SPIR II ICT Specialist and System Administrator

Number of Position: One

Duty station:  SPIR II Consortium Office

Strengthen PSNP Institutions and Resilience II (SPIR II) is an anticipated 5-year USAID/BHA funded Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA) led by World Vision and including consortium partners CARE, ORDA and IFPRI. World Vision and its partners will create a strong, shock responsive ecosystem of public, private, and community level actors to support PSNP households to graduate from poverty and sustain income and food security gains in 17 targeted woredas in Amhara and Oromia regions. Building from key formative and research studies during an initial refinement period, SPIR II will use continuous learning to drive program level reflection, analysis, and adaptation.

Purpose of the position:

The SPIR II ICT Specialist and System Administrator will provide day-to-day ICT services support, system administration and maintenance for smooth operations of IT services at the SPIR II Consortium office and support other SPIR II ICT systems including supporting mobile data collection systems and devices. S/he is responsible for installing and configuring software, hardware and networks, monitoring system performance and troubleshooting issues, ensuring security/maintenance and monitoring of security systems to affirm data protection and security factors are in place to protect SPIR II users and participant data. S/he is responsible for managing IT infrastructure efficiently, ensure ICT service continuity and will take care of integration between internal and external systems, service transitions. /he is responsible for managing and responding to SPIR II staff requests by diagnosing and resolving problems and for supporting the ongoing technology needs of all employees by providing support for requests, leading and coordinating the activities of the client technology services and providing support on the area of IT services in consultation with WV ICT team at different levels. S/he respond to requests for IT support, logging problems, generating trouble tickets, attempting to diagnose and resolve problems, and if necessary, escalating the problem to the appropriate level of expertise. S/he is responsible for documenting solutions to problems and developing end-user guidelines. On an ongoing basis, s/he work to improve customer support processes and practices in addition to evaluating and recommending software and hardware needs of the clients and provision of inputs for purchasing new or upgraded products.

Major Responsibilities:

System and Network Administration, and Management

• Manage Windows, Windows Server environment, Microsoft Exchange, Mobile Devices (Tablets), SQL Server, Web and Active Directory Services, VMware infrastructure, Storage (SAN), and other server/client side platforms
• Responsible for maintaining, upgrading and managing relevant software, hardware and networks, maintaining and monitoring core and support systems to ensure service continuity (monitors health of systems and provides appropriate recommendations, when required),
• Ensure SPIR II project technology, server and other related IT infrastructures to run smoothly and efficiently,
• Diagnose and resolve problems quickly and have the patience to communicate with a variety of interdisciplinary teams and users.
• Install, configure, provide support and maintain to all key software and hardware components and manage network servers/LAN, and technology tools, databases, and ensure the availability of adequate connectivity to make sure all ICT services are accessible reliably and available all the time,
• Set up accounts and workstations, monitor performance and maintain systems according to requirements (i.e., maintains user accounts, manages user access to systems, servers, and files including administering the set-up of new profiles, creating and updating access permissions),
• Troubleshoot issues and outages and ensure security through access controls, backups and firewalls
• Upgrade systems with new releases and models and develop expertise to train staff on new technologies
• Build an internal wiki with technical documentation, manuals and IT policies
• Managing and administering security and monitoring systems (Access Controls, Firewalls,
• Managing and maintaining data backups and ensuring timely, effective and cost-efficient systems delivery and associated maintenance of the system including managing file sharing / user + SPIR/RFSA data and print services
• Manage, monitor and review the relationships with service providers and ensure that high levels of service are received and maintained; liaise support requests in case of fault / service disruption.
• Researching, designing, developing, testing and implementing new solutions to improve operations, and providing support to SPIR MIS team in analyzing, designing, developing, and documenting systems to meet business requirements.
• Maintain standards of excellence in developing, implementing and supporting ICT solutions and ensuring that the solution developed is the most appealing and desirable with the latest technology and
• Providing support to SPIR II clients (IT Helpdesk).
• Other duties may be added and/or assigned as needed

Customer Services and Support and ICT collaboration

•  Serve as first point of contact for day-to-day technical support to end users (SPIR II staff) by analyzing/diagnosing problems (using multiple options), troubleshooting, and documenting for resolution of reported user problems and resolving routine problems or providing on-spot support to users or remote support via tools like team viewer,
• Administer and Support Essential Business Systems and applications, Local Area Network (LAN), the Internet and other communication systems to ensure availability at all times.
• Participate in deployment of new or upgrade information technology projects and develop associated procedures and documents
• Provide quarterly preventive maintenance for all ICT equipment and IT and maintain IT inventory on quarterly basis (Hardware, Mobiles, Software, Licenses, etc) and provide justifications for corrective maintenance, follow up and conduct acceptance test as required
• Ensure protection of Information and Data Security of the user data, ICT systems and resources through regular anti-virus installations, its update, and critical system backup and by enforcing ICT policies. Maintain and secure users and infrastructure (wireless, Outlook/Microsoft exchange, Admin), and ensure passwords and credentials confidentially, and instantly communicate/report new treats (virus, Malware, etc) to responsible infrastructure to guarantee business continuity in the unlikely event of an ICT disaster.
• Engage with the program staff to assess, capture innovation requirements at SPIR CL and IP levels like ICT4D projects etc., and support its implementations
• Support procurement of ICT goods and services ( in consultation with SPIR MIS and WV ICT team) by providing technical specifications and performing acceptance test for such goods and services, procurement follow ups and status updates, and working with vendors and service providers to ensure timely delivery of requested goods and services
• Ensure the implementation of ICT policies, standards, and procedures at all levels as per the WV National and Global ICT guidance and work closely with HO ICT Unit Specialists and Service Desk Administrator so that customers support request addressed timely and progress communicated appropriately.
• Work collaboratively with WVICT team and inform the ICT manager for any ICT policy breaches, attempts and related enhancements
• Perform preventive and remedial maintenance, IT asset management and provide status report to WV ICT manager on ICT equipment and timely escalation of malfunctioned ICT equipment to HO.  Engage in the assessment and documentation of IT assets and services to ensure the availability of standardized IT services for SPIR
• Work closely with SPIR II MIS and MEL team on SPIR II MIS and MDC

Capacity Building

• Building capacities of SPIR II staff on proper uses of ICT infrastructure, data, security and protections to increase their competence in the use of systems and platforms in use by SPIR and WV, on ICT Services and in-house applications.
• Coordinate with SPIR MIS team on various capacity buildings to SPIR II team at different levels including IPs and other stakeholders
•  Build SPIR II relevant staff on tablet device uses and MDM applications and uses

Qualifications:  Education/Knowledge/Technical Skills and Experience

 Required Professional Experience:

•  Minimum of 6 years’ experience on systems administrations, Network Administrations and management Administration.
• Required: Certified A+, Network +, MCP training
• Preferred certified in A+, N+, MCP, CCNA, MCSA
  

Qualification required:

•  MSc in Information Technology, Computer Science or a related discipline; professional certification (e.g. Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA)) is a plus.

Preferred Knowledge and Qualifications:

• Proven experience as a System Administrator, Network Administrator or similar role
•  Experience and knowledge about design, administration, operation and maintenance of Microsoft Servers, Active Directory Domains, SharePoint, Web Services, Exchange Systems and SQL Databases.
• Experience and knowledge on Network (on TCP/IP, DHCP, HTTP/HTTPS, DNS, VOIP, VPN, FTP, LAN, V-LANs, WAN, Subnets, Routing, Switching, Firewalls), patch management and various databases
•  Knowledge and experience on security systems (e.g,. e.g. intrusion detection systems) and data maintenance, backup/recovery technologies (Backup Exec, Windows Server Backup) etc.,
•  Design, administration, operation and maintenance of Virtual Environment based on VMware infrastructure (vSphere / ESX) and knowledge about Google APPS Domain management.
• Knowledge and experience working on various operating systems and platforms, computer hardware and peripherals plus ability to create scripts in Python, Perl or other language,
• Strong ability to troubleshoot and problem solving skills on a regular basis
• Work in a team as well as on own initiative, flexible, as well as very good business decisions makers, and customer focused,
• Excellent oral and written communication skills

Working Environment / Conditions:

• Office based with travel to the field
• Travel: 20% Domestic travel is required