Deputy Technology Manager at Living Goods

Do you want your work to matter? Do you want to use your skills to make a difference, not just a living? Do you want to improve millions of lives, including your own?

The Opportunity
You will work closely with the Senior manager and the global technology leadership team to establish, plan, and administer overall policies and goals for the information technology department.
With guidance from the Senior Manager technology you will play a pivotal role in analyzing the country’s expansion and scaling needs from across different departments and models within Living Goods and lead in determining ways to meet business objectives.

As a Senior Technical Resource, you will;

• Lead or contribute in technical design discussions in evaluating options of modifying existing or developing new cost effective and scalable information processing systems.
• Oversee all technology projects and operations and working with the country’s leadership team to ensure there is sufficient support from other departments and external stakeholders like government, partners. Manage the research and selection of IT equipment, applications, and suppliers’ governance.
• Manage and coach the country’s IT department, including directly supervising employees, identification and hiring of members, and handling employee concerns and regular performance reviews/appraisals.
• Support the Senior Technology Manager to oversee and help track utilization the country’s IT departmental finances, including budgeting and forecasting for all technology needs and development of the technical team capacity and capabilities.

Technical Background:

• Over 8 years of firm technical foundation acquired while developing, deploying and integrating various technology solutions including mobile software development platforms, databases, cloud infrastructure systems, analytics and dashboard.
• 5+ years previous experience working on cloud-based environments, running web servers, testing Android APKs and ability to isolate problems and guide engineers towards resolving problems.
• Ability and 3+ years’ experience in leading detailed technical conversations among engineers and non- technical teams while articulating the logic and flow of technology systems developed in various platforms e.g Java, Android APKs, PHP, JavaScript and Python.
• Previous experience in complex software integrations, API management and proficient in database management e.g. PostgreSQL, CouchDB
• Knowledge and experience working with agile project management methodologies and tools (e.g. GitHub projects, Harvest, Asana, Trello).
• Familiarity with or experience using widely-adopted, open source data and information platforms a plus (e.g. OpenMRS, DHIS2, RapidPro).
• Previous experience in deployment and support of Microsoft cloud solutions will be an added advantage.
• Team Management skills:
• 3+ years of direct team management experience, building high-performance teams composed of local and remote members and experience working with outsourced development partners.
• Ability to communicate accurately, clearly, and effectively in written and spoken English.
• Motivated to complete projects in a fast-paced environment while armed with the altitude to get things done quickly and efficiently, regardless of obstacles.
• Able to prioritize dozens of high value tasks simultaneously, in an environment where priorities are constantly changing. Able to stay organized in this environment.
• Self-starter and motivated to move ahead without direct instruction on each step of a project.
• Able to take big, sometimes nebulous tasks and break them down into the right sequence.
• Strong interpersonal skills with proven ability to work with and lead multidisciplinary teams.
• Experience interacting, guiding and managing system administrators and software teams.
• A team player who enjoys interacting with people of all levels in a multicultural environment.

Your Competencies:

• Technical leadership and team management
• Logical and sober thinker with ability to unpack ambiguous project goals into simple realistic technical solutions.
• Presentation and communication skills- C- level presentations and low-level detailed presentations – requires good data analysis and visualization skills.
• Business development skills- ability to think on how to leverage on technology to develop and seize opportunities.
• Ability to think through how technology solutions proposed make Living Good competitive against other players in the industry.
• Compensation:A competitive salary and benefits package commensurate with experience including health insurance and bonus opportunity. The opportunity to be your best  while making lives better for those in need.