Director, Digital Platforms & Engineering (Nairobi Digital Hub)

The Palladium Group View all jobs

  • Nairobi
  • Permanent
  • Full-time
  • 30 days ago
Director, Digital Platforms & Engineering (Nairobi Digital Hub)About Palladium:Palladium is a global company working to design, develop and deliver positive impact on the lives and livelihoods of people around the globe; broaden access to health, water, power, and infrastructure; build enduring, sustainable, and transformative institutions and market systems to address global challenges; and conserve the natural world. We operate in over 50 countries and have a workforce of more than 2,000 talented and motivated staff around the world.Palladium is part of GISI's global family of companies, which aims to create solutions for the world's most complex challenges. With annual revenues of $14 billion, GISI's approximately 15,000 employees are engaged in projects across 100 countries worldwide providing construction, program/project management, and engineering consulting services.This Opportunity:Palladium is seeking a Director, Digital Platforms & Engineering to lead its Nairobi Digital Hub as it evolves into a platform-led, engineering-driven model. This leadership role blends hands-on technology and platform management with a strong focus on private-sector-style business development and revenue growth. The Director will be responsible for setting the technical vision, architecture, and delivery standards for Palladium's digital platforms, ensuring they are robust, commercially viable, and meet client and partner needs. The position requires a proactive, client-facing technologist who can translate technology into compelling value propositions and drive partnerships. This is a builder-seller-leader role, emphasizing active leadership and business generation rather than traditional advisory or management duties.Location:This role is based out of Palladium's Nairobi, Kenya office. Please note that applicants must have the right to work in Kenya, as visa sponsorship is not available for this role.Palladium supports a hybrid working model with 3 days in office and 2 days remote.Reporting Lines:
  • The Director reports to the Vice President, Digital Technology and Delivery (US-based)
  • This role will supervise the Digital Hub engineering, platform, and product teams, including technical leads, architects, and delivery managers
Primary Responsibilities:Portfolio Leadership and Team Management
  • Lead and scale the Nairobi Digital Hub as a multidisciplinary engineering organization (software, data, DevOps, cloud, QA, security, UX)
  • Provide executive oversight for major digital and platform implementations, balancing innovation, delivery discipline, risk, and financial performance
  • Represent Palladium as a senior digital and engineering leader with clients, funders, governments, and private sector partners
  • Balance innovation with delivery discipline, risk management, and financial performance
  • Ensure projects align with Palladium's platform strategy and Digital Hub delivery model
  • Recruit, mentor, and retain high caliber engineering and product talent, building sustainable delivery capacity
  • Foster a builder culture emphasizing ownership, accountability, learning, and delivery of excellence
  • Establish clear career pathways for engineers, architects, and technical leaders within Palladium
Technical Strategy and Execution Oversight
  • Define and own Palladium's digital platform strategy, including interoperable architectures, opensource and global public goods ecosystems, data platforms, analytics, and AI enablement
  • Establish and enforce engineering excellence standards across architecture, coding practices, security, scalability, documentation, and DevOps
  • Oversee the design, build, and operation of shared digital platforms, accelerators, and reusable components
  • Champion product and platform-oriented delivery models, moving beyond project-by-project implementations
  • Ensure adoption of modern software engineering practices (Agile, CI/CD, cloud native, API first, modular architectures)
  • Serve as a senior technical authority on platform architecture, integration, and interoperability across sectors
  • Ensure platforms are secure, scalable, and compliant with donors, regulatory, and data protection requirements
  • Develop and maintain reference architectures, blueprints, and reusable assets for global use
Growth and Business Development
  • Originate and close digital business opportunities, including platform build and scale and managed services for both public and private sector clients, supporting diversification of revenue beyond traditional donor funded work
  • Lead or significantly contribute to deal shaping, solution design, pricing models, and commercial structures including authoring and reviewing technical and management sections of proposals
  • Translate complex technical concepts into clear business and impact value propositions
  • Build and maintain strategic partnerships with technology firms, startups, investors, and delivery partners to support cocreation, co-investment, and platform adoption
Essential Criteria:
  • 15+ years in software engineering, digital platforms, or technology leadership roles
  • Proven experience leading engineering teams and growth of digital platform engineering teams at scale; experience leading a P&L with accountability for revenue growth, cost management, and profitability preferred
  • Strong understanding of: Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP); Modern software architectures (microservices, APIs, event-driven systems); Data platforms and analytics
  • Demonstrated success in business development or commercial technology roles including selling, deal shaping, or partnerships
  • Experience working across public sector, development, and/or private sector technology environments
  • Track record of delivering complex digital solutions in multi-stakeholder environments
Core Capabilities:
  • Technical credibility with senior engineers and architects
  • Commercial mindset with the ability to sell and close deals
  • Strong strategic thinking paired with hands-on execution
  • Excellent communication with both technical and non-technical audiences
  • Ability to operate in ambiguity and build new models
  • Strong people leadership and coaching skills
Desired Criteria:
  • Experience building or scaling digital platforms or products, not just projects
  • Exposure to managed services or SaaS-style models
  • Experience working with or alongside startups and technology vendors
  • Background in global development, DPI, or large-scale public-sector digital programs
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. We encourage you to apply early as the position may close once a suitable candidate is found.All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, or status as a protected veteran.Should you require any adjustments or accommodations to be made due to a disability or you are a neurodivergent individual, or for any other circumstance, please email our team at accessibility@thepalladiumgroup.com and we will be in touch to discuss.Safeguarding - We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse. All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.

The Palladium Group