Senior Technical Manager, Africa, DIAL

The salary range is equivalent to 100,000 to 110,00 USD.

About the Digital Impact Alliance 

The Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) works to advance a more equitable world by putting the rights and aspiration of people at the center of digital transformation. To that end, we connect people with evidence to design digital systems and tools that work for society through research, demonstrations, and policy advocacy. We collaborate with others to promote digital systems and governance approaches that maximize participation, agency, choice and trust, with a particular focus on effective data exchange systems and strong data governance.
Hosted by the United Nations Foundation, DIAL is a partnership among the world’s leading digital development champions, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, and the German Development Cooperation Agency (GIZ), among others.

Position Overview

DIAL seeks a talented, entrepreneurial, result-oriented, and experienced Senior Manager
who will lead our technical engagements in Africa. This is a critical and highly visible position within DIAL’s Africa Engagement team aiding in strategic planning and relationship management. The Senior Manager will be expected to understand trends across the continent, document the needs of stakeholders, and lead a process to synthesize these findings to ensure DIAL is continuously filling gaps in the ecosystem, delivering value, and maximizing partnership opportunities.  As countries embark on the journey of building maintaining, and scaling their DPI, it is imperative to generate more understanding on Creating ‘good’ Digital Public Infrastructure. This role will require a dynamic individual that can cultivate strategic working relationships with government officials and other partners. It will also entail development of knowledge products and resources that enable actionable insights and foster the practical and context-relevant application of digital public infrastructure (DPI), thereby empowering our country partners in Africa to accelerate their digital transformation initiatives and facilitating widespread learning and adoption of DPI across the continent.

The Senior Technical Manager will also be the face of DIAL in forums where DIAL’s technical viewpoints are to be shared to enhance knowledge sharing. This role offers the successful candidate an exciting position in a rapidly evolving and unpredictable political and economic environment.

This position is located in Africa.

Essential Functions

• Serve as DIAL’s subject matter expert on DPI and responsible for the strategic technical leadership to ensure technical integrity and quality assurance for all DIAL country engagements.
• Provide technical advice to DIAL and its implementing partners to bridge policy and technology considerations that promote technology adoption and establish a trusted ecosystem founded on best enterprise architecture principles and standards.
• Work with DIAL’s cross-functional team to develop and execute a learning agenda aimed at building and strengthening a pipeline of thought leadership products to support implementing countries and partners make technical decisions e.g. articulate tradeoffs between different architecture and technical approaches such as centralized vs. decentralized systems, open-source vs proprietary, etc.
• Quickly assess and evaluate technical infrastructure and software systems that have been deployed by governments and provide feedback to government stakeholders.
• Support the DIAL learning agenda by developing a systematic approach to track the evolving landscape of DPI and data governance in Africa. This internal knowledge management effort will inform DIAL’s understanding of the stakeholders, demand signals, trends, and partnership opportunities.
• Offer strategic support to the Africa Director to build out the long-term vision of DIAL’s Africa engagement strategy and growth in our hopes to serve as a global resource; support funder coherence; advance practices that empower people; and operate as a collaborator – rather than a competitor – in an increasingly crowded space.
• Champion DIAL’s perspective on people-centric digital transformation through external speaking engagements, regular writing, and within private policy circles.
• Foster deep understanding of the Africa landscape for DIAL staff and close partners (including advisory board members) through technical briefings and team collaboration. Proactively identify where DIAL staff and close partners can support the needs being identified.
• Work closely with the Africa Director and DIAL leadership on resource mobilization, including proposal writing.
• Work in close coordination with DIAL’s Technology team as an integral part of the organization’s efforts to strengthen the digital development ecosystem in Africa and actively contribute to fostering meaningful partnerships and collaboration in the region.
• Other duties as assigned.

Selection Criteria

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant field required. Master’s degree preferred, with 8-10 years of experience in national digital development.
• Experience with Enterprise Architecture and large-scale software system implementations as a project manager, engineer, or architect.
• Strong understanding of open-source Digital Public Goods, especially DPI platforms like MOSIP, Mojaloop, and X-Road, is essential.
• knowledge of IndiaStack components like Aadhaar and UPI is advantageous, it's crucial to possess a deep insight into the evolving trends and requirements of African governments in crafting their digital infrastructure.
• Software development experience and familiarity with one or more coding languages (Python, Javascript, Java) and backend technologies (SQL/RDBMS, GraphQL, REST)
• Strong networking and facilitation skills, including the knowledge and gravitas to work successfully with senior government officials. 
• Demonstrated expertise and thought leadership on digital transformation and data architecture issues.  
• Be comfortable working independently, managing multiple competing priorities, and being part of a team spread across time zones.    
• Be fluent in English with excellent speaking and writing skills: able to convey complex information in a simple and compelling way that is targeted to its audience. Additional knowledge of French is a plus, enhancing our team’s ability to engage with French-speaking audiences and partners.
• Be a collaborative, positive colleague who respects diversity in all forms and enjoys being part of a small but scrappy, mission-driven organization. 
• Ability to meet regular attendance/tardiness policy.