Technology Delivery & Operations Leader

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership committed to saving children’s lives and protecting people’s health by increasing equitable use of vaccines in lower-income countries. The Vaccine Alliance brings together implementing country and donor governments, the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry, technical agencies, civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private sector partners. Gavi uses innovative finance mechanisms, including co-financing by recipient countries, to secure sustainable funding and adequate supply of quality vaccines. Since 2000, Gavi has contributed to the immunisation of more than 1 billion children and the prevention of more than 17.3 million future deaths.

THE ROLE

This role reports to the Chief Technology & Knowledge Officer and has line management responsibilities for Delivery & Operations of digital and technology for the secretariat with technology delivery and platform/application build and run responsibilities. This team will have direct accountability to design, deliver, and run the technology solutions aligned with business demands, priorities and needs to support the Gavi mission.
The head of Technology Delivery & Operations brings experience, knowledge, and future vision for transforming the Delivery & Operations function including its operating model, product and service offerings and workforce. The role holder is a senior stakeholder in all relationships with externally sourced infrastructure and operations capabilities.
As a key member of the IT leadership team this role contributes to the development and execution of the secretariat-wide IT strategy and is responsible for ensuring Delivery & Operations is fully aligned, positioning Delivery & Operations to deliver compelling business value.

MAIN DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES

• Design, implement the platform, application and tool solutions in alignment with the Gavi secretariat needs ensuring adoption while assessing the risk of various solutions and prioritise competing demands;
• Lead development teams and other stakeholders to set goals for improving code quality, maintainability, security, and scalability. Monitor progress against these goals;
• Oversight of external resources for Operations & Project based work, managing these resources for solution definition, design, build and deliver to quality expectations, with effective coverage of these solutions through hyper-care and in steady state;
• Manage collaboration with Operations partners and vendors to ensure software and infrastructure performs well in production and meets SLAs;
• Oversee DevOps processes and practices, including automating the handoff of code releases from development to operations. Establishing and improving DevOps, as well as other working practices (e.g., ITIL);
• Strategically prioritise the efficient use of resources, including on time and on budget implementation, to deliver and run software platforms, applications, and tools while delivering hybrid working excellence to improve customer and user experiences;
• Advise on end-to-end business process design and optimisation, to increase the effectiveness of software platforms, applications, and tools;
• Interfaces with technology vendors to understand whether the vendor products will meet business requirements;
• Champion best practices and modern software development methods and tools while implementing and managing solution development status reporting, metrics, and benchmarks;
• Collaborate with the Chief Information Security Officer to ensure Delivery & Operations contributes to, embraces, and applies security strategy while ensuring solutions are effectively secured and that risks are mitigated;
• Operate a formal governance mechanism to establish and monitor effective controls for the processes and functions performed by Delivery & Operations teams. Supports periodic reviews by audit teams, compliance teams and other risk-related functions as required;
• Develops and executes to improve awareness of the business value that the Delivery and Operations function provides, and continuously seeks to ensure alignment to customer needs;
• Introduces innovative, differentiating infrastructure and operations capabilities that enhance our overall competitive capabilities and enhance employee productivity while creating self-service mechanisms to streamline infrastructure provisioning and ongoing management;
• Develops and controls the annual Delivery & Operations budget to ensure that it’s consistent with the overall objectives of IT and the enterprise and is within plan. Creates a culture of continuous cost optimisation while continuously evaluating the business value of operations, including the use of metrics such as Key Performance Indicators, Outcome Driven Metrics and Objectives and Key Results;
• Defines, develops, and manages a comprehensive and integrated IT Service Management (ITSM) landscape, based on best-practice processes, disciplines, and related toolsets. This includes delivery of a comprehensive IT asset management program;
• Improves IT resilience by executing processes and solutions that improve reliability, tolerability, and disaster recovery readiness;
• Supports the IT Leadership and Enterprise Architect by implementing infrastructure solutions that align to the enterprise architecture framework and roadmap;
• Developing staff including coaching, mentoring and performance management while maximising effectiveness of nearshore / offshore resource models.

Note: The essential functions listed in this section are not exhaustive of the job responsibilities; other duties may be assigned consistently with the department needs.

QUALIFICATIONS

ACADEMIC

• Bachelor’s degree business, computer science, management information systems, or related field.

WORK EXPERIENCE

• 12+ years of demonstrated experience in Technology Solution Design and Delivery and/or Operations with 3 or more years of leadership responsibilities including strategy, budgeting, and staffing;
• Demonstrated experience in IT project management with understanding of software development methodologies and best practices;
• Software architecture, design, and implementation experience with demonstrated knowledge of both traditional Waterfall and Agile/Lean methodologies with hands on experience operating a DevOps model;
• Demonstrated experience in implementing transformational initiatives where the target state included agile, DevOps adoption at scale;
• Demonstrated experience as a thought leader and innovator in the development of new tools, methodologies and problem-solving approaches with adaptability and ability to manage rapid change in business needs, processes, or technologies;
• Demonstrated experience defining, motivating and driving change with the ability to build and maintain strong cross-functional partnerships at all levels of the organisation and across stakeholders;
• Demonstrated ability to adapt to complex business environments and situations with strong business acumen and ability to understand and drive business objectives while communicating complex technical information in a condensed manner to various stakeholders verbally and in writing.

SKILLS/COMPETENCIES

• Broad IT domain experience in three or more of the following areas: Applications Development, Project Management, Maintenance & Support, Vendor Management, Quality Assurance, Infrastructure with an understanding of relevant tools and platforms (e.g. cloud platforms, web technologies, low-code technologies, continuous integration and deployment), with an eagerness to learn about new and unfamiliar technologies;
• Excellent organisational skills, including an ability to perform under pressure and manage multiple priorities with competing demands for resources;
• Developing governance practices to track and measure the quality of services, and maintain service improvement plans while managing third-party providers, working closely with sourcing and vendor managers;
• Budget planning and financial management for delivery and operations, preferably with showback and/or chargeback models;
• Solid familiarity with project management software tools, methodologies, and best practices with demonstrated ability to quantify resource requirements and measure and communicate proposed project benefits. Project management professional certification preferred;
• SAP S/4 and SFDC domain knowledge and experience with understanding of key information technology solutions and practices;
• Experience in converting business requirements into functional requirements and solutions with business acumen and ability to translate new solutions and technology into business value;
• Solid risk assessment, problem resolution, negotiation, and influencing skills with the ability to manage stakeholder expectations and resolve conflicts;
• Excellent communication and executive presence.

LANGUAGES

• Fluent English is required;
• French is an asset.

CONTACTS

• Gavi workforce and teams;
• Information technology Service Providers;
• Alliance partners;
• Business unit executives (e.g., CFO, CMO, CDO, CHRO, COO);
• Peers and other direct reports to the CIO, such as App Dev, EA, BRM, other CTOs, CISO;
• Office of the CIO (OCIO);
• Sourcing and vendor management leads;
• Enterprise program management office (EPMO) program and project managers;
• Other functional and product group leaders;
• Vendors and technology leaders in other companies.