Engineer – VAS System Planning & Evolution at Safaricom Kenya

JOB DESCRIPTION

Reporting to the Tech Lead – VAS System Planning & Evolution the position holder will develop and integrate VAS Products & Services offered to Safaricom customers with the goal of delivering high quality solutions within approved schedules. The Engineer shall ensure VAS systems operate within allowed thresholds in terms of capacity and security conformance. VAS Systems comprise of all Value-Added Services which include, but not limited to, SMSC, USSD, Content delivery platform, Voice (RBT, IVR & Media exchange), Video, Device management, Cell Broadcast system and IOT solutions.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Development, configuration and integration of all VAS solutions/systems in line with the Digital IT strategy execution plan. 
• Actively participate in defining strategy, roadmaps and architecture design for the VAS Systems.
• Embrace the new ways of working in VAS domain with the goal of ensuring 50% of VAS projects are delivered through agile methodology.
• Timely delivery of projects assigned with the goal of ensuring high quality standards are met and solutions are operationally viable. Responsible for ensuring First Time Right delivery of all solutions developed.
• Enhance processes and DevOps to improve delivery, reduce toil and increase efficiency by focusing on continuous improvement.
• Accurately document products & services developed & delivered ensuring they follow DevOps Cycle.
• Embrace a DevOps culture by ensuring all developed products and Services are gracefully handed to operations for support.
• Develop and continuously update a knowledge base of best practice for VAS products and Service development.
• Collaborate with both Technical and Business teams to ensure seamless deployment of products.
• Proactively manage capacity and ensure VAS systems operate below 70% utilization.

QUALIFICATIONS

• BSc. Degree in Telecommunication Engineering/Electrical & Electronics engineering/Computer Science/IT.
• 3 years’ experience in a busy telecommunication/ IT environment or Software Engineering with good knowledge in development for VAS solutions including Messaging, Voice, Video & IOT.
• Experience with cloud-native environments.
• Software Engineering methodologies including Agile-oriented development. 
• Proficiency in networking protocols – TCP/IP, DNS and load balancing.
• Working knowledge in Linux systems and Databases – Oracle, MySQL, postgreSQL.
• Working knowledge of security encryption solutions – SSL, firewalls, VPN, IPsec
• Strong experience in programming/scripting language(s) – Python, JavaScript, Perl , Shell  or equivalent.
• 3rd Party RESTful API integration, PHP, MySQL, SQL server, web service working knowledge preferred.