Manager - IT (Solution Architect) at African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank)

Reference Number: CEBLR20

Responsibilities 

• The role is supposed to help the Bank to achieve its mission “stimulating a consistent expansion of and diversification of African trade so as to rapidly increase Africa’s share of global trade, while operating as a first class, profit oriented, socially responsible financial institution and a centre of excellence in African trade matters” by providing professional advice and support for the effective implementation and use of the Bank’s Management Information System.
• The role of the position holder will be to develop, implement, and maintain technology and solution architecture for Bank’s Information System.
• The technology architect will be responsible for defining the overall technical design of business applications. She/He will act as technical lead, overseeing IT assignments that are aimed at improving the business, and ensuring all parts of the technical components run smoothly.
• The technology architect will be involved in the entire system development life cycle and must understand all aspects of each system, from both a business and technical point of view. This means having a full working knowledge of technologies such as Windows, Linux, RDBMS, Document based DB, Infrastructure, Network, Design Patterns, Web, Mobile, Business Process Modelling (BPM), Cloud integration, Blockchain, Machine Learning as well as knowledge of multiple programming languages (e.g. Java, JavaScript, Scala, Go, Shell, C#, Groovy, Python)
• Hands-on experience on software development and ability to manage complex programs.
• Provide system architecture leadership & quality assurance support to the Bank focusing on complex & innovative proposals & solutions.
• Lead the development of system architecture for robust, reliable and high-performance applications, taking into account functional and technical requirements.
• Define implement and manage the solution architecture and supporting toolset required to build and test complex applications in an efficient and rapid manner.
• Advise on technologies & tools selection and helping in sizing transformation programs.
• Architect complex IT solutions based on emerging technologies for digital transformation.
• Handle request on architecture development for new and existing applications.
• Participate in software selection process.
• Any other duties as may be assigned by management.

Requirements / Qualification and Skills

• Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology or other relevant degree from a recognized University, a Master’s degree in a relevant field or a recognized professional qualification in lieu.
• Minimum of 8 years of solid development and solution architecture experience in distributed platforms
• Experience with Python, JavaScript, Scala, Java in a Linux/Windows data centre environment.
• Experience with AI, Machine Learning and Blockchain
• Experience owning and operating multiple instances of a mission critical service.
• Experience with Agile development methodology and Test-Driven Development.
• Experience using telemetry and metrics to drive operational excellence.
• Experience leading high performing development teams.
• Good judgment and the ability to handle stressful situations.
• Broad knowledge of software engineering: languages, frameworks, techniques and industry trends.
• Deep knowledge of REST, Web Services and Microservices space.
• Knowledge and strong experience with Cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP)
• Knowledge and strong experience with DevOps, Pipelining, Continuous Integration (Jenkins, Github, Archiva, etc.), Containerization (Docker, Kubernetes, ElasticBeanstalk)
• Knowledge and experience with modern messaging technologies (RabbitMQ, Kafka, AMQP, AWS SQS)
• Knowledge and experience with Big Data platforms (Hadoop, Hive, Pig, Ambari, Flume, Ranger)
• Knowledge of NoSQL databases (Cassandra, MongoDB, CouchDB).
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Demonstrated experience in managing service level agreement with application service providers.
• Ability to communicate and function in a culturally diverse and change oriented setting.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English. Knowledge of the Bank’s other working languages is an added advantage.
• Willingness to travel and to work long hours where required in order to achieve the Bank’s objectives.