CONSULTANT - CLIENT ENGAGEMENT, SUPPORT AND ADOPTION

THE ORGANIZATION

The Alliance of Bioversity International (www.bioversityinternational.org) and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) (www.ciat.cgiar.org) delivers research-based solutions that harness agricultural biodiversity and sustainably transform food systems to improve people’s lives. Alliance solutions address the global crises of malnutrition, climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation.

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 in a climate crisis.

The Alliance is part of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future.

Background

Artificial Intelligence has opened up new opportunities for anyone to collect high quality data from anywhere. However, such tools have largely bypassed the Global South as they were not adapted to local conditions—whether because they were too expensive, too complex, or not transferable to Global South contexts. This hampers data-driven decision making, especially in critical areas such as food systems.

Tatu, formerly known as the Artemis project, leverages AI that is appropriate to the context in the Global South. Tatu represents the convergence of people, AI, and plants, and the bridge between research, innovation, and impact. The Tatu team consists of a multi-disciplinary team of 30+ experts in product development, Machine Learning, field operations, user design, and scaling. Tatu has primarily been focusing on improving crop breeding so that varieties better adapted to climate change, emerging diseases, and changing consumer demands can be developed better and faster.

Under Tatu, two products have been under development:

Ona: Over the last four years, the Artemis project—supported by the Gates Foundation—has pioneered R&D into cost-effective, smartphone-based computer vision phenotyping. Through extensive field and AI research across multiple countries and crop species, the team has moved beyond proof-of-concept to launch a deployable end-to-end product:Ona (Swahili for “to see”). Using Ona alongside the companion field tool Bruno, crop breeding teams can image entire breeding plots in under 30 seconds. This system delivers same-day data that meets gold-standard benchmarks while exceeding traditional human estimation in both precision and accuracy. With support from Google.org, Tatu is now scaling Ona as a primary smartphone phenotyping tool for the CGIAR.

NDIZI & Sikia: In parallel, Tatu is leveraging three years of research from the NDIZI project (NLP to Develop and Innovate Zero-shot Intelligence). Also supported by the Gates Foundation, NDIZI develops Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Vision-Language Models (VLMs) to capture rich conversational and visual data directly from the farm. By processing this data through LLMs, the team extracts critical insights into farmer preferences and in-season plant performance. These outputs are being integrated into the deployable product Sikia (Swahili for “to listen”). Having developed performant models for Swahili, the team is now expanding into other African languages and exploring offline, on-device deployment of small VLMs for areas without internet connectivity.

Ona is currently being piloted with breeding teams in Tanzania and Uganda for beans. By Q3 2026, models for cowpea and sorghum will be ready, while parallel field campaigns collect training data for new crops like rice. Additional campaigns and pilots are planned for the coming year, while Ona remains under development. Tatu has invested in scalable digital support materials and is now moving to deploy a support bot. Sikia is also being tested in Tanzania and Kenya, and further tests are planned in Africa and beyond.

Since its launch in 2022, Artemis has worked with partners including TARI, IITA, CIMMYT, CIP, Colorado State University, Google Research, Mineral, and the London School of Economics. The project is funded by the Gates Foundation and coordinated by the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT from its Arusha office in Tanzania.

About the position

We seek a dedicated National Consultant, Client Engagement, Support and Adoption Coordinator (“the consultant”), to be the central point of contact between the users that test or use Ona and Sikia (“the clients”) and the Tatu team. The consultant coordinates field campaigns where new and existing clients go through a process of adapting Ona to their context, either for model development (new crops) or for use with beans, sorghum, or cowpea (existing crops that Ona can serve), and supports field tests and pilots for Sikia.

The consultant manages client needs and coordinates responses from the different teams in Tatu. The consultant focuses on ensuring responsive and well-organized client support so that clients can use the technology effectively in real field conditions. The focus is first and foremost on managing client engagement across campaigns and pilots, and on setting up clear systems, workflows, and quality standards that strengthen customer support, issue tracking, follow-up, and learning across Tatu teams.

The role also supports adoption and market development for Tatu tools in the primarily public breeding sector, including market validation, market scoping, representation, outreach, and feedback collection to inform product direction, service models, and scale-up planning.

This is an 8-month full-time consultancy position valued at USD 16,000 (potential for fixed-term extension) based in the Alliance office in Arusha. The consultant coordinates Tatu’s engagement with an expected 10–20 clients in and beyond East Africa. This position combines strong client engagement, internal coordination, quality control, service system development, and support to adoption and market development.

• Master's or Bachelor's degree in Agricultural Sciences, Business Development, Education/Adult Learning, or related technical fields.

Experience

• Minimum 3 years experience in stakeholder coordination, client monitoring, and technology adoption, preferably in digital innovation in agricultural research.

• Minimum 3 years experience in customer support, service delivery coordination, capacity development, or adult learning.

• Experience in field coordination, pilot management, or support for digital tools in low-resource settings is an advantage.

Technical Competencies

• Excellent people skills; excellent communicator in multicultural teams.

• Skilled in coordination tools (e.g., checklists, shared drives, issue trackers); digital savvy with apps, bots, and related support systems.

• Organized, disciplined problem-solver with field coordination experience.

• Able to track client support performance, document service needs, and contribute to practical service frameworks and cost assessments.

Terms of employment

This is a nationally recruited position based in Arusha, Tanzania. The initial contract will be for up to Eight (8) Months.

Applications

Applicants are invited to visit  https://www.bioversityinternational.org/jobs/ to get full details of the position and to submit their applications. Applications MUST include reference number Ref: RFC: CONSULTANT - CLIENT ENGAGEMENT, SUPPORT AND ADOPTION as the position applied for. Application and CV should be saved as one document using the candidate’s last name, first name for ease of sorting.

Note: The Alliance does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing or training). The Alliance also does not concern itself with information on applicants' bank accounts.

Applications closing date: 17th May 2026

Please note that email applications will not be considered.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

We invite you to learn more about us at:

http://alliancebioversityciat.org