Office Technology Modernization & Enterprise Solution Officer at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is a regional group of fifteen West African countries. Founded on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, its mission is to promote economic integration across the region.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Office Technology Modernization & Enterprise Solution Officer

Job Code: 20002611
Location: Abuja, Nigeria
Institution: ECOWAS Commission
Grade: P3/P4
Department: Internal Services
Directorate: Directorate of Information, Technology Service
Division: System Acquisition and Implementation
Status: Permanent
Line Supervisor: PO System Acquisition and Implementation
Supervising: IT Assistant

Role Overview

• Under the direct supervision of the Principal Officer, Systems Acquisition & Implementation, the incumbent accelerates IT modernization, centralizing best practices and expertise for holistic transformation within ECOWAS. He/She will be responsible for enhancing innovation and continuously modernizing ECOWAS IT infrastructure as opportunities and challenges emerge over time. 
• He/She will improve current IT infrastructure and set the direction for integrating information technology and the Commission’s programs experience, via modernization strategies that will drive optimizations and improvements in the security, agility, responsiveness, and efficiency of the Commission’s front and back IT office infrastructure and processes.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Actively support ECOWAS modernization program from start to finish in accordance with the Commissions policies and processes, produce clear, detailed project scoping and design documentation to be used by technical specialists to build appropriate solutions.
• Critically evaluate information gathered from multiple sources, reconcile conflicts, decompose high-level information into details, abstract up from low-level information to a general understanding, and distinguish user requests from the underlying true needs.
• Drive and challenge business units on their assumptions of how they will successfully execute their plans.
• Develop and execute service desk and staff experience modernization strategies incorporating leading technology, and best practices to ensure solutions can meet their current and future needs in an efficient, sustainable, agile, and adaptable manner.
• Ability to collect and analyze current Commission’s operations, data and reports to develop future-state recommendations for optimization and transformation.
• Incorporate knowledge management and user relationship management systems best practices to improve the work experience and ECOWAS’s overall user experience.
• Support the implementation of intelligent system and innovative solutions to leverage robotic process automation (RPA) & artificial intelligence (AI) to help anticipate user needs, augment conversations, and automate routine tasks.
• Practice and enthusiastically share project management and agile methodologies throughout all stages of the project lifecycle.
• Elicit and develop clear, traceable requirements using interviews, document analysis, requirements workshops, surveys, site visits, business process descriptions, use cases, scenarios, business analysis, task and/or workflow analysis.
• Assist in the development of business cases, considering financial, resource, and technological constraints; develop cost estimates with consideration to business impacts and risks.
• Proactively communicate and collaborate with external and internal customers to analyze information needs and functional requirements and deliver the following artifacts: Functional Requirements; Technical Requirements, include architecture, interfaces, security, and business continuity.
• Strategizing with senior leaders to identify clear key priorities and opportunities to modernize IT, create operational efficiency, improve user experience, and communicate complex recommendations.
• Recommend key performance indicators, review, and report regularly on performance of existing origination strategies.
• Plan for the replacement of systems nearing obsolescence and complying with policy requirements for implementing new systems or applications.
• Develop mitigating controls should an end-of-life system or application must remain in use.
• Responsible for budget management of team in support of financial stewardship
• Develop strategies for replacing and updating hardware and software that incorporate and align with overall information security and business strategies as appropriate.
• Ensure that approved requirements are developed in sufficient scope and detail to result in the delivery of a solution that meets user needs as they perceive them.
• Capture specific capabilities (e.g. strategies, roadmaps, playbooks) to document good practices across ECOWAS.
• Accountable for documenting and maintaining departmental operational policies and procedures.
• Provide regular reports and updates to management on progress and achievements.
• Maintain an in-depth understanding of IT software and hardware assets in place, lifecycle of these assets from requisition through retirement, existing processes, policies, and tools to manage them.
• Promote best practices implementation and leverage appropriate risk technologies.
• Accountable for managing contractors as part of squads in support of financial stewardship.
• Provide support for lower tiered systems and applications supporting ECOWAS operation.
• Ability to incorporate standard operating procedures, training, QA programs and best practice methodologies into operations.
• Track changes made to the systems and applications, availability of updates, and the planned end of support by the vendor.
• Conduct risk assessments on systems and applications reaching end-of-life.
• Collaborate with developers, architects, subject matter experts, and other IT team members to establish the technical vision and analyze tradeoffs between usability and performance needs.
• Partner with other departments leads to drive alignment and integration of new technology and integration with other third-party or internal applications.
• Interface with data and security teams to address gaps and risks and assist in the overall design and build of security features.
• Ability to explain product and/or services to users who have varying levels of technical knowledge, enabling them to make necessary changes to product performance or presentation.
• Promote the continued education, training, and development of assigned staff. Supervise team(s) and administers performance reviews, evaluations, and staff counseling,
• Provide occasional out-of-hours support.
• Perform any other duties as may be required from time to time.

Academic Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree (or equivalent) in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Business Systems Analysis & Design, Information Systems Management, or any related ICT field from a recognized University.
• At least five (5) years’ experience in IT Development, Implementation and Maintenance of Information and Communication technologies.
• Experience working with systems and/or IT integration executions.
• Possess knowledge of development life cycle methodologies and the principles of project management
• Strong understanding of software design tools (CAD, ANSYS, etc)
• Knowledge in developing Acquisition/Procurement strategies for IT related resources
• Knowledge of relevant high-level web programming languages (PHP, ASP, ASP.NET, HTML, CSS, etc.) and programming skills, including structured/object-oriented design, relational systems (MS-SQL/MySQL), web platforms (Linux/Apache/Windows), scripting (JavaScript, jQuery, Perl, Linux shell scripts) and query languages.

Age Limit:

• Be below 50 years old. 
• This provision does not apply to internal candidates.

Ecowas Key Competencies:

• Ability to persuade/influence others to consider a certain point of view, adopt a new idea or implement new methods and practices.
• Ability to lead a team of trainees/junior staff and instill a spirit of teamwork to engage employees and achieve a well-defined set of activities.
• Ability to respect chain of command in an appropriate manner.
• Ability to resolve challenges that occur with minimal direction and/or to recommend and explain solutions or alternatives for approval.
• Ability to utilize the Code of Ethics to manage self, others, information, and resources.
• Ability to mentor others and create feedback loops with supervisors, colleagues, and subordinates to build strong working relationships and improve performance.
• Contribute to maintaining organizational unit’s performance goals and standards.
• Interpersonal skills with ability to keep a client informed of progress or setbacks in projects of relevance to timeline, quality, and quantity.
• Ability to proactively interact with clients and build strong trusting relationships based on mutual respect and regular discussions.
• Ability to establish and sustain professional credibility with clients/stakeholders in a manner that anticipates their need, mitigates issues and that carefully balances professional obligations with the need to be sensitive and responsive to their needs.
• Ability to counsel, advise, consult, and guide others on matters pertaining to assigned client service responsibilities and established client service standards.
• Demonstrate respect for cultural differences, fairness, and ability to relate well with people from varied backgrounds, nationality, gender, ethnicity, race and religion.
• Understanding of diverse cultural views especially within West Africa, with sensitivity to group differences; ability to challenge bias and to practice tolerance and empathy.
• Ability to listen actively, consider people’s concerns and apply judgement, tact, and diplomacy.
• Ability to work in a diverse and inclusive interactive environment that benefits from diverse strengths.
• Ability and responsibility for incorporating gender perspectives and ensuring the equal participation of women and men in all areas of work.
• Ability to encourage, empower, and advocate for people in an unbiased and transparent manner.
• Knowledge of ECOWAS institutions, sectors, programmes and policies.
• Knowledge of ECOWAS internal operational requirements of programs, projects, services, and systems required to achieve work assignments and meet performance goals.
• Knowledge of rules and procedures of ECOWAS associated assigned responsibilities and ability to explain these clearly to others.
• Knowledge of the ECOWAS culture, structures and performance issues and priorities impacting assigned responsibilities.
• Knowledge of member states development trends, indicators, challenges, and opportunities as it relates to project/program assigned to own position.
• Ability to study data/information from a variety of sources, identify anomalies, trends and issues, present findings, and make recommendations.
• Ability to break down problems or processes into key parts to identify and solve gaps in service, quality assurance, compliance, and performance targets.
• Knowledge of and ability to apply techniques to generate creative ideas and new approaches to meeting goals.
• Ability to use evidence and research to inform policies and programs and identify relevant and appropriate sources of information, including stakeholders, regional institutions and/or internal committees.
• Demonstrate operational computer proficiency using appropriate tools.
• Ability to make sound use of graphics and tables to effectively present numerical data to write semi-complex technical reports/proposals and edit/check templates, letters, etc.
• Ability to convey information clearly and concisely in a succinct and organized manner through both writing and verbal means.
• Exhibit interpersonal skills, make presentations, express opinions, and debate ideas with others in a constructive manner.
• Proficiency in information communication technologies (ICT).
• Fluency in oral and written expressions in one of the ECOWAS official languages of the Community (English, French & Portuguese). Knowledge of an additional one will be an added advantage.
• Ability to develop, implement an individual action plan for achieving specific work goals.
• Identify, organize, and monitor tasks throughout to facilitate execution.
• Ability to contribute and/or lead on projects as per accepted project management standards and techniques, to co-ordinate contributions by others to set and meet deadlines.
• Ability to organize work, set priorities, and work within timelines, giving attention to details, stakeholders, indicators, and risks.
• Ability to identify, collect and assess indicators to monitor performance and to take proactive remedial action as required.
• Assessment method: Assessment of qualified candidates may include a written exercise and a competency-based interview.

ECOWAS Work Environment:

• ECOWAS provides a work environment that reflects the values of gender equality, diversity, integrity and a healthy work-life balance. 
• We are committed to ensuring gender parity in the organization and therefore, we encourage women to apply for positions that suit their competencies. Individuals from minority ethnic groups, indigenous populations, persons with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups are also highly encouraged to apply. 
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is at the heart of ECOWAS’s workforce.

Salary
UA49,106.81 / USD77,480.72; UA56,591.37 / USD 89,289.87 annually.

Application Closing Date
21st April, 2025.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should send their Applications to: b52offtechmodernandentersol@ecowas.int using the Job Title as the subject of the mail.

Click here to download the application form (Docx.)

Note
Disclaimer:

• Selection and appointment will be subject to background and reference checks and other administrative requirements.
• ECOWAS does not charge for any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing in connection with application or recruitment processes and does not concern itself with information on applicants’ bank accounts.
• To view the complete job description and apply to this position, follow the link below.