About Current AI

‍Current Al is a first-of-its-kind global public-private partnership that brings together governments, foundations, and the private sector to build public interest AI at scale. Launched at the AI Action Summit in Paris in 2025, the organisation has already raised hundreds of millions through partnerships with the French government, AI Collaborative, and other leading governments, philanthropic, and industry partners. 

If AI is the transformative revolution we perceive it to be, it needs to serve the public interest today and tomorrow. At Current AI, our goal is to help build a collaborative, collective, and global vision for AI, not one governed by a specific country or a company. 

Today there are builders and researchers around the world developing public interest AI building blocks (datasets, models, compute, audits and applications), but efforts are not always co-ordinated or additive. To have a genuine shot at being an alternative, we must harness the full breadth of work happening across open source and public interest AI. That means helping transform individual, decentralised initiatives into a coherent Public Interest AI movement, and helping unblock builders via funding or tool development or connecting efforts together. 

Role Overview

Current AI is in start-up mode and building toward a fully operational global organisation. 

As Vice President, Programs, you will be the executive responsible for turning this strategy into a coherent, high-impact portfolio of initiatives. This role shapes and leads Current AI’s funding vision and roadmap, focusing on themes where the private market is not incentivised to invest (initially health & welfare and cultural preservation).

The VP Program leads a small, high-performing Programs team and oversees a growing global grantmaking and product-building portfolio focused on common, shared tools that become AI public goods and are outcome-based. 

You will work with government partners, convene and align diverse funders (public and private) around shared thematic agendas, and jointly fund non-profit builders, entrepreneurs and open-source developers.

Reporting to the CEO and serving as a core member of the leadership team, the VP Programs is a builder and architect: someone who has started or scaled programmes before, is comfortable in ambiguity, and brings the judgment that comes from having carried responsibility for complex portfolios, budgets, and outcomes.

What you’ll do

‍Set strategy and shape the portfolio 

• Serve as the CEO’s key partner on programmatic strategy, helping translate Current AI’s mission and pillars into a clear, multi-year roadmap and annual plans. 
• Design, evolve, and steward our thematic portfolios 
• Define clear theories of change, success metrics and risk appetites for each program area, with a focus on practical, auditable outcomes.
• Cultivate deep relationships across the public-interest AI ecosystem and ensure strong alignment across programs, technology, operations, and storytelling.
• Work closely with a growing team of peers to ensure programs, technology, operations and storytelling reinforce each other. 

‍Lead program delivery and grantmaking 

• Oversee end-to-end delivery of programmes and major initiatives, from scoping and sourcing through due diligence, grant structuring, contracting, execution and impact tracking.
• Ensure high-quality design and management of grants, challenges, and build-for-gaps projects, including those that involve co-funding with governments and philanthropic partners.
• Champion program excellence: realistic but ambitious milestones, strong partner support, and a bias for shipping usable tools and infrastructure into the hands of real users and builders.
• Anticipate and manage programmatic risks (financial, governance, safeguarding, reputational) in partnership with operations, legal and finance teams. 

‍Build and lead the Programs team 

• Build, mentor and retain a diverse, high-performing global Programs team
• Model a culture of low ego, high standards and continuous learning.
• Put in place lightweight but robust systems, processes and tools for programme design, grant management, reporting, and knowledge sharing, which are fit for a lean start-up environment, not a bureaucracy.
• Support professional growth through stretch assignments, coaching, and clear pathways for leadership.

‍Steward partnerships and fundraising 

• Represent Current AI with senior stakeholders across governments, multilaterals, philanthropies, civil society, academia and the open-source ecosystem. 
• Co-develop major proposals with the CEO and fundraising team, ensuring program strategies and budgets are compelling and credible for funders.
• Convene and align co-funders around shared programmatic agendas, positioning Current AI as a catalytic, not duplicative, actor.
• Speak about our programs publicly (conferences, panels, workshops) in a way that is concrete, humble, and grounded in the lived experience of partners and communities.

‍Embed Learning & Working in the Open 

• Oversee evaluation & learning (MEL) frameworks that track real-world progress. 
• Ensure that insights from grants, pilots, and build-for-gaps projects feed back into strategy, product roadmaps, grant criteria, and public storytelling. 
• Champion openness and accountability: from sharing failures and trade-offs to supporting independent evaluations where appropriate.

What we are looking for  

‍Must-haves

• 10+ years of relevant experience, including senior leadership in top-tier philanthropy or international organisations, or mission driven institutions
• Proven track record of designing and scaling complex programme or grant portfolios (€100m+ per year), including setting strategy, allocating resources and overseeing delivery.
• Experience building programmes in small or start-up organisations not just managing inherited mature portfolios.
• Strong experience working with or within governments, philanthropies and/or multilaterals; comfortable aligning diverse funder incentives around shared outcomes. 
• Ability to engage credibly with technical partners and open-source communities; familiarity with AI, digital rights, data governance, or adjacent fields (ability to engage credibly with technical partners and open-source communities).
• Professional fluency in English (written and spoken) and confidence operating across cultures and contexts
• French is an advantage but not a strict requirement. 
• Deep connection to the mission of building resilient, public-interest AI

‍Nice-to-haves

• Experience in one or more of our initial focus areas: Health AI, cultural and linguistic preservation, accountability and auditability, open-source infrastructure. 
• Experience funding or supporting organisations in the Global Majority and navigating questions of power, equity and localisation in practice.
• Experience with challenge funds, accelerators, incubators, or similar vehicles that blend grantmaking with hands-on operational support. 
• Additional languages beyond English and French.

‍Character traits

We’re looking for people who:

• Put the mission before personal credit and work well in low-ego, highly collaborative teams
• Exercise good judgment and integrity, including knowing when to push back or say no
• Enjoy building from scratch and making progress with imperfect information
• Have a bias to action, shipping useful things and helping others do the same
• Are comfortable moving between strategy and hands-on execution as needed
• Work effectively across cultures, time zones, and disciplines‍
• Believe AI can serve the public interest - and are willing to do the practical, unglamorous work to make that true.

The offer

We’re committed to ensuring that team members are supported, well-compensated, and able to thrive.

Expected Salary Range: €150k-€180k depending on experience and location.

How to apply

Please email your CV to Christian Kenny from the search firm helping us with this hire, using the button below, and attach a covering note answering each of the following questions in no more than 500 words in total:  

• What draws you to Current AI’s mission, and how your experience will help us advance it 
• Tell us about a programme, fund, or organisation you helped build or significantly reshape from a relatively early stage. 

Equal opportunity commitment  

Current AI is committed to ensuring equal access to employment and preventing all forms of discrimination. All applications will be reviewed fairly, without regard to origin, sex, gender identity, age, sexual orientation, disability, religious beliefs, views held, or any other criteria unrelated to professional qualifications. Selection will be based solely on skills, experience, and suitability for the role.  

‍Current AI does not accept unsolicited applications from recruitment agencies with whom we do not have a signed agreement. Current AI will not be liable for any fees or commissions in the event that a candidate submitted in this manner is subsequently hired.