IT Officer

USAID’s four-year (2021-2025) Resilience through Agriculture in South Sudan (RASS) Activity will improve food security and community household recovery and resilience in 13 target counties, reducing long term reliance on humanitarian assistance. To achieve this ambitious aim, RASS will employ a resilience pathways approach to improve the effectiveness of local systems and strengthen the capacities of community groups to achieve gender responsive and diversified market-sensitive production; facilitate increased production of diverse nutritious foods by strengthening productivity, reducing food loss, and improving nutrition behaviours; and strengthen and expand household and community opportunities for sustainable, locally driven livelihoods. RASS targets graduating communities from high integrated food security phase classifications to low IPC acute food insecurity and support a change from a focus on humanitarian assistance to inclusive development assistance and economic growth.

CONTEXT AND GENERAL TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

RASS will work with a sub-partner consortium and through local partnerships to ensure the sustainability of RASS interventions in various field sites for achieving its objectives. RASS will work through field offices either directly or through co-location within existing consortium partners, prioritizing collaboration, learning and coordination with other USAID and/or donor partners. It is on this backdrop that a strong operational platform/model is envisioned to deliver timely, agile, and adaptive activity implementation in South Sudan.

POSITION DESCRIPTION AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The Information Technology (IT) Officer is primarily responsible for maintaining, updating, and training staff on the use of the project’s computer and information technology systems, including hardware and software. As guided by DAI Bethesda’s Office of Information Management and Technology (OIMT) protocols, the IT Officer is responsible for compliance with all project IT systems policies and procedures, maintaining the privacy of all employees. The IT Officer is responsible for ensuring connectivity to high speed internet for all RASS staff and authorized guests, ensuring proper firewalls and cyber security protocols are in place, and that printers and other IT equipment are property functioning and being utilized responsibly. S/he will continually uphold RASS core principles for meeting its objectives, and ensure all decision-making is rooted in RASS values. S/he will contribute to a learning environment in which personal and team growth is supported, with a shared understanding that the “team” always comes before the “individual.”

The following comprise main responsibilities of the IT Officer:

IT Policies and Procedures:

• Ensure DAI IT and cyber security policies and procedures are communicated to all RASS team members and consistently operationalized.

• Ensure compliance with IT policies and procedures and develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as needed for IT services and support.

• Review business process administration for enhanced IT services and support.

• Identify gaps and recommend areas of improvement in IT related issues.

• Review IT equipment usage, condition, maintenance, and inventory management on a routine basis, following manufacture warranty and repair requirements.

• Facilitate the deployment and roll-out of new global IT initiatives in collaboration with the home office IT team.

• Under the facilitation of the DFO, s/he will be responsible for carrying out periodic reviews of IT procedures, documentation, and information security protocols, such as authorized file or systems access, equipment usage, trends and analysis, and firewall scans.

Network, Security, and Infrastructure Management:

• Ensure that network security and infrastructure are used effectively to facilitate the project goals.
• Ensure general preventive maintenance is performed regularly and periodically so as to protect and maintain IT infrastructure and equipment.
• Under the guidance of DAI OIMT, monitor and review IT security measures and procedures to safeguard against cyber-attacks to the network and bandwidth usage.
• Review and recommend strengthening data backup solutions.
• Introduce and implement remote assistance system for users who are in the field.

Customer Service and User support:

• Ensure user support and customer service for IT support remains timely and of high quality.
• Provide timely resolutions of logged support calls.
• Develop, introduce, and implement a RASS IT helpdesk system.
• Provide IT support only to authorized individuals and affiliates.
• Introduce knowledge sharing sessions to users on new technology and software usage.
• Train and encourage users to effectively use hardware, software and licenses

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelors’ degree in Information Communication Technology, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Cyber Security or Software Development.
• At least three years of hands-on on experience managing IT systems, support, software and hardware to teams of more than 20 IT users.
• Experience working in a related field will be an added advantage.

REQUIRED ATTRIBUTES OF ALL RASS TEAM MEMBERS

• Be Flexible and Adaptive – given the pace and frequency at which conditions may change in South Sudan, team members are expected to be agile and flexible with position requirements, adapting to changing circumstances for successfully meeting the objectives of the contract.
• Be Collaborative and Inclusive –individual team members are expected to model openness to new and competing ideas, seek feedback from colleagues, demonstrate and internalize respect for diverse opinions, and proactively create safe spaces for participation in decision-making processes to ensure the views of different groups, gender, and levels of understanding and experience within systems where RASS operates are considered and incorporated into activity programming, security, and development of RASS policies and procedures.