ILRI Vacancy: ICT Business Systems Specialist

Vacancy Number: A/014/2014
Division/Unit: Corporate Services/Information and Technology (ICT)
Duration: Two years contract

General:  The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) works at the crossroads of livestock and poverty, bringing high-quality livestock science, communications and capacity building to bear on poverty reduction and sustainable development. ILRI has campuses in Kenya (headquarters) and Ethiopia, with other offices located in Africa (Botswana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda) as well as Asia (China, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Sri Lanka).

The position: ILRI is recruiting Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Business Systems Specialist based in Addis Ababa. The position holder will be a member of Information and Technology team within Corporate Services Division.

Main Duties:

• Assists in building and implementing the Agresso Business World (ABW) system for ILRI as part of the Once Corporate System project (OCS);
• Manages and administers the OCS and other business systems in use at ILRI;
• Manages and administer the MS SQL databases that are used by the business systems;
• Writes scripts (SQL, XML, web services) to for data migration, reporting and data integration;
• Assists in the interfacing of existing systems with the OCS to extend the capabilities of the systems;
• Assists the business units and research managers to obtain reports that will assist them to manage and make informed decisions for their areas of responsibility;
• Provides training to staff in the use of the business systems;
• Ensures all required documentation; including user and ILRI procedure manuals are available and up-to-date;
• Liaises with partners, service providers and suppliers to troubleshoot and resolves problems with the systems and to implement their service and maintenance contracts;
• Ensures that disaster recovery plans are in place, tested and monitored for all the systems being managed;
• Follows change management processes to document all changes to live servers and applications;
• Carries out regular risk assessments and implement mechanisms to mitigate the identified risks. This will include monthly reviews with business unit and ICT supervisors of access rights, operator and ledger definitions and the chart of accounts;
• Works with other ICT staff to ensure all regional, country and project offices have access to business systems and are able to use them;
• Provides advice and assistance to staff and hosted organisations on developing and managing business applications;
• Communicates with all staff concerning updates and changes made to the systems;
• Researches into finding more effective ways of using and configuring applications that can then be rolled out across the campuses or posted to the intranet and communicated to staff for their use;
• Keeps up-to-date with changes and advancements in ICT Applications and in particular ABW and makes suggestions for improvements and further developments to the services provided.

Education:

• First Degree in Computer Science or equivalent or Higher Diploma.

Experience:     

• At least 5 years’ of relevant work experience most of which should be in an ICT database systems environment

Training:    

• Customer service training

• An advantage if the candidate has training in Agresso Business World or similar Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) products, MS SQL server, database management and scripting, data migration and data load. ITIL foundation.

Skills:  

• Specialised skills required for this job (communication, report writing, computer skills etc)
• Well organised to manage projects in several locations.
• Good communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to pass on information clearly to users and to grasp difficulties perceived by users.
• Strong customer service orientation that establishes a good working relationship with customers, with the attitude of wanting to assist people and pass-on their knowledge and experience to others.
• Excellent technical knowledge of database platforms e.g. MS SQL Server, MySQL
• Excellent technical knowledge of building Business Enterprise Systems mainly Agresso Business World.
• Experience with development environments such as Visual Studio, XML to create custom computer applications
• Good logical diagnostic skills and ability to exercise good judgment in the resolution of problems.
• Ability to multi-task in dealing with several different problems at a time.
• Ability to work under high pressure, meet deadlines, monitor and follow-up on pending matters under minimum supervision.
• Ability to communicate fluently in written and verbal English.

Duty Station:  Addis Abeba

Job level

• This position is job Grade 2D.

Monthly Base Salary:    Birr 15,262 (Negotiable, depending on experience, skill and salary history of the candidate)

Terms of appointment:  This is Nationally Recruited Staff (NRS) position.  Initial appointment is fixed term for two years with the possibility of renewal, contingent upon individual performance and the availability of funding. The ILRI remuneration package for nationally recruited staff in Ethiopia includes very competitive salary and benefits such as life and medical insurance, offshore pension plan, etc.
The ILRI campus is set in a secure, attractive campus on the outskirts of Addis Ababa.  Dining and sports facilities are located on site.

Applications

Applicants should send a cover letter and CV (3 pages maximum) explaining their interest in the position, relevant documents and testimonials and the names and addresses (telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience to the Human Resources Office, ILRI, P.O.Box 5689, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Telephone: (251-11)-617-20-00; Fax (251-11) 646 46-45 or 617 20-01 name and reference number of the position for which the application is made A/014/2014 should be clearly marked on the envelopes if mailed or fax applications.  Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Closing date:    February 28, 2014.