ICT Business Systems Analyst

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) seeks to recruit an ICT Business Systems Analyst to serve as a liaison between the business community and the IT organization to translate business needs into IT requirements. He / She will be involved in all phases of the design, development and implementation of technology solutions throughout the business case and development life cycle processes, supporting one or more business functions and several moderately complex business processes.

ILRI works with partners worldwide to enhance the roles that livestock play in food security and poverty alleviation, principally in Africa and Asia. The outcomes of these research partnerships help people in developing countries keep their farm animals’ alive and productive, increase and sustain their livestock and farm productivity, find profitable markets for their animal products, and reduce the risk of livestock-related diseases. http://www.ilri.org

ILRI is a not-for-profit institution with a staff of about 700 and in 2016, an operating budget of about USD83 million. A member of the CGIAR Consortium working for a food-secure future, ILRI has its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, a principal campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and offices in other countries in East, West and Southern Africa and in South, Southeast and East Asia. www.cgiar.org

Key Responsibilities
Planning:

• Conduct data gathering and analysis to understand business strategy and direction.
• Participate in short-term planning sessions with a client to implement process improvement within an assigned client area.
• Develop business cases.

Liaison:

• Serve as the link between the business, third party vendors and the IT technical team.

Business Requirements:

• Assess client needs utilizing a structured requirements process (gathering, analysing, documenting, and managing changes) to assist in identifying business priorities and advice on options.
• Develop, write, and communicate business requirements and functional specifications for the implementation of business solutions.
• Analyze customer’s operations to understand their strengths and weaknesses to determine opportunities for improvements.

Business Process:

• Analyze and recommend improvement to business processes and models.

Implementation

• Build business processes and transform business requirements into operational systems using the organization’s software platforms
• Debug and improve existing automation constructs on organization’s software platforms

Feasibility:

• Provide factual content to feasibility study for standard development projects and enhancements.

Testing:

• Develop user test cases and validate test results during user acceptance testing.

Problem Solving:

• Identify and resolve issues.
• Use new and varied analytical techniques.

Customer Satisfaction:

• Analyze metrics to ensure customer satisfaction.

Communications/Consulting:

• Promote an understanding of IT roles, processes and activities to the business units.
• Support and participate in the formal reporting of project status.
• Negotiate agreements and commitments by facilitating communication between business unit(s) and IT from initial requirements to final implementation.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or a Higher Diploma with additional 2 years relevant work experience
• A minimum of 5 years’ experience as a business analyst.
• Experience managing, configuring and supporting core financial and logistics systems functions (GL, AP, AR, budgeting, HR, procurement,) in enterprise systems such as Infor, Aggresso, Serenic, Epicor, Sage, Oracle, SAP
• An advantage if the candidate has training in process analysis, mapping and documentation, and software test and acceptance planning
• Well organized to manage projects in several locations.
• Good communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to pass on information clearly to users and to grasp difficulties perceived by users.
• Strong customer service orientation that establishes a good working relationship with customers, with the attitude of wanting to assist people and pass-on their knowledge and experience to others.
• Excellent knowledge of scripting tools for data manipulation.
• Excellent technical knowledge of database platforms e.g. MS SQL Server, MySQL.
• Good logical diagnostic skills and ability to exercise good judgement in the resolution of problems.
• Ability to multi-task in dealing with several different problems at a time.
• Ability to work under high pressure, meet deadlines, monitor and follow-up on pending matters under minimum supervision.
• Ability to communicate fluently in written and verbal English.

Terms of Appointment
This is a Nationally Recruited Staff (NRS) position based at ILRI’s Nairobi campus. It is open to Kenyan nationals only. The position is on a 3-year contract, renewable subject to satisfactory performance and availability of funding.

Job Level
This position is job level 2D, ILRI offers a competitive salary and benefits package which includes; pension, medical and other insurances for ILRI’s Nationally Recruited Staff.
How to apply: Applicants should send a cover letter and CV explaining their interest in the position, what they can bring to the job and the names and addresses (including telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience to the Director, People and Organizational Development. The position title and reference number REF: REF: ICT/BSA/02/2015 should be clearly marked on the subject line of the cover letter.
All applications to be submitted online on our recruitment portal: http://ilri.simplicant.com  by 17 March 2016.
We thank all applicants for their interest in working for ILRI. Due to the volume of applications, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
ILRI does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing or training). ILRI also does not concern itself with information on applicants’ bank accounts.