Focus of the Role

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 consulting or working in the tech field and delivering projects that drive systemic and transformative change in an emerging or developing country?

Our main objective in this strategically important role is to rapidly deploy a tech for development initiative in Zambia, which has been enabled by a dynamic external partner across existing and new operations in our Government Advisory and Tech & Public Policy divisions. This landmark initiative will be delivered in multiple countries, with activity in Zambia starting imminently.

Job Introduction

An exciting opportunity exists to work with relevant ministries to support the government’s ambitious plans in its use of technology to deliver transformative outcomes for its citizens. Reporting to the Head of Tech, Zambia, the post holder will collaborate with the T4D team on several priority initiatives to assess the current enterprise landscape, identify key stakeholders and support efforts to build interoperability across the Government of Zambia.

With the ability to consolidate business (functional requirements) with technologies (technical requirements), the postholder will create an executable enterprise architecture blueprint for the relevant ministries and support broader interoperability work for the Government of Zambia. The postholder will stay on top of the latest trends and technologies and identify potential software, services or hardware solutions that could support improved service delivery.

This six-month consultancy role requires an exceptional candidate with relevant expertise and deep subject matter knowledge.

Key Responsibilities

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Key outcomes of the role

• Develop Enterprise Architecture and infrastructure plans considering existing platforms and systems, with regard to Zambia’s digital transformation strategy, to design and plan for the migration to a unified platform.
• Deliver an analysis of the systems architecture for more comprehensive digital government services, supporting efforts to increase interoperability across government.
• Develop an Interoperability framework, facilitating an all-of-government approach to integration, building on ongoing work led by the Government of Zambia in the healthcare ecosystem.
• In line with proposed architecture and system changes, support the delivery of a change management framework, including the migration of existing data sets onto government cloud infrastructure, as well as principles for application migration planning (to support government engagement with independent software vendors).
• Contribute to developing a framework for data exchange between government and the private sector, addressing current impediments and facilitating improved data transfer.

Responsibilities

• Strategy and Planning: (i) Design Enterprise Architecture plans; (ii) integrate plans with the overall relevant client strategy; and (iii) integrate the blueprints with existing solution sets to create a harmonious data-guided view of the client place within the government framework
• Government Relations: Establish effective and trusted relationships with key stakeholders across the government of Zambia.
• Execution and Monitoring: Establish, review and maintain project goals and plans. Serve as the focal point for the Enterprise Architecture development. Report and engage with the Head of Technology for Development, the Country Head, and technology transformation specialist to drive delivery, ideate, troubleshoot and manage initiatives. Audit compliance within the Enterprise Architecture standards.
• External Relations (non-governmental): Engage with relevant external stakeholders such as tech hubs/incubators, investors, other not for profit organisations, Govt. Ministries and agencies
• One TBI: The post holder will formally report to the Head of Tech, Zambia and form part of the wider team and country programme,  working with colleagues in Zambia and across the organisation to realise the stated objectives in keeping with the Ministry’s vision

Person Specification

We are looking for an experienced candidate:

• With experience in business operations, strategy, technology, consulting or advisory functions
• With demonstrable experience and expertise in cloud computing, analytics, edge computing, security, web services, open-source software stacks, strategy development and enterprise solutions, preferably with public sector experience. Solution design for low resource environments is valuable.
• With demonstrable expertise in enterprise architecture frameworks, interoperability standards, digital governance interoperability frameworks and enterprise application integration. Some experience in service-oriented architecture
• Who is an effective communicator and influencer, from board level through to technical level and is adept at managing up and beyond hierarchy
• Who is strategic and can challenge the status quo and develop plans for the successful delivery of challenging objectives
• 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 in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience
• With a certification in Enterprise Architecture
• With a minimum of 7 years of experience in IT design
• Experience with SQL, data sourcing, enterprise data management, modelling, auditing and compliance would be advantageous, as would experience with public sector implementations

Candidates must have the right to work in Zambia.

About The Institute

The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) is a mission-driven not for profit organisation. We exist to equip political leaders and governments to build open, inclusive and prosperous societies. We work hard, every day, to make a difference. When governments work well they are able to create economic and social change in a way that promotes fairness, social justice and opportunity. We work relentlessly to support leader and governments with the challenges they face. Giving them practical solutions and actionable insights, that once implemented, can be transformative for their people

We do this within two connected divisions:

 Government Advisory 

Our Government Advisory teams work directly with political leaders and governments around the world to implement reforms that improve the lives of their citizens. It works with a variety of partners and its outputs cover a range of disciplines and projects across countries in Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and South Asia.

 Policy Futures 

Our Policy Futures work encompasses three broad areas:

• Renewing the Centre: developing a bold and innovative domestic policy programme to help renew the centre ground of British politics;
• Tech and Public Policy: exploring the policy challenges and opportunities presented by the technological revolution; and
• Extremism Policy Unit: creating solutions designed to tackle the threat of extremist ideologies in the UK and around the world.

As an organisation, the core beliefs we all embrace are:

• Open and Progressive: you’ll believe in the value of teamwork
• Bold and Pragmatic: you’ll approach everything you do with integrity and authenticity
• Optimistic Changemaker: you’ll be focused on results

TBI believes embracing diversity and inclusion make us a better place to work.  It’s our goal to reflect everyone in society and we actively welcome applications from individuals and groups who are under-represented in the workplace. We celebrate difference be it ethnicity, religion, age, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation or disability. We will only ever assess you on your abilities and fit for a role. We’re happy to discuss any adjustments you need to ensure a level playing field during recruitment and, if you\’re successful, discuss any adjustments you might need to thrive in your role.