Tech Transformation Specialist at Tony Blair Institute for Global Change

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change supports political leaders and governments to build open, inclusive and prosperous societies in a globalised world. We do this through developing policy and advising governments.

Job Summary

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Are you excited by the prospect of transforming developing and emerging nations in Africa through the application of technology and innovations across public services, agriculture, and health?

Do you have experience of consulting or working in the tech field and of leading teams to drive systemic and transformative change in an emerging or developing country? Do have experience translating tech solutions for public sector clients?

The Tech Transformation Specialist is a short-term opportunity to lead scoping of new partnership opportunities under our landmark Tech for Development (T4D) programme, which has been enabled by a dynamic external partner across existing and new operations in our Government Advisory and Tech & Public Policy divisions.

Although the initial contract is short-term (around three months), we are a rapidly expanding team and expect additional opportunities to become available for longer-term roles, should that be of interest to the successful candidate.

Currently, we are exploring specific ways that our unique value proposition could support the ambitions of three governments in East/Southern Africa.

The Tech Transformation Specialist will join another Institute resource to lead the next stages of scoping and partnership discussions with government counterparts, with the former focused on tech/digitisation opportunities and the latter scoping general advisory services in Centre of Government.

A successful scoping exercise would result in a concrete offer from TBI to the respective government in support of a transformative technology and digitisation agenda and/or narrow in on a few specific opportunities where TBI’s offering provides value and impact.

The ideal opportunities identified should focus on or directly support presidential priorities and have the potential for transformational or scalable change for public benefit.

Given the high stakes of the scoping exercise, the Tech Transformation Specialist will work closely with T4D leadership to adjust the strategy and approach and to tailor the value proposition to the specific needs and opportunities in the local context.

This role can be based in Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, and Lusaka and travel will be required.

Key Responsibilities

• Represent TBI, our core beliefs and our value proposition


• Engage key senior government counterparts on the national/sectoral vision, priorities, and pain points


• Assess entry points where the Institute’s T4D programming adds strategic value to the Government’s objectives


• Deliver an early scoping report to T4D leadership with assessment of the relevant landscape, government agenda, key government counterparts, and highest potential areas for impact against TBI T4D’s strategic framework (basic framework will be provided to build on)


• Align with T4D leadership on specific shortlisted opportunities for the country in the areas of tech/digitisation policy and strategy, e-government, ag tech, health tech and digital ID


• For agreed sortlisted opportunities, conduct additional scoping to enable TBI to deepen our understanding of the value we can uniquely provide to government


• Align with T4D leadership on highest potential opportunities


• Develop specific partnership proposals to present back to government, in discussion and agreement with TBI T4D and Africa leadership


• Maintain open lines of communication with TBI scoping counterparts and T4D leadership and exercise highest levels of confidentiality throughout the exercise

Person Specification

We are looking for an experienced leader:

• With a minimum of 7 years’ experience in management consulting, government or government advisory, related to digital transformation and advisory programme leadership


• With experience in the development and operations of robust technology solutions in a public sector environment, preferably in Africa


• Familiarity with policy foundations and regulation needed to foster and enable technology transformation for public good


• Who is strategic and can challenge the status-quo and develop plans for successful delivery of challenging objectives


• A bold thinker equipped to be a thought partner and peer to cutting edge technology companies as well as government leadership with an aim to thinking towards the future of cutting edge innovation


• Strong written and verbal communication skills and able to quickly develop polished client briefing materials to support conversations


• Who commits to business objectives and pulls out the stops to make sure they are always met


• Who is a communicator and influencer, from board level through to technical level and is adept at managing up and beyond hierarchy


• Who exhibits discretion and tact and fosters trusted relationships


• Who has worked or consulted in developing and emerging economies and is sensitive to a diverse range of cultural and regional norms, and will foster a positive spirit of collaboration between our countries and our tech transformation offer


• With a bachelor’s or postgraduate degree or equivalent practical experience

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