ROLE PURPOSE

Plan International is an independent child rights and humanitarian organisation committed to children living a life free of poverty, violence and injustice.

We actively unite children, communities and other people who share our mission to make positive lasting changes in children’s and young people’s lives. We support children to gain the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to claim their rights to a fulfilling life, today and in the future. We place a specific focus on girls and women, who are most often left behind.

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for more than 75 years, and are now active in more than 70 countries.

The ICT Manager, under the overall guidance of the Head of Supply Chain, Administration and ICT ensures the innovative and effective use of ICT in Plan’s work. This includes both ICT arrangements to support and facilitate organisational business, as well as the use of innovative and digital technologies to support our office operations, development and humanitarian programs.

Dimensions of the Role

·         Providing technical leadership, foresight and senior level ICT guidance and information to support strategic and operational decision-making

·         Providing technical oversight and support to ICT Specialist in CO (direct report) and ICT Coordinators based in Program Areas through matrix management, who are under the direct line management of the Program Area Managers.

·         Directly managing the ICT budget at the Country Office and oversees the use of ICT budgets held by other departments and program areas to ensure all ICT related procurement meets organisational standards, cost efficiency and value for money

·         Responsible for giving strategic direction to, and overseeing the delivery of, quality ICT Infrastructure and Information Security in line with corporate systems standards in all offices to meet the needs and aspirations of all ICT users; and for leading digitization initiatives for office automations and for providing technical support on digital development (ICT4D) in liaison with relevant program staff.

·         Overseeing outsourced services such as routine maintenance of ICT equipment by external entities.

·         Devising, establishing and communicating  IT policies, procedures and systems to support the implementation of the country strategy set by the country leadership team

Responsible for establishing strategies for IT risks mitigation and contingency planning and taking appropriate actions to achieve improved ICT service delivery

Accountabilities

·         Develops and leads the implementation of the country level ICT strategy or annual work plan based on the Global ICT strategy, ensuring that relevant operational plans and working modalities exist to support the overall organizational business delivery

·         Develops a country level ICT  Business Continuity Plan (Disaster Recovery Plan)

·         Develops a digitization implementation plan to automate office operations and the support the use of digital technologies in projects and programs to be undertaken in the Program Areas. Develops an effective countrywide ICT Infrastructure and manages the overall ICT service provision in the country

·         Building on, implementing and communicating PIE’s ICT strategy, policies, procedures, systems and tools, ensuring these are tailored and adapted to suit the realities and needs across all levels of the organisation

·         Oversees the delivery, continuity, information security, risk management and effective support of ICT infrastructure and systems comprising a) desktops, laptops, servers, printers, routers, switches b) Corporate Applications ( Such as ERP and MERL systems); and c) a variety of software licences (such as  Microsoft Office,; Microsoft Windows Professional; Microsoft Windows Server; etc.)

·         Ensure security of data, network access and backup systems

·         Provides strategic input to the budget planning processes, advising on the allocation and control of financial resources and maintaining overall responsibility for the ICT budget in the Country Office

·         Supports well managed and high performing ICT team, contributing to work planning, and performance management of ICT staff

·         Builds the digital skills and country ICT capacity, aligned to Plan’s strategic directions, global strategic ICT plan, corporate policies and local priorities as an integral part of the Country Strategic Plan.

·         Mentor, manage and ensure IT operations and support staff are well trained and perform their responsibilities in line with defined policies and procedures

·         Works closely with country  leadership and extended leadership teams on the country’s business priorities to make ICT an effective strategic enabler for the implementation of the CSP

·         Participates and provides inputs in the development and implementation of the global ICT strategy  and the implementations of the global ICT priorities at country level

·         Monitor performance of information communication technology systems to determine cost and productivity levels, and to make recommendations for improving the IT infrastructure

·         Analysing the business requirements of all departments to determine their technology needs

Indicators of Success

·         Regular ICT Operation and Systems Management reports to senior leadership

·         ICT Work Plans and strategies in place

·         Corporate  systems and ICT services meet the needs of the organisation

·         ICT Policies, Procedures and guidelines in place.

·         Resilient Country ICT Infrastructure

·         Adherence to corporate IT Operational Management standards, ICT policies, design and architectures

·         Digitization  criteria for use in place

·         Use of digital technologies for office automation

·         Technical supports provided to program to program, sponsorship and humanitarian teams in order to harness the use of digital technologies

·         Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Child Protection (CPP) and Gender Equality and Inclusion (GEI) are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.

Dealing with Problems

·         Manages and coordinates a complex combination of ICT infrastructure and technologies, with a diversity of software in support of Plan corporate systems and other applications across all offices, in liaison with different stakeholders including country ICT staff, Global ICT teams, local service providers and users to deliver secure, efficient, effective and continuous services.

·         Ensures monitoring of the network security and overseeing the entire network system of the organization in the country, managing inherent ICT risks.

·         Provides thought leadership and technical support on digital development and liaisons with various program teams to enhance the appropriate use of digital technologies to support Office operations and program implementations.

Key relationships

·         Internally: working relationships with the Head of Supply Chain, Admin and ICT, Country Leadership Team, Extended Leadership Team, and Global Hub ICT teams.

·         Externally: with external parties including NGO partners, vendors, IT service providers (such as Ethio Telecom) and other external stakeholders