IT Specialist - Mwanza - Tanzania

Abt Associates, a major American business and government research, technical assistance, and consulting company, manages the USAID-funded Africa Indoor Residual Spraying 2 (AIRS 2) Project.  The PMI AIRS Project supports the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), as well as USAID Missions and Bureaus with malaria programs outside the PMI focus countries, in planning and implementing IRS programs with the overall goal of reducing the burden of malaria in Africa by enhancing USAID’s ability to implement IRS programs on the ground through cost-effective commodities procurement and logistics systems, access to technical expertise, and implementation of IRS in countries affected by malaria.

Abt Associates seeks qualified candidates for the project’s operations in Mwanza, Tanzania.  Brief descriptions and qualification requirements for open positions are listed below. 

To be considered for any position, an applicant must submit his/her CV and an application letter that provides details of the applicant’s specific qualifications for the desired position to:

IRS_Tanzania@abtassoc.com

In the subject line of the email, write the title of the position for which you are applying.  If you wish to apply for more than one position, please submit separate applications for each position.  Applications that do not follow these instructions, or that do not meet the stated minimum qualification requirements, will not be considered.

IT Specialist

The USAID-funded Africa Indoor Residual Spraying 2 (AIRS 2) Project supports the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), as well as USAID Missions and Bureaus with malaria programs outside the PMI focus countries, in planning and implementing IRS programs with the overall goal of reducing the burden of malaria in Africa by enhancing USAID’s ability to implement IRS programs on the ground through cost-effective commodities procurement and logistics systems, access to technical expertise, and implementation of IRS in countries affected by malaria.

 

Under the supervision of the Tanzania Finance & Administration Director, the IT Assistant 9 / IT Specialist manages the project’s computer network at all locations in Tanzania. 

Specific duties and responsibilities include the following:

• Manage the office IT set up in four offices around the lake zone and Zanzibar
• Provide technical support for major and/or urgent problems with LAN or any of its components (server crash, firewall, virus attack, hard drive failure, etc.).  Reimage and join laptops to the domain.
• Provide on-call assistance to individuals as needed.
• Proactively notify Tier2 support (Abt IT) about issues and work with Tier2 to resolve.
• Perform Window Server maintenance and administration, including installing Windows 2008 patches and upgrades (Service Packs).
• Monitor server logs and perform necessary operations to ensure the proper state of the systems.
• Monitor that the Symantec Antivirus software and virus definition updates are being deployed to the server and client PCs.  Ensure that any PC deployed to the field has the project standard antivirus protection and is configured to receive virus definition updates via Internet/Symantec LiveUpdate.  Run a weekly antivirus status report from the Symantec Antivirus Console.
• Perform File Server backups (weekly full backup, daily incremental on file server, and monthly backups of file server and users data). Using Symantec BackupExec 2010, confirm scheduled backup jobs are successful.  In conjunction with International IT, perform quarterly data recover validation from backup.
• Monitor site firewall, managing VPN accounts, if any.
• Monitor File Server (Group Policy, NTFS permissions, EFS).
• LAN Administration: create and modify user accounts and privileges/rights (for network and exchange); manage disk space, printer queues, and internet connection; and update antivirus software and definition files.
• Perform desktop and laptop computer support, including performing routine preventive maintenance (disk scan, deleting temp files, defragmentation, etc.); install software patches and upgrades, troubleshoot hardware or software problems; and ensure users are backing up their data files on the server.
• Maintain IT Equipment Inventory (format provided).
• Write and maintain a Disaster Recovery Plan (template provided).
• Provide basic training on MS Office 2010 products.
• Participate in monthly All IT Manager Meetings with Abt IT Management.
• Initiate monthly conference call and written summary report with Abt IT Management.  Review monthly activity, articulate and implement Action Plans relating to identified IT needs.

Qualification requirements include the following:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Computer Programming, or other IT-related field.
• At least four (4) years of relevant professional experience in IT network administration in a Windows NT environment, including internet access support.
• Ability to manage and provide technical oversight to junior programmers and consultants.   
• Strong communication skills and the ability to work in collaboration with high level managers and technical advisors.
• A demonstrated ability to work independently.
• English language proficiency.