Senior System Administrator (Fullstack - Django & React) - Remote

Focus of the Role

TBI’s Centre of Government and Delivery (CoG/D) Team is a central function that provides technical leadership and support around TBI’s CoG/D initiatives in Africa. Our mission is to be a global centre of excellence for learning and innovation in Centre of Government effectiveness. The Team complements TBI’s embedded Government Advisory work, and currently spans across 16 centres of government in Africa, through iterative solution curation and implementation, market development and thought leadership services.

Job Introduction

TBI is scoping for a Senior System Administrator to support our Digital Tools team at the CoG/D on a short term independent consultancy contract for 12 months.

The Senior System Administrator can be based in any of the following locations: Nairobi, Dakar, Accra, Dar es Salaam, Cape Town.

Key Responsibilities

You will provide the following services, which may include but won’t be limited to:

• Improve the Digital Delivery Dashboard’s underlying software to ensure stability, speed, and access in inconsistent and unavailable internet scenarios
• Maintain, migrate, and deploy software across different environments and hosting providers to improve service reliability and functionality
• Develop and maintain a system for knowledge management for the team and end-users in collaboration with Digital Dashboard Lead, CoG/D Lead, Governance Advisors and Country Teams. This includes but is not limited to user documentation, product videos, and presentation slide decks
• Contribute to development, pilot, and roll-out tech-based centre of government tools that speak to the objectives of partner governments and merge the latest best practices in centre of government, adaptive management, and delivery
• Support development, deployment, curation, and maintenance of an “App Store” and community of open source and proprietary centre of government tools that works as a reference portal for TBI advisors and stakeholders to discover tools they can use to improve delivery
• Explore, engage, and manage relationships with technology-skill and software suppliers to determine fit for partnership and ongoing engagement on TBI-developed and partner-provided tools
• Collaborate with, and be responsive to the TBI country teams in Africa, to support them with their dashboards in a demand-led and tailored way, while improving the central product

Person Specification

• 5+ years of experience in building and maintaining SaaS (Software as a Service) products and/or web technologies and experiences
• Fluency in Python programming language and SQL databases specifically Django, graphene frameworks, and PostgreSQL
• Experience with JavaScript programming languages and frameworks, specifically React and Graphql
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills
• Excellent interpersonal, networking and negotiation skills

Added Advantages:

• Experience standing up and maintaining Linux-based virtual machines in AWS, GCP, Azure, and/or any other hosting provider
• Experience with Dokku, Elasticsearch, Redis, Memcached, and RabbitMQ technologies
• Experience with React Query, Redux, PWAs, React Native and other offline-supported JavaScript frameworks and libraries
• UI/UX skills with an eye for harmonistic design strategies that include typography and colour schemes
• Deep understanding of agile methodologies and use of tools such as Kanban boards, Trello, Pivotal Tracker etc
• Experience in consumer and enterprise SaaS, management consulting or centre of government/delivery work in Africa would also be an added advantage

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.