Chief Manager – Technology Architecture & Design at Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA)

Purpose of the job:

The Chief Manager – Technology Architecture & Design will be responsible to overseeing development and Management of KRA’s Enterprise architecture and supporting transition of KRAs Core Business Capabilities to the desired future capabilities in order for KRA to realize its mandate. Also responsible for Solutions Design and technology innovation. Ensures alignment of Business with Technology and is responsible for defining and driving the execution of Technology Strategy.

Managerial / Supervisory Responsibilities

• Technology Strategy Development and Execution Management.
• Identification of key business capability gaps and alignment of business capabilities for agility.
• Define & align KRA’s long term Enterprise Architecture transformation Strategy to support business strategy.
• Oversee building of business plans/cases, strategic direction, and standards for procedures and policies as they relate to KRA’s Systems architecture.
• Align the current and future architecture Standards to industry standards and frameworks while keeping alignment to KRA’s enterprise architecture guidelines
• Establish Enterprise Architecture principles and governance processes
• Ensure Simplification, agility/adaptability and cost effectiveness of the End to End IT Enterprise and Data Architecture (Applications, Infrastructure and related Enterprise Architecture principles, frameworks & governance) including maintaining updated AS-IS and TO-BE reference architectures and transition plans for various technology domains.
• Creation of technology plans that optimize KRA business and technology capabilities and implementation of digital strategies. Analyzing and monitoring the technology portfolio against strategic goals, identifying innovation gaps and prioritizing investments in new technologies that have impact to revenue, customer experience or operational efficiency.
• Solutions Architecting & Design to ensure solutions are built and integrated right.
• Virtually lead delivery of all Technology Modernization/Digitization and Innovation Programs.
• Optimization of vendor contracts to reduce CAPEX, OPEX and Time to market.
• Identification of industry business and technology trends and evolutions and relating them with the internal business and technology landscape to help the business identify, assess and respond to emerging opportunities and risks, including influencing/shaping the KRA ecosystem.
• Lead experimentation of new technologies, coordinate and support innovations implementation.
• Lead cross-functional teams on technology solutions and services selection and sourcing, while optimizing the technology sourcing process.
• Align technology investments to strategic goals and ensure benefits realization from technology investments.
• Planning and support of Architecting and innovation Tools.
• End to End technology status reporting.
• Attract, recruit and develop the best talent for the section.
• Team Engagement though constant feedback, communication and performance discussions.
• Sharing, with Management and Project Teams, best practices and lessons learned in technology implementations.
• Collaborating with all relevant parties in order to review the objectives and constraints of each solution and determining conformance with the Enterprise Architecture. 
• Identifying key Project implementation risks and analyzing potential impacts on the enterprise and on achievement of anticipated objectives.
• Participation in IT based Change Management activities.
• Team Management (Fit for future capacity building & training, Performance Management)

Professional qualifications

• Bachelor Degree in business, IT, Computing or related field from a recognized university.
• Master’s degree in business, ICT or Project-related field from a recognized University is an added advantage.

Professional qualification:

• TOGAF, Frameworx or other architecture framework training
• ITIL, PRINCE 2, PMP and Agile delivery methodologies.
• Software Quality Assurance.
• Trainings/Certifications around Software Development and Database technologies, IT Security, Network, Cloud & Networking and Data Centre Design/Management.

Professional experience:

• A minimum of 7 years’ working experience in technology strategy and delivery (solutions architecture & design, analysis, development, quality assurance & project management environment) roles within a busy ICT environment.
• At least 3-years’ work experience at management level.

Competencies required for this role

• Strategic agility.
• Highly developed analytical thinking skills & problem solving.
• Excellent leadership and people management skills.
• Provide a high degree of team leadership through complex projects.
• Strong communication skills to complement an aptitude for computer systems.
• Creative, flexible and adaptable.
• Strong decision-making skills.
• Professional networking ability.