Head of IT
- Nairobi
- Permanent
- Full-time
The Head of IT sets the technical vision and owns end-to-end delivery of secure, reliable, and scalable technology services across the organisation’s 15-country footprint. The role spans on-prem and cloud infrastructure, enterprise networking, call-centre platforms, and a rapidly evolving cybersecurity landscape.
You will lead a multidisciplinary team, manage critical vendors and MNO integrations, and partner with Product, CX, and Finance to ensure that information technology accelerates business outcomes at optimal cost and risk.Duties and Responsibilities
- Strategy & Governance
- Define a 3-year IT strategy and annual roadmaps aligned with business OKRs.
- Maintain and enforce IT policies, standards, and ISO 27001-aligned controls.
- Own IT budget, cost optimisation, and KPI reporting.
- Cybersecurity Leadership
- Serve as primary security officer for infrastructure and data assets.
- Lead continuous threat-modelling, vulnerability management, and SOC operations.
- Oversee incident response and BCP/DR testing across all markets.
- Cloud & Infrastructure
- Architect and operate hybrid setups on AWS/Azure plus regional colos.
- Drive IaC, CI/CD, and automated patching; enforce SRE/DevOps best practices.
- Ensure high availability (≥ 99.9%) for core platforms, IoT backends, and BI stacks.
- Networking
- Design and manage MPLS, SD-WAN, VPN, and Wi-Fi across offices, factories, and distributed call centres.
- Optimise bandwidth and QoS for voice, video, and data traffic.
- Call centre & Telephony systems
- Own Ameyo cloud contact centre and all MNO SIP/PRI integrations.
- Integrate IVR, dialer, WhatsApp, and CRM for omnichannel CX.
- Monitor CTI performance and call-quality analytics; lead roll-outs or centralisation initiatives.
- Vendor & Contract Management
- Negotiate SLAs with MNOs, ISPs, MSPs, and SaaS providers
- Oversee third-party risk assessment and license compliance
- People Leadership
- Build, coach and retain high high-performing 30-plus person IT organisation
- Implement skill matrices, career paths and agile work practices
- Compliance & Audit
- Ensure adherence to data protection laws (GDPR equivalents) and local telecom regulations
- Act as IT Lead during internal/external audits
- Bachelor’s in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field (Master’s a plus).
- 10+ years in IT, with 5+ years leading multi-country infrastructure and security teams.
- Proven delivery of high-availability cloud and on-prem environments at scale (> 1 M users/transactions monthly).
- Hands-on management of enterprise contact-centre platforms (e.g., Ameyo, Genesys, Five9) and telco integrations.
- Deep knowledge of AWS and/or Azure architecture, IaC (Terraform/CloudFormation), Kubernetes, CI/CD.
- Enterprise networking (BGP, OSPF, MPLS/SD-WAN, Fortinet/Cisco/Juniper).
- Security frameworks (NIST, ISO 27001), SIEM/SOAR, EDR, zero‑trust design.
- Voice technologies: SIP trunking, WebRTC, QoS, codec optimisation.
- Strong proficiency with ITSM/ITIL toolsets and asset/CMDB management.
- CISSP
- CISM
- CCSP
- AWS Solutions Architect Pro
- Azure AZ‑305
- CCNP/CCIE
- ITIL v4 MP
- Infrastructure uptime: ≥ 99.9 % for Tier‑1 systems
- Security posture: Mean Time to Detect & Respond
- Call‑center availability: Voice platform uptime ≥ 99.95 %, ACD abandon rate ≤ 3 %
- Project delivery: ≥ 90 % of roadmap milestones on time & budget
- Cost efficiency: ≤ 5 % variance vs. approved IT OPEX & CAPEX budgets