficiency in coordination with the AI

• Serve as the technical point of contact with the InfoSec team on matters related to AI system security, data handling, access controls, and compliance requirements

• Support risk assessments and security reviews for new AI tools or integrations by providing accurate technical context on system behavior and data flows

• Contribute to the development of technical SOPs and best-practice guidelines for AI system use, in coordination with the AI Platform Support Director and relevant stakeholders

Stakeholder Support & Collaboration (10%)

• Act as a technical resource for program and operations teams adopting AI tools, including answering implementation questions, supporting troubleshooting, and identifying configuration solutions

• Participate in rollout planning for new AI capabilities, providing grounded input on technical feasibility, integration requirements, and operational readiness

• Collaborate with the AI Platform Support Director on onboarding documentation and technical guidance materials for end users

• Contribute to sprint and project planning with accurate estimates on technical effort and dependencies

Required Experience & Skills

AI & Cloud Platforms

• Hands-on experience administering enterprise AI platforms (Anthropic, OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, or comparable tools), including API management, access controls, and environment configuration

• Familiarity with LLM application infrastructure: prompt pipelines, Model Context Protocol (MCP), other tool-calling integration frameworks, vector databases, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) patterns, and embedding workflows

• Experience working with Databricks or comparable data/ML platforms is a strong plus

Integration & Development

• Proficiency in Python and/or JavaScript for scripting, automation, and lightweight integration work

• Experience building and maintaining REST API integrations, including authentication patterns, webhook handling, and error management

• Comfort reading and working within existing codebases without requiring significant architectural guidance

• Familiarity with version control (Git) and standard deployment practices for scripts and integrations

Systems Administration & Monitoring

• Experience monitoring distributed systems or SaaS platforms, including setting up alerting, reviewing logs, and diagnosing performance or availability issues

• Familiarity with usage/cost monitoring for cloud or API-based services

• Comfort operating in live production environments where reliability and data integrity are critical

Security & Compliance

• Working knowledge of information security principles as they apply to SaaS and API-based systems: access controls, credential management, data handling, and audit logging

• Ability to engage constructively with InfoSec teams, providing clear technical context to support reviews and risk assessments

Collaboration & Communication

• Ability to communicate technical concepts clearly to non-technical colleagues and program staff

• Experience contributing to cross-functional teams alongside product, engineering, and operations stakeholders

• Strong documentation habits: runbooks, SOPs, architecture notes, and internal guides

Working Environment

This role is remote, with the possibility of in-person work depending on location. Stakeholders are located across multiple time zones (GMT-8 to GMT+3), which may require occasional early or late meetings.

Professional Standards: All International Rescue Committee workers must adhere to the core values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. Our Standards are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Safeguarding, Conflicts of Interest, Fiscal Integrity, and Reporting Wrongdoing and Protection from Retaliation. IRC is committed to take all necessary preventive measures and create an environment where people feel safe, and to take all necessary actions and corrective measures when harm occurs. IRC builds teams of professionals who promote critical reflection, power sharing, debate, and objectivity to deliver the best possible services to our clients.

How to apply

https://theirc.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/External_Careers/job/Nairobi-Kenya/AI-Platform-Engineer_JR00005330