Basic Function

The Senior IT Officer (Information Systems) is responsible for designing, building, and operating core components of the different council Information Systems. The role combines strong hands-on software engineering with technical leadership, including mentoring junior engineers, reviewing their work, and ensuring system reliability, performance, and security in production environments.

The Senior Officer also contributes to building a strong data foundation that enables reporting, analytics, and evidence-based decision-making for the TVET sector, while preparing the platform for future data science and advanced analytics use cases.

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Software Development & System Ownership

• Take end-to-end ownership of assigned system components from design to production support
• Design, build, and maintain secure, scalable backend services and REST APIs
• Translate operational and business requirements into technical designs and working solutions
• Refactor and modernise legacy components to improve stability, performance, and maintainability

2. Technical Leadership & Mentorship

• Mentor junior engineers through code reviews, pairing, and on-the-job coaching
• Provide architectural guidance and enforce coding and design standards
• Promote best practices in software quality, documentation, and delivery

3. Database Engineering

• Design and manage schemas for both Relational and NoSQL databases
• Perform query optimisation, performance tuning, and data modelling
• Ensure data consistency, integrity, and availability
• Support reporting and analytics workloads

4. Production Support & Reliability

• Provide production application support, including incident handling and root-cause analysis
• Fix bugs, deploy patches, and deliver improvements using structured CI/CD workflows
• Improve system resilience, monitoring, and operational stability.

5. Systems Integration & Interoperability

• Design and maintain REST-based APIs and integrations with external systems (payments, mobile money, messaging services, third-party platforms, hardware systems)
• Ensure reliable and secure cross-system data exchange.

6. Cloud & DevOps Operations

• Support containerised deployments and cloud environments
• Contribute to CI/CD pipelines, release automation, monitoring, and logging
• Conduct system health audits and performance optimisation

7. Reporting, Data & Analytics Enablement

• Design data models that support operational reporting, analytics, and future data science use cases
• Ensure data quality, traceability, and consistency across system modules
• Support analytical queries, dashboards, and statistical reporting
• Collaborate with analysts and policymakers to expose meaningful datasets
• Prepare data pipelines and structures suitable for advanced analytics and machine learning initiatives

8. Other duties

• Other duties as may be assigned

Supervision received: The Senior IT Officer Information Systems is directly supervised by the ManagerInformation Systems Management and Support

Supervision exercised: Supervises the IT Officer (Information Systems)

Education Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or Information Systems.
• Strong backend development experience (Python, Java, C#, or Node.js)
• Familiarity with both Relational and NoSQL databases
• PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and MySQL
• REST API design and development
• Git and CI/CD workflows

Experience

• Minimum of six(6) years’ experience designing, supporting, and evolving enterprise-grade information systems in public-sector–like or data-driven environments and with at least three (3) years in supervisory role.
• Proven experience owning systems end-to-end, from design and implementation to production support and continuous improvement
• Experience supporting platforms used by tens of thousands of users in operational environments

Hands-on experience in:

• Database engineering and administration using PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and MySQL, including: Schema design, Query optimisation, Performance tuning, Data consistency and Support of reporting and analytics workloads
• Production application support at scale, including: Root-cause analysis, Incident resolution, Bug fixing and patch deployment and CI/CD-based releases.
• Modernisation of legacy systems through refactoring, architectural redesign, and performance optimisation
• Systems integration and interoperability using REST APIs and third-party services (payments, mobile money, messaging platforms, hardware systems)
• Translating requirements into solutions by working directly with non-technical stakeholders
• Data-driven reporting and operational visibility through structured queries, dashboards, and analytics outputs.
• Cloud and DevOps operations including: Containerisation (Docker), Cloud deployments and Monitoring, logging, and system reliability practices
• Technical leadership and mentorship, including code reviews, architectural guidance, and coaching of junior engineers.
• Experience supporting dashboards or BI tools

Knowledge and Skills

• Docker and container orchestration
• Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
• Strong SQL for analytical workloads
• Basic familiarity with data processing or analytics tools (e.g., Python, Pandas, Spark)
• Understanding of data warehousing or analytics architectures
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills
• Leadership and supervisory skills.
• Ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
• High ownership, accountability, and attention to quality

Physical Demands: None

Travel requirements: The position may require occasional travel within/out of the country.

• Take end-to-end ownership of assigned system components from design to production support
• Design, build, and maintain secure, scalable backend services and REST APIs
• Translate operational and business requirements into technical designs and working solutions
• Refactor and modernise legacy components to improve stability, performance, and maintainability
• Mentor junior engineers through code reviews, pairing, and on-the-job coaching
• Provide architectural guidance and enforce coding and design standards
• Promote best practices in software quality, documentation, and delivery
• Design and manage schemas for both Relational and NoSQL databases
• Perform query optimisation, performance tuning, and data modelling
• Ensure data consistency, integrity, and availability
• Support reporting and analytics workloads
• Provide production application support, including incident handling and root-cause analysis
• Fix bugs, deploy patches, and deliver improvements using structured CI/CD workflows
• Improve system resilience, monitoring, and operational stability.
• Design and maintain REST-based APIs and integrations with external systems (payments, mobile money, messaging services, third-party platforms, hardware systems)
• Ensure reliable and secure cross-system data exchange.
• Support containerised deployments and cloud environments
• Contribute to CI/CD pipelines, release automation, monitoring, and logging
• Conduct system health audits and performance optimisation
• Design data models that support operational reporting, analytics, and future data science use cases
• Ensure data quality, traceability, and consistency across system modules
• Support analytical queries, dashboards, and statistical reporting
• Collaborate with analysts and policymakers to expose meaningful datasets
• Prepare data pipelines and structures suitable for advanced analytics and machine learning initiatives
• Other duties as may be assigned

• Docker and container orchestration
• Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
• Strong SQL for analytical workloads
• Basic familiarity with data processing or analytics tools (e.g., Python, Pandas, Spark)
• Understanding of data warehousing or analytics architectures
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills
• Leadership and supervisory skills.
• Ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
• High ownership, accountability, and attention to quality

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or Information Systems.
• Strong backend development experience (Python, Java, C#, or Node.js)
• Familiarity with both Relational and NoSQL databases
• PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and MySQL
• REST API design and development
• Git and CI/CD workflows