Job Summary<\/p>\n
\tThe IT Director leads IPA’s global IT function, setting strategy, developing and owning governance, and building a team capable of delivering reliable, secure, and user-centered technology services across a complex international organization.
\n\tThis is a leadership and management role. The IT Director is responsible for what gets built and how, not for building it directly. Success looks like a well-structured team with clear ownership, a governance framework that actually gets followed, and technology decisions that hold up over time. The right person is energized by developing people, translating organizational needs into technology priorities, and creating systems of accountability, not by hands-on implementation.
\n\tThe IT Director will also ensure that IPA\u2019s IT policies, governance frameworks, and control mechanisms are compliant with applicable regulatory and donor requirements and remain practical, proportionate, and aligned with the organization\u2019s evolving operational needs.<\/p>\n
Responsibilities<\/p>\n
\tThe following outlines the key duties and responsibilities of this role, to be carried out in close coordination with the Global Operations Senior Director and IPA\u2019s Senior Management Team.<\/p>\n
Define and steward IT strategy and governance<\/p>\n
\tDevelop and maintain IPA’s IT strategy, ensuring it adjusts to organizational priorities, resource constraints, compliance obligations and operational realities across a distributed, multi-country environment.
\n\tOwn IPA’s IT governance framework \u2014 policies, standards, and controls covering security, access management, data governance, acceptable use, vendor management, and emerging technologies.
\n\tEnsure governance is practical, compliant with regulatory and donor requirements, and proportionate to organizational risk and operational realities. Policies should be enforceable and understood across country offices, not just documented.
\n\tAdvise senior leadership on technology risks, investment decisions, and compliance obligations in clear, non-technical terms.
\n\tEvaluate emerging technologies \u2014 including AI and automation \u2014 and recommend responsible, mission-aligned adoption pathways.<\/p>\n
Lead the IT function and its people<\/p>\n
\tManage, develop, and retain a team of six IT professionals, including systems administrators, data engineers, and support staff, providing clear direction, regular feedback, and opportunities for growth.
\n\tRecruit for capability gaps and build toward a team structure where technical domains have clear ownership and accountability, while ensuring there are always enough redundancies on all tasks.
\n\tFoster a culture of documentation, service orientation, and accountability \u2014 where good work is visible and standards are consistently upheld.
\n\tSet team priorities in coordination with the Senior Director, Operations & Systems, and communicate clearly about trade-offs and capacity.
\n\tEnsure that IT operates as a service-oriented function, prioritizing responsiveness, clarity, and alignment with operational and research needs.<\/p>\n
Ensure security, compliance, and risk management<\/p>\n
\tLead IPA’s information security direction, ensuring controls are proportionate to organizational risk and resourced appropriately.
\n\tEnsure compliance with donor, contractual, and regulatory requirements related to data protection and information security.
\n\tOversee audit readiness and coordinate responses to security or data incidents, including engagement with legal and senior leadership.<\/p>\n
Drive organizational alignment<\/p>\n
\tLead change management for significant technology transitions, ensuring staff across country offices understand and adopt new systems and practices.
\n\tOversee IT budget planning and financial reporting, ensuring transparency of total cost of ownership and value for money.<\/p>\n
Qualifications <\/p>\n
Required<\/p>\n
\t7+ years in a senior IT leadership role with accountability for the reliability, security, and availability of enterprise systems in production environments.
\n\t5+ years managing IT teams, including direct oversight of senior technical staff (engineers, architects, system admins) \u2014 with a demonstrated track record of developing people and building team capability.
\n\t5+ years overseeing enterprise system integrations, SaaS platforms and cloud environments (ERP, CRM, data warehouse, or comparable).
\n\t5+ years as a senior escalation authority for technical or security incidents.
\n\t3+ years developing or managing IT governance frameworks, policies, and internal controls.
\n\t3+ years in environments with regulatory, donor, or audit compliance requirements related to data protection or information security.
\n\t3+ years overseeing IT budgeting, vendor management, and SLA accountability.
\n\t3+ years leading change management for enterprise technology implementations.
\n\tExperience communicating technology risks and decisions to non-technical senior stakeholders.
\n\tFamiliarity with enterprise business intelligence environments (e.g., Power BI).<\/p>\n
Preferred<\/p>\n
\tExperience leading IT in multi-country or distributed organizations, particularly in low-bandwidth or resource-constrained contexts.
\n\tBackground in international development, nonprofit, or donor-funded environments.
\n\tExperience overseeing AI or automation initiatives in operational settings.
\n\tExperience leading knowledge management or collaboration platform transformations.
\n\tProfessional working proficiency in Spanish or French.<\/p>\n
Apply Through:<\/p>\n
workforcenow.adp.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_promoted":"","_job_location":"","_application":"http:\/\/workforcenow.adp.com","_company_name":"Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA)","_company_website":"http:\/\/www.poverty-action.org\/","_company_tagline":"Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to discovering and promoting effective solutions to global poverty problems. In close partnership with decision makers - the policymakers, practitioners, investors, and donors working with the poor around the world - IPA de... read moresigns and evaluates potential solutions to poverty problems using randomized evaluations, the most rigorous evaluation method available.","_company_twitter":"","_company_video":"","_filled":0,"_featured":0,"_remote_position":0,"_job_salary":"","_job_salary_currency":"","_job_salary_unit":""},"job_listing_region":[692],"job-categories":[750,693,700],"job-types":[687],"class_list":{"0":"post-96939","1":"job_listing","2":"type-job_listing","3":"status-publish","4":"hentry","5":"job_listing_region-nairobi","7":"job-type-full-time"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobs.dataaxisnode.com\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/job-listings\/96939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobs.dataaxisnode.com\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/job-listings"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobs.dataaxisnode.com\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/job_listing"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobs.dataaxisnode.com\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobs.dataaxisnode.com\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"job_listing_region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobs.dataaxisnode.com\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/job_listing_region?post=96939"},{"taxonomy":"job_listing_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobs.dataaxisnode.com\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/job-categories?post=96939"},{"taxonomy":"job_listing_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobs.dataaxisnode.com\/kenya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/job-types?post=96939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}