The Open University of Kenya aims to address the pressing issue of limited capacity in traditional universities by employing innovative teaching and learning methodologies, including online and distance education. By leveraging technology and flexible learning modes, the university seeks to accommodate a larger number of qualified students. This role requires a dedicated professional to manage and architect the University's critical ICT infrastructure, focusing on cloud environments, security, virtualization, and database systems to ensure resilience and high availability for the University's innovative learning platforms.
Duties & Responsibilities
The Principal ICT Officer will be responsible for the following duties:
- Architect and manage hybrid cloud environments (AWS/Azure/GCP and On-Premise), utilising Infrastructure as Code (Terraform/Ansible) to automate deployment and scaling.
- Oversee high-availability database clusters (SQL & NoSQL), automating failover, backup recovery testing, and performance tuning using modern monitoring stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog etc.).
- Manage the University DevSecOps Implementation, integrating security tools into the CI/CD pipeline to automate vulnerability scanning for databases and servers.
- Manage enterprise virtualisation (VMware/Proxmox) and transition legacy apps to containerised environments (Docker/Kubernetes).
- Design and test immutable backup strategies and Business Continuity Plans (BCP) to ensure resilience against ransomware and data loss.
Required Qualifications and Competencies
For appointment to this grade, one MUST meet the following requirements:
Must Have Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering or a related field is required; a Master's degree is preferred.
- Minimum of three (3) years proven hands-on experience managing Data Centres and Cloud Infrastructure is essential.
- Advanced administrative expertise in both Linux (RHEL/Ubuntu) and Windows Server is expected, supported by relevant certifications.
- Experience is necessary in virtualisation technologies, including VMware, Proxmox, and Hyper-V.
- Skill is required in managing and maintaining diverse database systems such as Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MongoDB.
- Proficiency is necessary in container orchestration using Docker and Kubernetes.
Essential Professional Certifications
Relevant Professional Certifications including:
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect (Professional) qualification or Azure Solutions Architect Expert qualification.
- Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) qualification or Linux Professional Institute LPIC-3 qualification.
- CKA (Certified Kubernetes Administrator) qualification.
- HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate qualification.
- CISM (Certified Information Security Manager) qualification or CISA qualification.
Note that the Terms of Service will be either Permanent and Pensionable OR Contract, as shall be determined by the University Council.
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