Career Opportunities at Safaricom Kenya

JOB DESCRIPTION

M-Pesa Africa is a leading FinTech company dedicated to delivering innovative financial solutions that empower businesses and individuals. We are committed to harnessing cutting-edge technology to revolutionize the Finance industry and provide exceptional services to our customers.

The Software Engineering Team Lead, also referred to as Release Train Engineer will be responsible for driving the development and continuous improvement of the converged M-Pesa app across all the countries that we support. This role is pivotal in ensuring an exceptional digital customer experience and will manage a team of talented developers in a SAFe Agile environment.  They will also provide strong technical leadership, facilitate Scrum events, resolve impediments, and ensure the team’s adherence to Agile principles, deliver the Strategic Product RoadMap and stay current with emerging technologies and trends, incorporating them into the app’s development where relevant.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead, mentor, and inspire a diverse cross-border team of Software Engineers and Technical resources through establishing fostering a collaborative and results-driven environment
• Drive the technical direction of the converged app, ensuring it aligns with the company’s goals and vision
• Provide strong technical leadership, setting the direction for software development teams
• Apply systems thinking, encourage collaboration between teams, Product Management and System Architects
• Manage and coordinate development efforts within a SAFe Agile framework, focusing on continuous delivery and value creation
• Facilitate Scrum events, resolve impediments, and ensure the team’s adherence to Agile principles.
• Facilitate PI Planning
• Infuse a design-centric approach into development, ensuring the app’s usability, aesthetics, and user experience are of the highest quality
• Collaborate with designers and Product Owners to create an app that resonates with our customers
• Deliver the Strategic Product RoadMap
• Stay current with emerging technologies and trends, incorporating them into the app’s development where relevant
• Provide technical guidance, resolve complex technical issues, and ensure the app’s scalability and performance
• Champion a customer-centric mindset within the team, continuously seeking to improve the app based on user feedback and market trends
• Strive for a seamless and intuitive customer experience
• Develop and execute a Strategic Software Engineering plan that aligns with M-Pesa Africa’s objectives

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field; a Master’s degree is a plus
• 5-8 Years’ experience in Software engineering and/ or software testing within a Fintech applications and services in multi-national environment
• Proven experience in mobile app development and management, especially in the FinTech sector
• Extensive experience in software development and engineering leadership, with a proven track record of delivering complex software solutions.
• Strong technical knowledge, particularly in mobile app technologies, software design methodologies, tools and architecture.
• Agile methodology and SAFe framework expertise, with SAFe 6.0 certification preferred.
• Design thinking and user experience (UX) design awareness.
• Excellent leadership and communication skills.

Brief Description

Reporting to the Program Manager, the position holder will coordinate and manage the delivery of complex engineering & ICT solutions for Safaricom projects. The role is fixed term contract (2 years). This role will be responsible for kick off, execution and control of strategic projects.

Responsibilities

• Develops formal and comprehensive project plan by integrating and documenting project deliverables, acceptance criteria, processes, procedures, risks, and tasks to facilitate project execution, controlling, and closing processes.
• Utilizes tools and metrics to track and improve project performance – MS Project, PWA, SharePoint, Project Initiation Documents (Statement of works, Governance Structure, Communication plan, Risk Management Plan.
• Enforces quality gates during the implementation of projects. This will involve stakeholder engagement and communication management tool through the project life cycle until closure;
• Works efficiently and effectively to meet deadlines.
• Manages and escalates risks & issues appropriately throughout the project life cycle.
• Implements changes to triple constraints in line with the defined change management process.
• Ensures timely CAPEX Utilization & receipting for all assigned projects.
• Produces clear status reports, communicates candidly and tactfully, makes others aware of any issues with the project, and is a generous listener.
• Contribute to the project management knowledge base by sharing lessons learned, best practices, research, appropriately to improve the quality of project management services, build the capabilities of colleagues, and advance the profession.
• Facilitate cooperation within our teams and stakeholders to realize shared goals by encouraging collaborative problem solving, open communication, and teamwork.
• Supervise and motivate assigned project resources.

Qualifications

• Degree in Engineering| ICT |Business Related field
• PMP Certificate in project planning/project management is mandatory.
• Experience as a project team member in a large project.
• Demonstrate strong knowledge and background of Waterfall and Agile concepts in project delivery
• Ability to motivate teams to achieve business outcome

Brief Description

Reporting to the Solution Architect Area Chapter Lead, the position holder will be the liaison between business system users and the technical team in as far as building automated business solutions is concerned. The role holder will also be responsible for gathering, detailing, and documenting business requirements into solution designs for business users and technical developers. Propose ways in which the existing processes and systems can be used or changed to meet new business requirements as well as identify internal systems integrations needed to meet business requirements. They must have significant business knowledge and have one or more areas of technical expertise in software development, solution architecture and/or enterprise architecture. They are viewed as a solution expert and provide knowledge/counsel to software engineers.

Responsibilities

• Develop new user-facing features
• Carry out full business requirements discovery that includes interviewing relevant stakeholders and end users i.e., requirements elicitation
• Collect, classify, analyze and document business requirements as per set standards.
• Create solution designs to meet business requirements by exploiting the functionality available in IT systems already in Safaricom, or by filling missing gaps with appropriate new systems, in accordance with enterprise architecture.
• Lead a project team composed of designers and developers to drive the business needs and expectations by ensuring business intent is understood and delivered by IT.
• Ensure best practices are adhered to such as reusability, monitoring, performance, security etc.
• Collaboratively oversee the development of solutions as per agreed architecture, evolving them throughout the delivery in the face of changing requirements and feedback from the team.
• Collaboratively develop test-driven business requirements and functional specifications with business, technical, and testing team members.
• Participate in technical/functional evaluation of bids for new systems.
• Ensure sensible consensus is reached for all requirements/specifications and help business, IT, and test leads to have the same mutual understanding thereof.
• Liaise with other sections/departments in the delivery of services and projects as well as maintain good working relations between the Squad & Tribe team and all stakeholders.
• Provide support to the Business Unit by assisting in the development/reviewing/translating of User Requirement Specifications into a baseline BRD (Business Requirements Document) and building design documents.
• Promote proper release planning, guaranteeing adherence to business needs, change management governance and priorities.
• Follow a prioritization process that is transparent and understandable for all parties involved.
• Participate in innovation to improve delivered products and services and to explore new technologies and their applications to the enterprise space.

Qualifications

• A “hands-on software architect” capable of sharing software development experience with the rest of the team, which in turn helps them better understand how the architecture is viewed from a development perspective.
• Expert-level development in at least 1 language such as Java, Python, NodeJs, GO or .NET.
• Mastery of at least one Web Framework and for their language of choice
• Deep knowledge and use of fundamental database concepts
• Ability to run user requirement workshops and capture complex business requirements across multiple domains.
• Strong business acumen and leadership mindset with ability to communicate and influence others.
• Has analytical skills to picture an end-to-end solution derived from a design document
• Ability to drive initiatives without any formal authority in an ambiguous environment
• Exposure to multiple, diverse technologies and processing environment
• Certification in Solution Architecture, TOGAF and Certification in Public Clouds will be an added advantage
• Prior experience in ecommerce platform development will be an added advantage
• Prior experience in Agile ways of working will be an added advantage

JOB DESCRIPTION

Reporting to the HOD Digital Engineering, the role holder will be responsible for team leadership, organization, and productivity. S/He will be accountable for enabling digital portfolio and its associated programs delivery in addition to building a high performing culture within Digital IT that allows for innovation and experimentation through the Digital IT Spirit and Dockyard initiatives.

Key Responsibilities:

• Establish an Engineering culture of passion for innovation and relentless improvement to the IT organization
• Direct recruitment, capacity, performance and finances for the IT organization
• Manage sourcing strategy and strategic vendor relationships to achieve goals of innovation, speed and efficiency.
• IT representative in the quarterly business reviews and responsible for maintaining and running PI planning for core IT
• CAPEX & OPEX budgeting for digital and agile delivery spend.
• Operate within approved CAPEX & OPEX expenditure for the domain to meet departmental objectives

Qualifications

• Master’s or bachelor’s degree in software engineering, IT or any other related field
• 7 or more years of experience in IT Delivery, preferably in managing large programs, partners and demand management
• 5 years of leadership responsibilities in large delivery organizations, managing cross-functional teams and/or organization-wide programs, influencing senior-level management and key stakeholders effectively within complex context
• Experience in IT strategic planning, organization design and development
• Experience in agile principles and processes within large engineering organizations
• Experience in running large and complex programs, PI planning and demand management in organizations
• Professional experience and knowledge of digital and Telecommunications industries strongly preferred