Senior Software Enginerr Job in Nairobi Kenya

Job Ref: BA/SE/14

About the client

Our client is a start-up revolutionizing education across Africa with a truly unique business model. The company has launched a large-scale franchise-like network of ultra low-cost for-profit private primary schools across Africa.

Our schools profitably deliver high-quality education for less than $4 per child per month, enabling local school managers to operate their school businesses profitably, while creating a highly successful business at the central level. We have launched our first 10 schools in Kenya, have 15 more opening in January and plan to rapidly scale the company to serve more than 1 million students.

About this position We have and are continuing to develop one of the most sophisticated operational approaches to providing affordable education to MILLIONS of children in one of the most challenging environments in the world!

We’re looking for an experienced full-time Senior Software Engineer to build software tools that will support the operations for our network of schools. Our success relies on our “School in a Box”, a sophisticated set of custom developed systems, tools and processes (think McDonalds or Starbucks) that are used by all School Managers, as well as by support teams at Headquarters to audit, monitor and support all of our schools.

While the end-user (School Manager) technology at the school is limited to paper and a mobile phone, all of our systems and processes are underpinned by a sophisticated set of supporting and enabling technologies that allows schools to operate cost effectively and efficiently, with oversight by headquarters.

We are looking for a full time Senior Software Engineer with responsibilities of:

Leading the development of custom enterprise software to power and improve the efficiency of our rigorous processes at both our schools and headquartersArchitecture, design, implementation and debuggingIntegration of our custom systems with off the shelf softwareDatabase design and optimizationRequirements analysis and user interface designSupporting in-house users of our custom software and problem solvingYou have BA/BS in Computer Science or related technical fieldYou have a minimum of 5 years experience developing custom-built software to enable internal business processes.You have experience integrating off-the-shelf and custom-built technologiesYou have developed and supported systems that are critical to the day to day operations of medium and large organizations (ERP, financial systems, CRM…)You have designed and supported large databases and are skilled at writing SQLYou have experience taking software projects through the entire software lifecycle (requirements analysis, design, implementation, deployment, post deployment support)You work well as part of a team and like to both teach and learn from othersYou are familiar with professional software development practices such as source code control, defect tracking, unit testing and code reviewsYou love to write code and solve challenging problemsYou function well in a fast-paced, informal environment where constant change is the norm and the bar for quality is set highYou are in expert in two or more of the following technologies: C#/.NET development, MS SQL Server, PHP/MySQL web development, SugarCRM, Navision, interactive SMS and mobile payment systems, mobile applicationsLocation

The job is based in our headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.

Examples of our Software Needs

The following are examples some of the software projects that are currently under development or consideration:

Automated Student Payment Information System - manages billing, automatically updates database with data from banks and mobile payment company, provides tools for operator to correct and assign payments, and uses SMS interface to send coded updates to Schools, and receive interactive SMS queries and remote error correction.Customized integrated financial system - taking customizable financial package and integrating with payment information system, reporting tool, and developing additional tools for automated budget tracking and SMS-based payment requests.
Data Management and Dashboard/Reporting Tools for HQ staff to support schools - we must develop tools that collect key performance data and provide dashboards/reports to allow support teams to monitor progress of our schools.
Mobile Phone/PDA App - We will be investigating the feasibility and cost of porting of many of our paper-based processes at our schools to a mobile phone or PDA app to streamline school operations.
To apply for this position, please forward your application letter, in line with the job description, C.V. (in word format) and a recent photograph of yourself to info@byappointmentafrica.com, quoting the Job Reference as listed above.

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