Senior QA Manager at Koko Networks

Your Role

As KOKO grows within and outside Kenya, our team is looking for a Software QA Manager who will lead and grow a world-class QA team. KOKO Networks systems consist of field hardware and software, such as self service fuel dispensers and smart fuel delivery vehicles that are controlled and managed through our cloud systems to deliver first of a kind services to our customers and partners.  As such you will play a key role in enabling KOKO’s long term success, including our expansion beyond Nairobi and Kenya. This is a very visible leadership position in which you should be able to influence the decisions of your team without having to make all of them.

In this position, you’ll have the opportunity to contribute and add value across KOKO’s entire product suite, through individual contribution, and equally importantly through bringing strong leadership to a group of QA engineers. In this role, you should be a “player and coach” – excited about managing and coaching your team, as well as contributing, hands-on.

KOKO’s suite of products spans multiple technical domains and disciplines in software and hardware, and so experience in end-to-end systems thinking across distributed components is key.

What You Will Do

• You will manage the test and release process for all production software (field systems and backend)
• You will collaborate with Product Managers and Engineers to design and execute integration and regression tests on software releases, advance key quality initiatives and reduce risk.
• You will advocate and implement modern test automation techniques and tools, quality control environments and mock systems to move manual testing to automated CI and eventually CD.
• You will implement a metrics-driven approach to software development, QA and release management to measure and manage the effectiveness of our teams
• You will review technical designs for software changes, and ensure they will be testable, scalable and robust. 
• You will recruit, manage and provide technical mentorship to QA engineers through active coaching and setting measurable goals that help them grow and create maximum impact for KOKO.
• You will help build the engineering culture at KOKO, ensuring it is positioned to attract similar minded people with a passion for using technology to tackle some of the hardest challenges.
• You will ensure the use of best practices including code reviews, automated testing, CI/CD across teams and projects, documentation and help others to improve the quality of their work.
• You will serve as a technical authority and represent the full capabilities of our testing and suite within and outside the Product and Engineering teams

What You Will Bring to KOKO

• Expertise in software quality assurance, test, and integration and a passion for finding bugs and edge cases in complex systems.
• Three or more years of experience directly managing software engineers and 8+ years of experience in software engineering overall.
• Strong track record leading, developing, and delivering significant software projects
• Expertise in designing and troubleshooting large scale distributed systems
• Well developed skills in designing for testability, reliability and troubleshooting
• Evangelist for Agile practices, able to work closely with product leaders and developers to support delivery in an agile manner to achieve key goals.
• Strong communicator, both written and verbal, who is calm and decisive under pressure.
• Empathy for your colleagues, encouraging team members to think creatively while knowing where to intervene to tackle tough problems and navigate conflicts.

We are looking for a highly technical leader with significant experience in scaling and maintaining complex, mission critical systems, and making key architectural decisions along the way.  You should be comfortable leading and coaching in a remote environment, building rapport across the team, doing what’s necessary to ensure KOKO’s products always deliver.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary plus a quarterly cash bonus
• Annual compensation reviews – we reward great work
• Discounted health insurance with no-cost financing for you and your dependents (in Kenya)
• 21 days of annual leave plus public holidays plus examination leave
• Ongoing investment in you and your skills, incl. full access to over 5,000 online courses
• The right equipment for the job – a choice of MacBook, Windows, or Linux laptop

We believe that our people are critical for our ambitious growth plans in Kenya and beyond. We want to build an organisation where people thrive, feel included, grow professionally, and enjoy having high impact through their work.

If you share our passion for technology and our vision for global impact, we strongly encourage you to apply!