Chief Technology Officer, SOLV Kenya at Standard Chartered Bank Kenya

We’re committed to promoting equality in the workplace and creating an inclusive and flexible culture – one where everyone can realise their full potential and make a positive contribution to our organisation. This in turn helps us to provide better support to our broad client base.

The Role Responsibilities

• Incumbent will be responsible for supporting the CEO, SOLV Kenya in managing and leading the Technology arm of Solv Kenya.
• Chief Technology Officer for Solv Kenya shall be the hands-on technology lead, own the full technology stack build, manage the production/test environment(s), manage technology operations (DevOps, Change Management) and manage vendor / fintech engagements for multi-market multi-anchor SaaS Solv KE platform.
• Incumbent will have the first line responsibility for the Implementation of the Technology activities and deliver the Tech strategic vision of SOLV Kenya.
• Incumbent will be required to have an appreciation of the country specific nuances and in particular

Business and Strategy:

• Working with the Venture Lead, Product Owners, and partners to lead technology build, evaluate technology trade-offs, oversee vendor engineering engagements, and deliver features and capabilities aligned to the business model to build on the minimum viable product (MVP) to successful global rollout.
• Chief Technology Officer will discuss with partners, fintechs, co-creation clients, and business to expand the offering of the SOLV Business Offerings.
• Co-ordinate, question and interrogate technology opportunities with engineering team and innovate to sustain a competitive advantage.
• Employ a managerial mindset that seeks to optimise the business outcome for the Venture while establishing sound governance, internal process, adherence to policies and processes. This role requires close coordination with the SC Ventures CTO.
• Thought leadership and demonstratable subject matter expertise on use of machine learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, APIs, cyber security, DevSecOps and similar technology applications.
• Establish sound technology operation covering incident management, problem management, service levels (SLAs) and business continuity processes
• Drive the technical vision, strategy, direction and leadership in support of the Venture’s strategic direction and growth aspirations in regards to the various products offered on SOLV Kenya
• Be a leader for the Tech arm of the business ensuring the team under them remains focused and delivers way above and beyond the deliverables
• Proactively manage the allocated budget, minimising wastage and establishing efficiencies and effective from a system perspective.
• Establish close links with colleagues leading other Product segments and/or Product Groups to achieve common platforms and work plans, implementing a One Venture approach to covering all clients from the various arms on the platform being built.
• Act as a conduit  during interaction with various stakeholders to pick on market trends, unique needs that we can satisfy and to remain market leaders on the SOLV Kenya Platform Offering.

Processes

• Overseeing infrastructure and technology operations (e.g. Software development/Apps) and evaluate them according to established goals of technical operations.
• Inspect the use of technological equipment and software/Apps to ensure functionality and efficiency.
• Tracking technology requirements and needs
• Maintaining operations & systems.
• Have expertise and professional experience in software development and deep understanding of technology delivery.

People and Talent

• Lead through example and build the appropriate culture and values. Set appropriate tone and expectations from a tech expertise for SOLV Kenya to the Team and work in collaboration with the rest of the Senior Management Team.
• Promote and embed a culture of openness, trust and risk awareness, where ethical, legal, regulatory and policy compliant conduct is the norm.
• Stimulate an environment where forward planning, prioritisation, deadline management, target achievement, creating good customer relations and loyalty and streamlined workflows and collaborative, inclusive yet effective and efficient work practices are the norm.
• Set and monitor job descriptions and objectives for direct reports and provide feedback and rewards in line with their performance against those responsibilities and objectives.
• Ensure the provision of ongoing training and development in order that team members are competent, suitably skilled and qualified for their roles, ensuring that they have effective supervision in place to mitigate any risks.
• Review team structure/capacity plan to ensure an effective  and efficient risk management framework
• Employ, engage and retain high quality people, with succession planning for critical roles
• Provide feedback at business, function, country and individual level as appropriate, on Technology Performance  which should have a bearing on remuneration pools or individual bonuses (for senior staff).
• Ensure regular and documented management meetings with the senior management team on the performance of the Technology arm of SOLV Kenya.

Risk Management

• In accordance with the Ventures Enterprise Risk Management Framework, act as first line Risk Owner for appropriate and relevant Venture processes.
• Collaborate with the Risk and Compliance Team Members to anticipate horizon risks that may have a significant impact on the Ventures Technology and develop effective strategies to mitigate such horizon risks including global standards for conduct of business.
• Collaborate with Risk and Compliance Team and senior managers to support a programme for conduct, financial crime and compliance monitoring, surveillance and/or assurance for the Solv business in Kenya
• In the event of serious technology regulatory breaches, or where risk tolerances have been breached, working with Risk and Governance, ensure senior management in the Venture and relevant regulators are informed and that actions are taken quickly to remediate and/or activities are ceased.
• Working with the Risk and Compliance Officer ensure proactive and timely identification, assessment, advice and dissemination of evolving regulatory changes/practices and associated risks, and proactive engagement in regulatory reform relating to Technology.
• Liaise with the internal audit function to ensure that any weakness identified by the internal audit function relating to the SOLV Tech in Kenya are appropriately followed up and closed in a timely manner.
• Understand technical aspects of systems relevant to the SOLV Kenya business.
• Together with the Risk Team, assess risks arising from products / segments / geographies / customers / transactions related to Solv business.
• Ensure any Technical related global standards are understood and implemented across the area of responsibility, with any identified exceptions, or need for more/less stringent standards escalated when appropriate.

Governance

• Attend relevant leadership meetings, and provide relevant reports to senior management and governance/risk committees for the area of responsibility.
• Working with the Risk Team, Identify and escalate potential risks and issues to senior management through appropriate governance channels and the Quality Assurance framework.
• Ensure appropriate Tech governance measures are in place so that product approval documents reflect all relevant requirements.
• Propose control effectiveness and efficiency improvements and simplifications where appropriate.

Project/Change management

• Lead key change programmes and projects for SOLV Kenya Tech developments and  maintenance ensuring timely and successful deployment.
• Maintain workplans specific to SOLV Tech build projects/ initiatives, and communicate the same to stakeholders in a regular, timely fashion to inform and seek inputs.
• Support and Review new business requirements and provide solutions from a Tech side for Solv business in Kenya where required.
• Drive and stimulate an environment where forward planning, prioritisation and deadline management lead to efficient work practices and streamlined functional activities and processes.

Regulatory & Business Conduct

• Display exemplary conduct and live by the Solv Kenya’s Values and Code of Conduct.
• Effectively and collaboratively identify, escalate, mitigate and resolve Technology risk related to SOLV Kenya.
• Work with Risk Tea and relevant stakeholders to respond to regulatory questions.
• Take personal responsibility for embedding the highest standards of ethics, including regulatory and business conduct, across SOLV Kenya’s business. This includes understanding and ensuring compliance with, in letter and spirit, all applicable laws, regulations, guidelines and Solv’s Group Code of Conduct.

Key Stakeholders

• Venture Lead, CEO SOLV Kenya
• SC Ventures, Group CTO
• Global Heads, SOLV
• Other Tech Heads
• Relevant Regulators
• 3rd party Vendors
• Solv India

Other Responsibilities

• Embed SC Venture’s brand and values in the Kenya’s SOLV Business Team
• Perform other responsibilities assigned under Group, Regional, Business or Functional policies and standards as may be relevant.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Expert knowledge of mainstream cloud provider (AWS), Cloud-native services, microservices, contender and elastic infrastructure.
• Expert background in distributed systems, authentication mechanisms, asynchronous event processing, message queues, and architecture patterns.
• Knowledgeable on modern object orientated programming practises including entity frameworks, dynamic reflection, and reusable interfaces.
• Familiarity with 3rd party system integrations via APIs (HTTP/REST), host-to-host (file exchange by FTP), with background jobs processing of real-time, event triggered, and async automations.
• Familiar with OWASP, secure by design, secure coding practises, code scanning, unit testing, dependency management (deprecation, vulnerabilities, licensing)
• Extensive experience with DevOps including pipeline, release management, multi AWS account deployments.
• Required experience in front-end AngularJS, and good to have familiarity with modular frameworks such as ASP.NET Boilerplate, ASPNetZero, ABP.IO
• Overseeing scrum teams, engineers, and ensuring reliable delivery of sprints, change management of features and bug fixes, and backlog
• Experience with operating highly-available production financial systems
• Familiarity with SQL databases, DNS, service discovery, and related infrastructure components
• Ability to wear multiple hats such as individual contributor to business and technology, team lead, solution architect, facilitator.
• Beneficial is knowledge of FinTech ecosystem, inclusive of Blockchain, Digital Payments, Primer Services as well as other innovations in this space.