Chief Network Engineer at African Development Bank - AfDB

Reference: ADB/17/217
Location: Côte d’Ivoire
Grade: PL3
Position N°: 50000601

The Complex

• The Vice-Presidency, Human Resources and Corporate Services Complex ensures the delivery of efficient, people-centered, client-oriented, corporate services to ensure overall institutional effectiveness in all aspects of the Bank’s corporate services.
• The Complex leads efforts to ensure the competitiveness of the Bank as the employer of choice and is responsible for providing leadership in the formulation and implementation of Bank’s strategies on people, Information Technology, general services and institutional procurements, language services, business continuity, and health and safety strategies.

The Hiring Department / Division

• The Corporate Information Technology Services Department is mandated by the Bank to deliver the best possible Information Technology services for Bank staff, and help achieve the results that will get the Bank closer to accomplishing its development goals.
• The main role of the Network and Telecommunications Division is to ensure that the network and telecommunication systems of the Bank fit the needs of the Institution and function in an efficient and cost effective manner.

The Position

• The Chief Network Engineer manages and coordinates a multidisciplinary team designing, operating and maintaining the Bank’s Telecommunications and Network infrastructure.
• The incumbent will be responsible for the definition, follow up and enforcement of agreed Service Level Agreements for different Telecommunications and Network services offered by provider as well as for the Implementation of the Information and Communications Technology connectivity components of the Bank’s Decentralization Policy and coordination of Information and Communications Technology  infrastructures deployment in Regional hubs and Field Offices.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the supervision of the Division Manager Network & Telecom Services, the Chief Network Engineer will:

• Support the implementation and achievement of the goals of the new Business Delivery Model with regard to both business and operational activities by ensuring a well-managed, structured, robust, efficient, innovative and high available Network infrastructure and service.
• Ensure network activities management, pacification and coordination.
• Ensure that the network (LAN/WAN) infrastructure is aligned with the Bank’s business process need at all times.
• Manage network team to achieve result as a team.
• Ensure high team spirit and motivation within the Network team and team development and capacity building
• Coordinate and provide technical based supervisory oversight as well as management of assigned networking staff activities.
• Design, build, implement and maintain the Bank’s Network (LAN/WAN) infrastructure, which includes VSAT and Terrestrial network, WAN optimization solution, campus and data center network and the internet connectivity solutions.
• Prepare and submit status reports, and technical briefs, as required, to senior management, peer teams, service users and service providers.
• Design and implement reliable, resilient, efficient and cost effective connectivity solutions for Regional hubs and Field Offices in line with the objectives of the new Business Delivery Model.
• Ensure that network issues are resolved timely according to the agreed Service Level Agreements.
• Maintain strong relationship with external IT service providers, partners and peer teams.
• Review and continuously optimize the existing network infrastructure designs and performance, ensure that the network infrastructure is robust, efficient, cost effective, complies with the industry standards and well-aligned with the business need and value for money is achieved.
• Design, configure and maintain network management platforms to help facilitate network infrastructure monitoring and cater for simplified troubleshooting and event diagnosis.
• Plan, implement and manage future Telecommunications and Network projects and publish the main Key Performance Indicators for Telecommunications and Network activities.
• Contribute and consolidate inputs for IT policies, strategies, architectures; coordinate and provide technical leadership for the implementation of same.
• Review aspects of Telecommunications and Network costs against public tariffs and new developments, initiating proposals to change designs when appropriate.
• Provide advice and guidance to management in design and planning phases of Telecommunications and Network systems, to ensure that the requirements (particularly network response times, volumetric information and security requirements) are reflected in the overall specification.
• Participate in preparation of IT services contract proposals, negotiations and modifications as required.
• Update or provide input to cost benefit analyses, risk analyses of projects or development plans for network infrastructure
• Prepare and review short term and long term work plan and relevant administrative a capital budget development and planning.
• Contribute to the preparation of corporate communication strategy and produce regular report regarding the performance of the network infrastructure and highlight deviations, propose improvement plan and methods
• Identify skill gaps with the team and propose capacity development plans.

Selection Criteria
Including desirable skills, knowledge and experience:

• Hold at least a Master’s Degree or its equivalent in Information Technology, Electrical/Telecommunications Engineering, Computer Science, and other related fields.
• Have a minimum of seven (7) years of relevant experience of working in design, implementation and operational management of IT infrastructure and Service.
• Sound skills in planning, designing, implementing and managing IT infrastructure such as LAN, WAN, Systems and Unified Communication and in business need analysis, planning and implementation.
• Strong customer advocacy and IT business continuity.
• Operational knowledge and proven experience in IT support processes.
• IT related contracts and assets management.
• Good Project management skill and experience in executing large and complex projects.
• Excellent skills in planning, designing, implementing and managing IT infrastructure such as LAN, WAN, Systems and Unified Communication.
• Excellent knowledge in ipv4/ipv6 network routing and switching, Datacentre environments: Cisco Nexus family, Cisco ASR and ISR routers, Cisco Campus Switching, Cisco unified and managed wireless solutions, Cisco Edge and Datacentre infrastructures, Multi Protocols Label Switching , Dynamic Multipoint Virtual Private Network  technologies and dynamic routing protocols.
• Expert level3 support competencies in troubleshooting and incidents resolution.
• Good knowledge on VSAT operations.
• Good Project management skill and experience in executing large and complex projects
• Familiar with Windows Server, Exchange, operating systems and client /server model architectures.
• Excellent people -manager, mentor, coach, with a “mission first, people always” approach.
• Results driven: focussed on delivering operational stability for customers, Practical / Pragmatic, values results more than activity.
• Open to change: Ability to gain an appreciation of relevant speciality areas as well as being tolerant of ambiguity.
• Exceptional communication skills, including issue resolution, negotiation and conflict management.
• Ability to communicate effectively (written and oral) in English or French, with a working knowledge of the other.
• Familiar with Windows Server, Exchange, operating systems and client /server model architectures.
• Familiar with Datacentre storage and replication infrastructures and network Datacentre and WAN connectivity and bandwidth requirements.
• Proficiency in IT security and Familiar with SAP interface fundamentals and traffic flow.
• Competence in the use of standard Microsoft Office Suite applications.