Director of Information Systems

BURN MANUFACTURING • Full-time • Nairobi, Nairobi • 2d ago

About the role
Own BURN's enterprise technology end to end — the internal systems, infrastructure, security, and delivery capability the company runs on across all markets — with full authority to build, buy, or outsource, and accountability for delivering to SLA. Run infrastructure and the security baseline as a service to the product organisation, so that one foundation serves both the enterprise and product lanes.
Boundary: product software — embedded/connectivity firmware, the customer app, the product cloud and PAYGO platform — is engineered by Connected Products under the CPO. This role provides the infrastructure and security those systems run on, and owns the enterprise side of defined integration points (e.g., payments-to-finance reconciliation into NAV).

Duties and Responsibilities

Enterprise Technology Strategy & Budget — Set and execute the technology strategy for internal systems and IT operations across all markets. Own the IT and internal software budget: licensing, cloud hosting, hardware, vendor contracts, and staffing. (Connectivity/SIM budget sits with Connected Products.)
Internal Tools — Build, Buy, or Outsource — Hold full authority over the make/buy/outsource decision for every internal tool: ERP and NAV integration, CRM and agent apps (Buisy, Nexus), ESS, intranet and knowledge base, helpdesk tooling. Deliver through the Internal-Tools Delivery team — integration of bought tools, internal builds, management of outsourced development, QA, maintenance, and SLA adherence.
Demand Interface & Product Owners — Receive prioritised demand from CPO-side Product Managers through the quarterly prioritisation council; size capacity and commit a roadmap. Maintain 1–2 Product Owners who translate roadmaps into backlogs and acceptance criteria. Report delivery against SLAs.
Infrastructure, NOC & Enterprise Systems — Design, implement and run 24/7 IT infrastructure across all factories and offices — networks, servers, endpoint security, cloud services, and the Network Operations Centre. Ensure availability and integration of enterprise business systems (ERP, finance, sales, HR). Provide Infrastructure-as-a-Service for Connected Products with defined SLAs.
Cybersecurity, Data Protection & Risk — Own the security stack and its active management (DLP, endpoint protection, identity alerting, disk encryption, awareness training), data-protection compliance (GDPR and applicable local law, e.g. the Kenya Data Protection Act), the IT risk register, business continuity and disaster recovery. The security baseline applies to both organisations.
Asset & Estate Governance — Own the asset register as the company's system of record for the device estate. Reconcile the endpoint estate (currently ~1,800 devices visible to endpoint protection against ~400 reconciled records) and institute device-lifecycle management with IT Operations.
IT Governance & Service Management — Establish and enforce governance frameworks, policies and standards; chair the IT Steering Committee; run the helpdesk service model and the ITSM build-out (ticketing, SLAs, escalation paths, user lifecycle) supporting staff across all markets.
Vendor & Partner Management — Manage software, infrastructure and IT-services vendors and outsourced development partners for quality, cost-effectiveness and alignment. (Connectivity vendors — MNOs, IoT SIM providers — sit with Connected Products.)
Team Leadership & Organisational Development — Build and lead the Information Systems department (~35 people) through the Head of Internal-Tools Delivery, the Head of IT, and a Project Manager / Chief of Staff of the role holder's choosing. Confirm or recruit into acting roles; develop and retain the team through organisational change.

First-Year Delivery Book (indicative)
The role inherits a live portfolio of ~45 open projects, including:

Asset estate reconciliation — close the gap between ~1,800 endpoint-visible devices and ~400 reconciled register records; establish the system of record.
ERP resilience — the ERP is locally hosted today with backup not started; deliver backup infrastructure and a tested disaster-recovery plan.
M365 licence right-sizing — audit and optimise a ~$250K/yr licence estate: counts, tiers, and alternatives.
Telephony replacement & CX automation — migrate off a ~$160K/yr telephony platform; deliver IVR, robocall automation, and call-centre enablement across four markets.
ITSM & user lifecycle — ticketing standards, SLAs, incident and escalation processes, device management.
Cloud & monitoring — AWS infrastructure-as-code migration, AD migration, unified server/network/M365 monitoring, server-room power redundancy.
Security stack completion — DLP and policies, security-audit action execution, active endpoint protection management, identity alerting, disk encryption, and awareness campaigns.

Skills and Experience

Senior enterprise-technology leader (CIO-shaped) with a track record running both delivery organisations and IT operations at multi-site, multi-country scale.
Strong sourcing and vendor muscle: has made and managed build/buy/outsource decisions with measurable cost outcomes.
SLA-driven service-management discipline; comfortable operating as an internal service provider to a demanding product organisation.
Deep security, governance, and risk credentials; has owned a risk register, BC/DR posture, and compliance programmes.
A distributed-systems / SRE background is a strong advantage for the infrastructure-as-a-service model.
Proven builder and retainer of teams through restructuring.
Senior enterprise-technology leadership spanning delivery and IT operations, multi-site / multi-country.
Build/buy/outsource sourcing and vendor management with measurable cost outcomes.
Security, governance, and risk ownership - risk register, data protection, BC / DR.
SLA-driven service management; able to operate as an internal service provider.
Team building and retention through organisational change.
Distributed-systems / SRE background
Hardware-attached / IoT / PAYGO business experience

Qualified Female Candidates encouraged to Apply

BURN does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview, meeting, processing, training, or any other fees).