Job Openings at Kenya Airways

As a direct report to the Chief Information Officer (CIO), The Head of Digital is the senior leader charged with creating a vision, plans, and drives the enterprise-wide digital strategy by providing technology that enables digital customer experience through web, mobile and social media platforms for internal use.  This position will be accountable for driving automation across the firm, improving developer productivity, and increasing customer satisfaction by extended use of same platforms where relevant to meet Kenya Airways’ internal requirements. 

The role holder will be expected to:

• Oversee strategic design, acquisition, management, and implementation of an enterprise-wide technology infrastructure. Create a vision for and drive the enterprise-wide digital strategy. Lead the digital strategy execution including coordination and oversight of cross functional teams that deliver digital projects. Works with executive team and staff to develop and implement a culture of exceptional client service around technology and digital offerings.
• Define project scope and schedule while focusing on regular and timely delivery of value; organize and lead project status and working meetings; prepare and distribute progress reports; manage risks and issues; correct deviations from plans; and perform delivery planning for assigned projects
• Assist in team development while holding teams accountable for their commitments, removing roadblocks to their work; leveraging organizational resources to improve capacity for project work; and mentoring and developing team members. Facilitate the scrum team for better creativity and works to improve the efficiency of the development team. Managing outside influencers. Remove the impediments for the scrum team.
• Arranges daily stand-up meetings, facilitates and schedules meetings, demos and decision-making processes in order to ensure quick inspection and proper use of adaptation process. Conducts retrospective meetings, organizes and facilitates the sprint planning meeting and acts as safeguard for his team.
• Managing stakeholder communications and helping to implement an effective system of project governance.
• Partner with senior leadership across to advance the mission goals of airline with a focus on innovative technology solutions; including identifying opportunities and risks for delivering products and services digitally, as well as identification of competitive services, opportunities for innovation, and assessment of marketplace obstacles and technical hurdles to business success.
• Accountable for successful planning and coordination of the execution of multiple complex, high risk and multi-dimensional infrastructure projects across the company related to Digital Transformation and will act as the primary liaison for the airline with strategic partners and vendors, ensuring alignment of efforts with the airline’s strategic objectives. This role will also function as a change agent for the airline by articulating the business needs and value of Digital Transformation initiatives effectively enterprise-wide, influencing support and driving adoption for digital-based initiatives.
• Define and manage a well-defined project management process and champion ongoing process improvement initiatives to implement best practices for Agile Project Management. Is responsible for managing the scrum process with the coordination of the scrum team in agile methodology
• Promote empowerment of the team, ensure that each team member is fully engaged in the project and making a meaningful contribution, and encourage a sustainable pace with high-levels of quality for the team
• Remain current with technology standards, industry trends and emerging technologies, as well as product development and product management best practices while ensuring compliance with all regulations, policies, and procedures.

The successful jobholder will be required to possess the following qualifications: -

• An IT related Bachelor’s degree or similar qualification with relevant IT professional qualifications.
• 10+ years of working experience in IT, of which 5 must be in Digital Practice.
• Certified Agile project manager/Scrum Master with relevant practical experience as an agile project manager/Scrum Master or experience working in a Scrum Framework.
• Strong understanding of the full software development life cycle, processes and procedures with an understanding of team needs, fundamentals of iterative and incremental development as well as Service oriented environments and Agile practices.
• Thorough understanding of the lean/Agile software development methodologies, techniques, values and procedures - User Stories, Continuous Integration, Continuous Testing, Pairing, Automated Testing, Agile Games, Kanban, Extreme Programing (XP), Crystal, Feature Driven Development (FDD).
• Ability to produce quantifiable metrics of performance and use these to maximize productivity
• Coaching capability on agile scrum with a Continuous improvement mindset – Must continually be growing one’s craft, learning new tools and techniques to manage oneself and a team. Must be able to lead and demonstrate value-add principles to a team
• High level of mathematical aptitude and strong problem-solving skills, Logical, analytical with an investigative creative mind and ability to handle complex information with accuracy and attention to detail. Knows and appreciates the value of metrics and incremental delivery.
• Design thinking experience and/or training is desirable.
• You strive in a culture of innovation - willing to say yes and try out new ideas and living outside your comfort zone.
• You are comfortable handling multiple competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Deep understanding of how culture and team dynamics create exceptional teams.
• Demonstrated experience developing and implementing organization-wide technological, and digital strategies aligned with organizational mission and focus on user experience.
• Must be comfortable in an environment where limited support or information may be available, along with the ability to navigate seamlessly between setting a strategy and executing/implementing.
• Demonstrated capability to lead and execute large scale, complex, and cross-functional work efforts across multiple disciplines with expertise and passion on understanding the needs of external Customers and working with internal Customers to understand their barriers to delivering service excellence.
• High-level communication skills including experience in leading management teams towards a strategic technology vision.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills when working with both internal business and technical people with external customers, ability to solidify vague requests, explain issues, and guide to solutions.

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The Head of Enterprise Architecture  and Solution Design ensures business strategy and relevant trends are expressed in KQ’s  technology. S/he will define and deliver IT enterprise architecture and architecture review processes and lead effective integration programs with other related business and IT processes.

This role is accountable for the development of technology principles, standards and patterns that are highly reusable across multiple enterprise solutions. You shall lead Executive & Senior Management in organization-wide operations that will create substantial added value for the Enterprise. You will also lead design reviews of significant technology projects at defined tollgates. The role is also accountable for all solution design across the IT infrastructure  and applicable enterprise.

Besides other duties, one of you key primary role is to define and deliver ensure that respective business, application, data and technology perspectives are in line with the company’s technology and governance strategies, policies and standards. You will also interpret, use and apply information contained within IT architecture to inform a range of business improvement activities, particularly those involved in the implementation, design, development, enhancement and maintenance of ICT systems.

The Role:

The successful jobholder will be expected to:

• Direct the creation and evolution of the enterprise architecture function, including coordination of an appropriately balanced pursuit of enterprise business, information, technical, and solution architecture viewpoints.
• Lead the identification and analysis of enterprise business drivers to derive enterprise business, information, technical, and solution architecture requirements.
• Ensure that individual solution architecture design and analysis work (particularly as specific solutions are created or upgraded in projects by project architects or solution architects) is documented in a structured fashion matching the EA framework and is stored in a common place.
• Partner with the Business Leads in activities that shall analyze, recommend and formulate design plans, development of architecture blueprints for related systems that shall transit into workable solutions that factors technology investments and risks while providing value to the company.
• Oversee the process for choosing to buy or build technology solutions review vendor proposals and identify which promises the most value and the best return on investment for the Business.
• Leads the development and execution of a communications and education plan and leverages metrics to assess achievement and impact.
• Fosters a culture of engagement, holds self and others accountable through trust and authentic relationships.
• Promotes a high performance culture by cultivating and motivating direct/indirect reports through coaching, mentoring, and by providing regular and meaningful feedback.
• Define key solution portfolios and ensure they are managed - either by heading that activity directly or by establishing and then supporting portfolio management disciplines.
• Understand and advocate the principles of business and IT strategies, as well as of EA development and service delivery. Be prepared to "sell" the EA process (overall), its outcome and ongoing results, and to lead the communication, marketing or educational activities needed to ensure success and use.
• Collaborate with all relevant parties in order to review the objectives and constraints of each solution and determine conformance with the business needs by conducting post-execution reviews of installed applications to ensure effectiveness.
• Provided guidance to team members (Project managers, Architects, and other IT Specialists, among others) in area of new and complex implementation and/or management tools and techniques.
• Communicating design overviews to be executed and instructing organizational stakeholders on potential threats in order to gain support for information technology strategies
• Guaranteeing application designs support the overall technological strategy by implementing training needs and provide reference manuals to make sure the solutions are supported and maintained appropriately after implementation is complete.
• Ensure that the overall ICT architecture is maintained in a coherent manner and that appropriate considerations are made for its security and quality.
• Utilize high level analytical ability and creativity to analyze complex/new situations, anticipate potential problems and future trends, assess opportunities, impacts and risks while developing and implementing plans and solution deliverables to Business needs
• Ensure architectural design documentation relating to current implementations, prototyping, performance testing and providing growth and scalability plans for the system, provide production Support as well as design and deployment of advanced collaboration platforms within an Enterprise soft skill.
• Ensure knowledge management, this will involve participating in, and/or being responsible for the creation, harvesting, protection, and reuse Kenya Airways’ intellectual capital. This will also include actively participating in knowledge sharing activities like communities of practice, forums, conferences and/or other knowledge exchanges.
• Develop and execute road maps describing the evolution of assigned enterprise solution portfolios from current state to future state.
• Understand and advocate the principles of business and IT strategies, as well as of EA development and service delivery.
• Analyze enterprise business context (trends and business strategy), as well as change requirements in other EA viewpoints, to derive the enterprise architecture change requirements to guide solution decisions for the enterprise.
• Consult with solution development projects to harmonize systems and/or infrastructure with the EA.
• Guide solution decisions for the enterprise by analyzing technology and business trends and strategy.
• Ensure that solution delivery life cycle efforts leverage all aspects of enterprise architecture (EA).

Qualifications, Skills & Attributes

• A Bachelor’s Degree in IT, ICT, Computer Science, Electrical/ Electronic Engineering or a related discipline.
• A minimum of 10 years’ experience in IT with at least 8 years in Enterprise Architecture and Solution Design.
• Experience using architectural design tools and frameworks e.g. (Java, .net, php, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, Query).
• Experience in the following technical disciplines; Application development, Network design, Servers and storage, Database management and Operations
• Knowledge of all components of a holistic enterprise architecture
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience with diverse corporate IT operations, major IT programs, systems integration and technical architecture at Enterprise and inter-enterprise levels.
• Demonstrated knowledge of Enterprise Architecture frameworks, e.g. TOGAF, Zachman
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior leadership (including Business Executives, CIO and GMD &CEO) and be respected as a leader in advancing strategies across all of IT.
• Experience in developing and implementing IT architecture plans, Enterprise Information Architecture standard and guidelines, software development methodologies and strategic plans.
• Track record for remaining unbiased toward any specific technology or vendor and for being more interested in results than personal preferences.
• Track record for thinking about more than technology issues, and for integrating the technical with the business and information aspects for complete solutions.
• Strong leadership skills to indirectly manage across functional teams toward common solutions.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, able to explain and document the Enterprise Information Architecture to diverse audiences (technical, business, etc)
• Expert knowledge across multiple Platforms, Processes and IT Architecture.
• Agile and innovative mindset to drive business outcomes enabled by technology.
• Ability to translate business needs into enterprise architecture requirements.
• Strong background in understanding organizational resources, priorities, needs and policies, and use of the same in developing IT strategies and solutions
• Analytical with good project management and team leadership skills
• Excellent Presentation, communication, planning, organizational and negotiation skills
• Exposure to multiple, diverse business and technical configurations, technologies, and processing environments.

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The Head of IT Security reports to the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and leads the development and implementation of a comprehensive Cybersecurity program that facilitates information security governance.

In this role, you will be accountable for the specification and delivery of all products, services and materials required to operate best practices of cybersecurity for Kenya Airways. You will also maintain current knowledge of cybersecurity and the changing threat landscape; track new developments in rapidly changing information technologies and implement improvements to all layers of security related to the Kenya Airways’ perimeter, network, endpoints, applications, data, monitoring, incident response, disaster recovery, business continuity, and enterprise risk management.

The position requires a leadership approach that is engaging, imaginative, and collaborative, with the ability to work with other leaders to set the best balance between security strategies, general controls, compliance, and other organizational priorities.

The Role
 

The successful jobholder will be expected to:

• Lead and motivate the IT Security team to help ensure the company continues to operate in a secure, stable, and compliant environment.
• Amend, implement and monitor a comprehensive enterprise data security program to ensure the integrity, availability and control of company, customer, and government information and technical data.
• Lead the development of up-to-date information security policies, procedures, standards and guidelines, and oversee their approval, dissemination, and maintenance.
• Ensure that the Company’s security plan is in compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and contractual requirements. This includes maintaining current knowledge on changing regulations specific to security, identifying appropriate implementation plans, and ensuring requirements are met.
• Responsible to manage the daily operations for IT Vulnerability assessment, Data Leakage, Firewall reviews and providing timely updates, support issues regarding to endpoint’s vulnerability, patch, and security configuration scanning and providing solution recommendations to avoid repeated issues.
• Defining procedures and standards related to the management and resolution of vulnerability, patch, security configuration and other security assurance services.
• Communicate IT security risk through effective engagement with all stakeholders for agile decision making and awareness.
• Provide support, guidance, mentoring and education, to ensure that appropriate monitoring and controls are in place for compliance with established security policies and procedures
  Serve as subject matter expert on security standards, best practices and business aligned best practices.
• Evaluate and implement new technology or process solutions to ensure appropriate security considerations are addressed.
• Create and manage information security and risk management awareness training programs for employees, contractors, vendors and/or clients.
• Facilitate and identify acceptable levels of risk and establish roles and responsibilities with regard to information classification and protection.
• Oversee incident response planning and the investigation of security breaches, review investigations after security incidents, including impact analysis and recommendations for avoiding similar vulnerabilities.
• Work with Internal and External Auditors on security and system access reviews.
• Lead the designing and implementation of IT controls designed to mitigate identified risks and ensure they are monitored for continued effectiveness.
• Lead and manage the implementation of COBIT (Control Objectives for Information Technology).

Qualifications, Skills & Attributes

The successful jobholder will be required to possess the following qualifications: -

• An IT related bachelor’s degree or similar qualifications with relevant IT Security professional qualifications.
• At least 10 years’ experience in similar role in IT Security Services coupled with a strong knowledge of security architectures and technologies including assessment, methodologies, compliance standards etc.
• Solid knowledge of Security standards, IT security regulatory and compliance regulations and standards like PCI, HIPAA, Sarbanes Oxley, ISO 27001, NIST, CSF, COBIT, ITIL, SANS 20 and so on.
• Knowledge of risk assessment procedures, policy formation, role-based authorization methodologies, authentication technologies, and security attack pathologies.
• Strong leadership, analytical, problem-solving, written, verbal and presentation skills.
• Extensive interpersonal skills with the ability to work effectively with end-users, IT peers, managers and vendors.
• Prior experience working with external auditors and regulators.
• Strong business acumen, people management skills, conflict management & resolution skills, negotiations skills.
• Demonstrated proven success in working in a team as well as independently and exhibit follow-through to understand root causes of issues.
• Strong leadership, analytical, problem-solving, written, verbal and presentation skills.
• This position calls for an individual who exhibits thoughtful introspection but is also able to assess a broad spectrum of issues.