Senior Solutions Development Engineer

Established in 1964, the African Development Bank (AfDB) is the premier pan-African development institution, promoting economic growth and social progress across the continent. There are 81 member states, including 54 in Africa (Regional Member Countries).  The Bank’s development agenda is delivering the financial and technical support for transformative projects that will significantly reduce poverty through inclusive and sustainable economic growth. In order to sharply focus the objectives of the Ten Year Strategy (2013 – 2022) and ensure greater developmental impact, five major areas (High 5s), all of which will accelerate our delivery for Africa, have been identified for scaling up, namely; energy, agro-business, industrialization, integration and improving the quality of life for the people of Africa.

THE COMPLEX:

The Vice-Presidency, Human Resources and Corporate Services (CHVP) Complex ensures the delivery of efficient, people-centered, client-oriented, corporate services to ensure overall institutional effectiveness in all aspects of the Bank’s corporate services. The Complex leads efforts to ensure the competitiveness of the Bank as the employer of choice and is responsible for providing leadership in the formulation and implementation of Bank’s strategies on people, IT, general services and institutional procurements, language services, business continuity, and health and safety strategies.

THE HIRING DEPARTMENT:

The Corporate Information Technology Services Department’s (CHIS) mission at the Bank is to align the IT delivery strategy along with the Bank’s business strategy to increase the organizational effectiveness through efficient use of the Information Systems (IS).

Under the leadership of the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) Information Systems Director, the Information Technology Systems Department is mandated by the Bank to deliver best possible IT services for Bank Staff, and help achieve the results that gets the Bank closer to accomplishing its poverty reduction goals in Africa. 

THE POSITION:

The Senior Solutions Development Engineer provides direction for technical and business resources. He/she defines and develops project management infrastructure, manages a methodology driven quality plan, monitors and controls the quality of the deliverable, as well as manages the project completion process through customer acceptance. He/she works through Program / Project managers with business unit managers to form alliances on projects.

The main objective of the assignment is to work within the IT department to analyse users’ requirements, build IT solutions related to the Bank’s business activities. The incumbent must have deep technical expertise to manage the identification, evaluation, development, testing and transfer into production of software packages and solutions that meet business requirements, cost, quality, and strategic target.

KEY FUNCTIONS:

Under the supervision of the Chief Business Solutions Development Officer and guidance from the Division Manager, CHIS.1, the key duties and responsibilities of the Senior Solutions Development Engineer are:

1. To lead the full systems life cycle and responsible for designing, coding, testing, implementing, maintaining and supporting application software that is delivered on time and within budget.
2. Collect business requirements from Business Units and users and negotiates the IT systems scope and priorities to make recommendations towards the development of new code or re-use of existing code.
3. To update job knowledge by studying state-of-the-art development tools, programming techniques, and computing equipment, participating in educational opportunities, reading professional publications, maintaining personal networks, participating in professional organizations.
4. To determine operational feasibility by evaluating analysis, problem definition requirements, solution development and proposed solutions.
5. To build first before buying, therefore, innovate and prototype IT solutions before engaging the Bank.
6. To participate in component and data architecture design, performance monitoring, product evaluation and buy versus build recommendations.
7. To conduct reviews of supplied specifications with others as appropriate.
8. To document all work using required standards, methods and tools including prototyping tools, where appropriate.
9. To design large and/or complex applications and application modifications from supplied specifications using agreed standards and tools, to achieve a well-engineered result.
10. To integrate and support financial off-the shell applications.
11. To coach and mentor junior staff and consultants.
12. To provide peer-to-peer Quality Assurance of code to development standards and requirements specifications.
13. To provide guidance and assistance to colleagues in any aspect of program design, creation, testing and documentation.
14. Should continuously assess his/her technical skills, learn and advise on new technologies and trend.
15. Ensure that the developed solution follows the defined Bank’s Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) procedures.
16. Ensure the source code and other standard configurations are properly archived in the Bank’s source code management systems.
17. To work on one or more project(s) as a project Lead or as a project team member.

COMPETENCIES (skills, experience and knowledge):

1. At least a Master’s / Engineering Degree in Computer Science, Software Development or related business fields.
2. Minimum of five (5) years’ experience as a Software Developer or customer-facing Business Analyst in an IT organization within a multi-lateral Institution.
3. Experience in application development / programming.
4. Experience within the industry standard System Analysis / Applications.
5. Very good understanding of Financial Systems and technologies trends.
6. Experience in systems analysis, design and a solid understanding of Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), quality assurance and integration methodologies.
7. Deep experience and technical skills in supporting and maintaining financial systems such as SWIFT, GT Match, Blumberg, and Reuters.
8. Experience in one of these SAP-Hana Financial Modules (CML, FO, FICO) is desired.
9. Experience in creating reports and using data visualization tools, such as SAP Business Object, Tableau and Microsoft Power BI is a plus.
10. Having a working knowledge of the Microsoft Servers environment and Platforms (SharePoint and Office 365) is also a plus.
11. Strong interpersonal skills.
12. Excellent presentation skills.
13. Ability to communicate effectively (written and oral) in English or French, preferably with a working knowledge of the other.
14. Knowledge of the Bank’s standard software: Excel, Word, Power Point, MS Project, Access, etc.

THIS POSITION IS CLASSIFIED INTERNATIONAL STATUS AND ATTRACTS INTERNATIONAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT.