Chief Technology Officer

Food Impact Partners is supporting a nonprofit organisation working at the intersection of technology, animal welfare and commercial agriculture to appoint a Chief Technology Officer.

The organisation is developing an AI-native platform to observe and understand poultry welfare under real production conditions. For a technically curious builder, this is an opportunity to tackle an unsolved challenge: bringing together cameras, sensors, data infrastructure and emerging AI capabilities to measure welfare continuously and identify interventions that improve animals’ lives.

The role

Reporting directly to the CEO, you will turn an ambitious, evolving concept into a practical technical roadmap and a working system.

This is a hands-on leadership role with a strong emphasis on systems architecture, data engineering and integration. You will assess what existing AI tools can do, test their limitations and build the infrastructure needed to use them reliably.

The work spans software and the physical world, including processing video and sensor data on farms where connectivity and infrastructure can be limited. You will work alongside specialists in animal welfare, veterinary science, poultry production and research to translate scientific questions into technical requirements.

Responsibilities

• Own the technology strategy and architecture for AI-native monitoring and data infrastructure, including cameras, sensors, animal tracking and environmental telemetry.

• Make build, buy and partner decisions across the technology stack, integrating hardware and software into a coherent, reusable system.

• Take a hands-on role in prototyping, integration, testing and deployment, addressing challenges such as edge processing and limited connectivity.

• Work with programme colleagues to assess external technologies, design integrations and make clear recommendations on their suitability for trials.

• Build reliable data pipelines, validation processes and standards so results are trustworthy, comparable and reusable.

• Integrate with existing farm equipment and lead the technical aspects of infrastructure upgrades.

• Make the first engineering and data hires, determining the right combination of internal capability, contractors and specialist partners.

• Own the technology-side IP strategy, including identifying potentially novel inventions and managing licensing and ownership arrangements.

• Test assumptions and incorporate new AI capabilities while maintaining clear priorities and practical progress.

About you

We are looking for a technical generalist who understands how a whole system fits together, makes sound decisions under uncertainty and recognises when to bring in specialist expertise.

• Broad working knowledge across AI/ML, computer vision, sensing, data infrastructure and hardware.

• Experience developing a technical roadmap and taking a loosely defined problem through to a working deployment.

• Strong systems architecture and data engineering skills, with the ability to turn complex inputs into reliable data and useful evidence.

• Practical understanding of current AI capabilities, including LLMs and multimodal models, and sound judgment about when to use existing tools, specialist models or conventional software.

• Hands-on software engineering ability, including building prototypes, integrating components and developing dependable systems.

• Experience hiring or leading small technical teams and working with external specialists.

• The autonomy to create structure, take ownership and make progress without a detailed brief or an established playbook.

• Intellectual rigor, low ego and a willingness to test assumptions and adapt as the evidence changes.

• An interest in improving animal welfare and willingness to spend time in commercial poultry farms.

• Ideally, experience deploying technology in farms, factories, field settings or other uncontrolled environments.

Previous poultry experience is not required. Relevant experience could come from agtech, robotics, industrial automation, connected devices or other sectors combining software with physical-world deployment.

Why join?

• Help solve an open technical problem with meaningful real-world impact.

• Help create an AI-native farm, applying emerging capabilities to a complex biological environment.

• Shape the architecture, roadmap and early technical team.

• Use your technical skills to turn better evidence into practical improvements in animals’ lives.

Location

This is a remote, US-based position requiring travel within the United States and time on commercial poultry farms.