Job description
Tala is looking for an experienced IT Systems leader to build our IT Support and Systems function in Nairobi. Tala is a world leader in providing direct loans and financial services in emerging markets. We are a global team with diverse backgrounds who are singularly focused on using technology, data, and a customer-centric approach to meet the financial needs of the 2+ billion people of the emerging global middle class.
In this role, you’ll be responsible for creating and leading an IT Support function that is responsible for troubleshooting, resolution, and maintenance of all office IT, networking, and virtual environment infrastructures. You’ll also lead change management initiatives to drive maximum uptime, functionality, and resiliency of our network, hardware, and related software applications, with responsibility for identifying and managing vendors to accomplish these goals.
Great candidates will have significant experience managing IT solutions and staff for a large office, demonstrate strong technical and vendor management skills, and have experience managing large office expansion/infrastructure projects. You are an incredible problem-solver with a strong sense of accountability for end-user experience and systems uptime. You are a strong communicator, ensuring a large, varied audience understands issues, root cause, dependencies, and tradeoffs between different solutions alternatives.
What You Will Do
Manage all troubleshooting, technical support, diagnosis, and change management to maximize functionality and up-time of internal and third-party networks, hardware, software, applications, and other virtual environment infrastructures.
Evaluate, onboard, and manage performance of IT vendors, including Tier 1 Helpdesk vendor.
Ultimate accountability for troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and resolution of desktop/computer, network, application, A/V, and peripheral hardware issues
Recommend and lead change management activities that minimize service disruption impacts on internal users, including planning and cost-effective execution of office capacity increases.
Ensure redundancy, resiliency, and identify dependencies for networking infrastructure and software applications.
What You Should Have
Undergraduate degree in computer science management, information systems, software engineering, business administration or commensurate certifications
4+ years experience managing IT and network support for a large office/business
2+ years experience leading IT capacity increase projects for a large office/business
Experience directly hiring and managing an IT staff
Experience evaluating and managing IT support vendors
Experience evaluating and managing IT and network suppliers
Experience with the following tools/systems: Hardware (Apple, Linux Desktop, PC), routers (Palo Alto, Cisco, D-Link Switch, TP-Link Switch), VoIP (SIP, Codecs – G711, G729, G723.1, QoS), Google Suite (email,
browser, docs), development/task mgmt. (SSH, Github, VPN, Jira), communications (Google Hangouts, Slack, Skype, Zoom)
Strong oral and written communication skills in order to interact with internal customers, vendors, and partners
Strong independent decision-making skills.
Willingness and ability to be available off-hours/on-call
Preferred Skills & Experience
Certifications: CCNA, CCNP, VOIP
Experience managing IT solutions for call center environments
Experience working in multiple countries in East Africa
Experience managing IT solutions + staffing for multiple office locations
Experience working with a global, distributed leadership team
We strongly believe that inclusion fosters innovation and we’re proud to have a diverse team with a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences. We focus on hiring talented people regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
