Company Overview
Jaza is working to power Sub-Saharan Africa. We build solar-powered shops which charge batteries customers use to power their homes. Since 2022, we’ve achieved over 4 million battery swaps, providing approximately 225,000 people access to clean, affordable energy.
We employ women from each community (known as Jaza Stars) to run the service, empowering our team to become leaders, entrepreneurs and drivers of economic growth within their communities. For more information on what we are building, check out www.jazaenergy.com and watch the video the BBC made about Jaza here.
Position Overview
The Group IT Manager owns and runs Jaza’s company-wide IT, workplace tooling, access, device lifecycle, and front-line support. This is an operational role first, meeting the company’s immediate need to stand up and run IT well; security, governance, and broader IT strategy are areas to grow into over time, and a more senior owner may sit above this role later. The Group IT Manager is Jaza's senior IT hire and is accountable for all company IT: operations, security, data protection and IT controls. The role is deliberately both hands-on and strategic. The first priority is standing up and running IT well (workplace tooling, access, device lifecycle and support). The role then builds out security, governance and IT controls in step with Jaza's growth and the requirements of its auditors and funders.
You will be hands-on managing day-to-day IT and support while standardizing the systems, tooling, and device lifecycle that let Jaza scale across markets. Deep cybersecurity is not the focus of this role, security scope centers on incident response and core access controls. You will lead the In-Country IT Officers, who deliver day-to-day support, so that your time moves progressively from doing to designing, controlling and improving. Security scope is practical and risk-based: identity and access, device compliance, backups and incident response first, maturing toward a recognized framework as the business scales.
Key Responsibilities
Enterprise IT Strategy & Governance
- Formulate, implement, and audit company-wide IT, data protection laws of each operating country, and cybersecurity policies to ensure complete compliance with global and local data protection legislation (e.g., GDPR, local data acts).
- Lead the evaluation, business-case development, and change management strategies for introducing new enterprise software (e.g., migrating to Slack, centralized project management tools, or knowledge bases).
- Standardize Jaza’s global IT stack, defining hardware baselines and software requirements that scale effortlessly across all global offices and operational Hubs.
- Own the business application inventory and a clear ownership model for each system (ERP/accounting, payroll/HRIS, the hub operating platform, customer and payment integrations, and tax e-invoicing integrations), defining where IT, TechOps, Finance and HR each own administration, user access and change.
- Set the policy for AI and third-party SaaS tools, including approved tools, enterprise agreements and data-handling rules, so that company data is not placed in unapproved tools.
- Own the IT budget and report IT spend (licences, SaaS subscriptions, hardware and connectivity) to the CFO, including periodic reconciliation of paid licences to active users.
Information Security & Cyber Risk Management
- Design and implement robust company-wide information security frameworks (e.g., NIST or ISO 27001 principles) covering Identity and Access Management (IAM), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), and zero-trust network architectures.
- Establish and maintain corporate cyber risk registries, mitigation logs, and vulnerability tracking systems to protect Jaza's intellectual property and employee data.
- Regularly audit systems and software, conduct penetration testing, and establish robust defense and threat response capabilities (e.g. threat hunt).
- Architect security awareness and training programs and software utilization frameworks to build a high-compliance culture among Jaza staff.
- Design and operate the IT general controls relied on by external audit: user access provisioning and periodic access reviews, change management, backups, and segregation of duties within finance systems.
- Own backup, restore testing and IT business continuity / disaster recovery for critical systems, with recovery objectives agreed with system owners.
Global Vendor Strategy & Procurement Governance
- Define the governance and allocation models for all software licenses and global hardware procurement.
- Manage high-level relationships with global hardware suppliers, negotiating master service agreements, bulk procurement contracts, and strategic partnerships.
- Facilitate executive-level stakeholder buy-in for new software investments, ensuring alignment with overall business objectives.
- Own the group IT asset register as the single source of truth for all IT devices and licences: set the tagging, custody sign-off, transfer and disposal standards; approve disposals and write-offs; and reconcile the register to Finance's fixed asset register, supported by independent physical verification.
- Agree with TechOps the boundary between corporate IT and hub operational technology (hub devices, SIMs and connectivity, and point-of-sale or IoT equipment) so that every device class has a named owner.
Regional Front Line Oversight
- Design and manage First-Line Technical Support and daily tactical workflows.
- Design and manage IT ticketing procedures ensuring fast time to resolution for all Jaza Staff
- Supervise In-Country IT Officers, ensuring structural alignment, high performance standards, and security compliance.
- Design and implement standard operating procedures for the lifecycle of employee tech (onboarding/offboarding workflows).
KPIs
- Build and manage first-line IT support, ticketing SLAs, and daily workflows for all Jaza staff, supervising regional IT officers to ensure high performance and alignment.
- Establish standard operating procedures for hardware baselines, employee tech lifecycles (onboarding through offboarding), and core workplace tooling (e.g., identity access, communication, and project management tools).
- Maintain fundamental cybersecurity standards across the organization - focusing on Identity and Access Management (IAM), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), baseline device compliance, and rapid incident response.
- Oversee software licensing allocation and global hardware procurement to ensure cost-effective, scalable operations across regions.
- IT asset register accuracy at physical verification (% matched), and leaver devices not recovered.
- Joiners fully set up on day one (%), and leavers with all access revoked within the agreed turnaround (%).
- IT general control findings from external audit, and % closed by the agreed date.
Why You Should Apply
Be part of one of the most exciting growth phases at Jaza. We’ve proven our model, now we’re scaling fast, and your work will directly shape our teams, culture, and long-term impact, giving you a front-row seat to meaningful systems-building and rapid organizational growth.
Work with an international team across Canada, China, Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and the United States, gaining exposure to diverse markets, leadership styles, and cross-cultural collaboration that will accelerate your professional growth.
Qualifications
Experience & Qualifications:
- 5+ years managing IT at a global company with global operations, ideally within a multi-country, high-growth environment.
- Demonstrated success leading large-scale software rollouts (e.g., enterprise-wide Slack or ERP deployments) from vendor selection through to successful employee adoption.
- Working knowledge of African data protection laws and security frameworks (NIST CSF / ISO 27001), with experience writing IT policies from scratch.
- Proven experience solving complex cross-border network constraints.
- Strong capabilities in vendor negotiation, stakeholder management, and translating complex technical risks into business-oriented solutions.
- Experience managing a distributed team, including remote and matrix reporting lines.
Must have skills
- Identity & Access Management (IAM/MFA)
- Mobile Device Management (MDM / Endpoint Compliance)
- IT Asset Lifecycle & Inventory Management
- Enterprise SaaS & Directory Administration (Google Workspace / M365)
- IT Service Desk Operations & SLA Management
- Vendor Negotiation & Software License Management
- Multi-Country IT Operations & Remote Team Leadership
- Practical Cybersecurity & Incident Response
- Data Privacy & Compliance (Local/Regional Data Protection Laws)
