African Development Bank Group (AfDB) - the premier pan-African development institution, promoting economic growth and social progress across the continent.

POSITION : Division Manager - Data Center & System Management Services

The Hiring Department

• The Corporate Information Technology Services Department mission at the Bank is to align the Information Technology delivery strategy along with the Bank’s business strategy, to increase the organizational effectiveness through efficient use of the Information Systems.
• Under the leadership of the Bank’s Information System’s Director, the Corporate Information Technology Services Department is mandated by the Bank to deliver the best possible IT services for Bank staff, and help achieve the results that will get the Bank closer to accomplishing its development goals.

The Position

• Provides leadership, supervision and management for the acquisition, deployment, operations and support of the Bank’s information technology infrastructure.
• Areas of responsibility include:
  • Deliver and support Bank’s infrastructure (servers, storage, databases) and services, applications such as email messaging, support to the development teams and in charge of managing and monitoring the different data centers; ensure the services continuity, capacity and availability, define Service Level Agreements;
  • Continually improve services to meet technology requirements and standard; providing technical guidance and leadership to the different teams within the Division, staff motivation and engagement, performance management, coaching and mentoring, resources planning and optimization.

Responsibilities

• Develop, implement, and maintain change control and rigorous testing processes for modifications to IT infrastructure, including the application of formal Release Management governance and procedures.
• Define, implement and maintain service continuity, capacity and availability plans taking into consideration applicable business operations, risks and service requirements.
• Manage distributed teams, including Third Party Vendors and Outsourced Partners to guarantee deliverables to Time, Budget and Quality Objectives.
• Develop, review, manage, set and measure objectives and motivate team members to successfully accomplish company and personal advancement objectives.
• Focused on cost savings, high performance, high reliability, quality of user experience and architectural alignment of solutions.
• Work with the Corporate Information Technology Services department management, present supporting information to Steering Committees, the Boards of Directors, and others in order to obtain approval for major IT contracts and investment for the Bank.
• Set the goals and objectives of the division, lead the team, evaluate its performance, manage staff potential and training needs.
• Plan and oversee the management of activities undertaken by the division: monitoring of work programs and projects in a timely fashion within the budget.
• Ensure that the Information Technology infrastructure services needed by the bank, as agreed, are provided in a usable, efficient, timely, secure, highly available and cost effective manner.
• Actively participate in long-range strategy planning and manages policy development to address complex business issues; provides leadership to cross-functional teams.
• Oversee the development of service based management processes, control and measure to ensure quality of service is maintained to meet business objectives.
• Implement a service-oriented, quality-driven and result based culture across the division teams that quality criteria are clear, available, measured adhered to and reported.
• Champion & promote on-going service improvements to continually enhance quality and customer satisfaction with respect to infrastructure services.
• Represent the Corporate Information Technology Services department in meetings, task forces, and work groups comprised of sister agencies and as required, representatives of governments.

Selection Criteria

• Experience and skills in the Procurement process of ICT Products and services.
• Experience and skills in Budgeting and resource management including human resources.
• Creative thinking ability.
• People management skills.
• Problem solving and decision making skills.
• Communicate and write effectively in French or English, with a good working knowledge of the other language.
• Hold at least a Master's Degree or its equivalent in Computer Science, Information Technology, Technology management, Telecommunications Engineering or related area.
• Have a minimum of eight (8) years of progressive experience in similar position with at least 3 years of experience in management with track record in people management, and coaching.
• Private sector experience will be an added advantage.
• Excellent Information Technology Service Management skills with 8+ years of running complex Information Technology Service Management operations years proven track record of managing Information Technology infrastructure, systems engineers and data centers geographically distributed.
• ITSM qualification, such as ITIL Operational Support and Analysis (OSA), ITIL Service Offerings and Agreements (SOA) preferred. Minimum ITIL Foundation certified.
• Certification in Data Center Management.
• Progressively responsible experience in analysis, planning and design of ICT infrastructure and systems is required, including at least 3 years of experience at management level.
• Experience in managing mission critical enterprise ICT infrastructure services and data centers is required.
• Working experience in similar financial multilateral institutions.
• Experience in Control and management of ICT assets.
• Knowledge and skills in Enterprise Architecture.
• Experience in Business Process Management and feasibility studies.
• Experience and skills in Budgeting and resource management including human resources.
• Knowledge of relevant national and international legislation. E.g.: Data Protection Act, EU Procurement Directive.
• Conceptual and strategic analytical capacity to understand information system and business operational issues so as to thoroughly analyze and evaluate critical systems matters.
• Ability to improve processes and approaches; demonstrates adaptability to changing priorities.
• Ability to advise Senior Management on complex systems development and related matters of significant importance to the institution.
• Good understanding of the new technology and industry trend.
• Dynamic and self-motivated to provide better services to the users.
• Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines.
• Excellent interpersonal skills coupled with a collaborative style.
• Ability to communicate with the team members and external providers.
• Conflict resolution skills.
• Crisis management skills.
• Vendor management skills.
• Competence in the use of standard Microsoft Office, Windows/Unix operating systems; Oracle/SQL server databases; Storage, back-up and restore technologies. Knowledge of SAP and SRAS are desirable.