IT Support Advisor

IT Support Advisor – Roving Shared Service

Location: Kathmandu, Nepal

Job Grade: Eight (8)

Reports to: Country Director

Contract Period: 1 Year (with possibility of extension)

ActionAid is a global justice federation working to achieve social justice, gender equality and poverty eradication. It was founded as a charity in 1972, and throughout its history it has innovated and evolved its approach to better address the structural drivers of poverty and injustice. ActionAid believes people living in poverty and exclusion have the power within them to create change for themselves, their families and communities and ActionAid is a catalyst for that change. In the 1990s, ActionAid adopted a human rights-based approach to development, which is ongoing as its core approach. In 2003, the ActionAid International federation was established, comprising members in every region of the world, and headquartered in South Africa.

ActionAid International Nepal (AAIN) is a member of the federation, established in 1982 as a non-governmental social justice organization, working locally across various provinces of Nepal. AAIN is deeply engaged in both national and global social justice movement and also a part of various civil society networks, alliances, and coalitions. Through a human rights-based approach, AAIN empowers marginalized communities to assert their rights and address the underlying causes of poverty and injustice. As a proud member of the ActionAid International federation, AAIN collaborates with like-minded organizations worldwide to advance its mission of promoting social justice, gender equality, poverty eradication and climate justice.

Role Overview:

The position would suit an experienced IT professional seeking to grow their career in a diverse environment across multiple countries, contexts and cultures. The role involves delivering high quality IT advice, analysis guidance and services to support countries’ digital objectives. The role covers a broad spectrum of IT Services for those using the Shared Service model, this includes both virtual and physical presence in countries to support of their activities.

The role is key in the success of countries being able to deliver their priorities, objectives and programmes in their use of digital technologies, it forms an integral part in delivering agreed local and global plans making it a key liaison role with the GS technology function.
The role requires you to collaborate with IT focal personnel in countries that are using the Shared Services model, it will be based in a country office designated as a Centres of Support and function.

The role will demand a high degree of flexibility requiring travel to countries belonging to the shared service centre of support for differing lengths of time. It may involve temporarily taking on the role of a Country Offices’ IT Lead, or other key IT position, until a permanent replacement is found. It will entail providing physical and virtual support, training, assisting with the adoption and compliance with ActionAid’s IT policies, procedures and standards delivering specific IT services as needed for each assignment.

Annual work plans for this role will be jointly identified by the shared services Lead and the GS, Head of Technology, to ensure workplans are aligned with service level agreements between centres of support and countries receiving support.

In addition to providing support to shared service countries the role will also provide user support to GS staff for between ½ and 1 day per week (10%-20%).

Description

The major roles and responsibilities of this role can be summarised as follows:

• Able to act independently with a considerable degree of autonomy, oversee and maintain country IT systems to ensure their optimal functionality and operation to agreed standards.
• Responsible for ensuring IT policies, standards and controls are complied with.
• Uphold and enforce the compliance with IT security policies and standards for systems connecting to cloud or on premises services for servers and user supplied devices.
• Participate and contribute to the development and setting of the Country Offices’ technology strategy, plans and direction.
• Support Country Directors to identify IT risks and implement appropriate mitigations.
• Ensure that IT assets comply with established IT policies and guidelines, collaborating with countries and the GS to ensure accurate record of fixed assets is maintained.
• Ensure compliance and upkeep of country IT hardware, including laptops, desktops and peripheral devices to ensure adherence to standard configurations is maintained, e.g. updating, patching or operating system compliance.
• Provide advice and guidance related to Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery for country system resilience and connectivity to the cloud, including on premises and cloud backup processes.
• Ensure country endpoint protection is compliant with policies and up to date providing advice to countries on threat mitigation, malware and data leak prevention.
• Lead in ensuring that proactive measures are taken in protecting the security of the country’s network, taking proactive measures against emerging threats.
• Collaborate closely with shared service country IT teams and GS in order to achieve the country requirements balanced with the priorities of the Federation.
• Oversee and promote innovative modern work methods, including administration, orientation, and the adoption of new training or collaboration tools.
• Proactively communicate to manage and support all the Country users, including staff with lower technical proficiency.

Requirements:

• Knowledge of applications and operations of the Microsoft 365 and Azure Cloud is essential.
• Knowledge of Windows Server, Desktop and cloud virtual operation is essential.
• Knowledge of IT hardware with sound capability in being able to solve hardware problems.
• A good understanding of current and emerging technologies, standards and practices.
• Understanding of working and running multiple concurrent IT projects with a country, the federation or with external suppliers.
• Sound understanding of cost control, budget and forecasting.
• Knowledge of monitoring and reporting on SLA’s.

Qualification:

• Masters’ Degree in Computer Science/Information Technology or related discipline with 7 years of relevant experience.
• IT Certification (e.g., ITIL, Cisco, Microsoft Cloud) is desirable.
• Work experience in IT support discipline preferably in an international organisation, ideally Not for Profit or NGO.
• Substantial experience working in a similar role, preferably across multiple locations.
• At least two years’ experience working in a hybrid Microsoft Cloud/Azure environment preferred.
• Experience of working in multi-cultural environment.
• Proven facilitation and training experience in IT related subjects.

Closing date: 8 December 2024