Regional IT Director, East Africa at World Vision Kenya

Job description

Position location to be determined by home country of successful candidate within the East Africa Region where WVI is registered to operate.

Purpose Of Position

The Regional IT Director is responsible for providing IT leadership in the region, managing and maintaining global IT processes and standards in the region. This position manages multiple IT processes and is accountable for IT services in the region.

Individuals within the IT leadership job family have responsibility for activities that contribute to planning, creating and implementing an IT vision and strategy that is aligned with the global IT strategic plan so as to enable the regional business strategy. They provide input to the development of global IT standards, technology architecture, technology evaluation and transfer. They manage small to large teams of IT staff in the region who are responsible for delivering and supporting IT solutions for the business and customers. They provide technical and business leadership to IT team in the region as well as to the business.

The Regional IT Director is also responsible for analyzing trends in technology, assessing the impact of emerging technologies on the business, providing solutions to address technology and business issues, and managing financial resources while ensuring the development of high-quality technology solutions. These solutions must be developed at the best possible cost and be aligned with customer and business needs while establishing relationships with employees and key internal and external stakeholders. They are also responsible for participating and providing input into the development of an IT governance framework that defines the working relationships and sharing of IT components amongvarious IT groups within the organization.

To be successful, individuals must possess a combination of business, technical and leadership skills and competencies. This requires an understanding of organization’s business needs, processes and functions. They also need a solid knowledge of IT infrastructure, architecture, applications development and support, networks, and computer operations. In addition, individuals working in this role must have excellent communication skills and the ability to influence others.

The Regional IT Director has a matrix reporting to the Senior Director of Operations (SDO) for the region.

Key Responsibilities

• Business and IT Strategy:
  • Develops the tactical components and strategies to achieve goals at an enterprise level.
  • Works with business partners to understand business needs.
  • Manages the development and implementation of IT initiatives to support business strategy.
  • Change Management
• Articulates change.
  
  • Is active and visible throughout the change process.
  • Provides frequent, communication to department/organization and clients about the change (i.e., rationale, expected outcomes, the "big” picture) and the impact of the change (individual and business).
  • Builds a coalition of sponsorship (managers, staff and clients) and manages resistance to the change
  • Identifies and removes obstacles to change.
• Governance
  • Leads or participates in a customer advisory board to manage IT services demand.
  • Communicates client’s needs and priorities and provides feedback on pricing and investment.
• Architecture
  • Provides input to technology planning within multiple functional areas.
  • Implements solutions consistent with current and future architecture.
  • Process Improvements
  • Manages the improvement processes that impact customer satisfaction and relationships.
  • Owns the designated processes and is accountable for ensuring that established processes are followed.
• Finance
  • Owns and manages the Regional IT budget
  • Participates in the development of IT budgets.
  • Tracks and takes appropriate steps to stay within budget.
  • Provides high-quality services at optimal cost to customers.
  • Measures service performance and implements improvements.
• IT Technology Development
  • Directs the development, implementation and support of technology solutions required to increase business efficiency and effectiveness.
  • Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
  • Participates and provides input to the SLA development process.
  • Ensures internal SLAs are met.
• Vendor Management
  • Provides advice and counsel to the vendor relationship decision-making and contract development processes.
  • Reviews service provider performance.
  • Identifies and confirms performance problems and notifies contract managers.
• Resource Management
  • Meets regularly with team to gather work statuses.
  • Discusses work progress and obstacles.
  • Provides advice, guidance, encouragement and constructive feedback.
  • Ensures work, information, ideas, and technology flow freely across teams.
  • Establishes measurable individual and team objectives that are aligned with business and organizational goals.
  • Documents and presents performance assessments.
  • Recognizes and rewards associates commensurate with performance.
  • Implements organizational practices for staffing, EEO, diversity, performance management, development, reward and recognition, and retention.
  • Workforce Planning
  • Identifies the roles, skills and knowledge required to achieve goals.
  • Ensures staff has the resources and skills needed to support all work initiatives within a limited number of COCs or functions.
  • Participates in IT workforce deployment activities.

Knowledge, Skills And Abilities

• Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Business Administration, or other related field. Or equivalent work experience.
• Requires leadership, business knowledge, negotiation skills and experience/in-depth knowledge of IT infrastructure operations and/or software implementation and support across multiple countries.
• Requires demonstrated ability to launch and deliver one or more IT project(s) across multiple countries on time and within budget.
• Typically has 10 to 15 years of IT and business/industry work experience, with knowledge of one process/service.
• Requires experience in managing teams and building relationships with people at a variety of levels.
• Willingness and ability to travel domestically and internationally, as necessary.
• Effective in written and verbal communication in English.
• Industry certifications from Microsoft, Cisco, CoBIT, ISACA, PMI, etc.

Work Environment/Travel

The position requires ability and willingness to travel domestically and internationally up to 25% of the time.