IT Officer – Networks

Partners in Hope (PIH) was established in 2004 by Dr. Perry Jansen, an American Family Physician, and a group of committed Malawian professionals to address the devastating HIV and AIDS epidemic in Malawi. PIH Medical Center formally opened in November 2005, with Dalitso Private Clinic, Pharmacy, Laboratory and Tiyanjane Counselling Center. PIH’s strategy arose from close engagement with the Ministry of Health early in the process of developing and implementing successful scale up of antiretroviral therapy (ART). Our programs are in three main areas i.e. Health Service Delivery, Medical Education and Research, and Capacity Building. Our comparative advantage among others include the cutting-edge diagnostic work, local ownership of the vision and the holistically client centred approach which has set us apart from other service providers in the health sector. In addition to operating a general clinic, inpatient ward and HIV/AIDS clinic, the program unit provides support to Ministry of Health and CHAM health facilities in nine districts from Chitipa to Nsanje. Teams are working to meet the 95-95-95 targets for HIV testing, retention in care and viral load suppression through training, mentorship, supervision and health systems strengthening. Partners in Hope – under the IT department is seeking to recruit highly motivated individual for the below position:

IT OFFICER (1) NETWORKS – LILONGWE

Job Summary:

The IT Officer – (Networks) at Partners In Hope (PIH) will be responsible for planning, implementing, and managing the organization’s computer network infrastructure. This role focuses on ensuring the efficiency, security, and reliability of the network, enabling seamless communication and data exchange within PIH and with partner organizations. The successful candidate will work with various network technologies, hardware, software, troubleshooting issues and optimizing performance to support organizational objectives. Strong collaboration skills are essential, as the IT Officer will engage with multiple stakeholders to enhance network functionality and address technical challenges effectively.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

• Ensure installation, configuration, support and troubleshooting of all Network related issues follows Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
• Develop and implement strategies, policies, and procedures for network operations
• Planning, Installation, operation, monitoring, and administration of Local Area Networks, Virtual Local Area Networks, Wide Area Networks, and Virtual Private Networks
• Ensure the availability, reliability, and scalability of network and telecommunications services
• Performing system monitoring to verify the integrity and availability of all hard/software and key processes of the ICT infrastructure
• Performs network devices, systems, and applications penetration assessments to identify their vulnerabilities
• Design and implement new network system security countermeasures to improve the existing security
  measures
• Provide ICT training to new and existing staff as part of Continuing Professional Development
• Implement network monitoring and troubleshooting tools such as Wireshark, SolarWinds, Nagios, Cacti, and PRTG
• Schedule network upgrades and ensure minimal downtime on all scheduled network upgrades.
• Monitor the network and report downtime to ISP, follow up with ISP until issue is resolved on a daily basis.
• Monitor performance of links to ensure the quality of service and that capacity has been provisioned according to the requested capacity.
• Provides input in designing and development of business continuity and disaster recovery plans
• Conducts network systems backups and DR tests for the Corporate Network according to approved policies.
• Update and maintain corporate network IP addressing scheme and VLANs.
• Update and maintain corporate network inventory.
• Manage and ensure effectiveness of security solutions, including Antivirus, VPN and Intrusion detection system, and web content filtering.
• Recommend changes to improve systems and network configurations, monitoring and determine hardware or software requirements related to such changes.
• Generate and produce Monthly uptime and downtime reports for all sites and any ISP connecting the sites.
• Follow up on all network reported issues and ensure they are timely closed.

Knowledge, skills & abilities

• Academic and Practical Knowledge in networking-LAN/WAN Design, implementation, administration, optimization, and monitoring
• Ability to establish priorities and proceed with objectives with minimum supervision
• 5+ years working experience in designing enterprise scale routing and switching environments and IP load balancing & Failover
• Hands-on experience with services such as VLAN, VPN, WLAN, TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, SNMP, SMTP, IPSEC.
• 5+ years in supporting large scale enterprise network infrastructures using multi-vendor environment i.e. (Cisco, Mikrotik, Ubiquiti, FortiGate, and Sophos solutions
• 5+ years of experience with Network Monitoring system implementation and management.
• Ability to perform network automation using different technologies

Required qualifications, Skills and Experience.

The ideal candidate should have, at least, the following qualifications and experience;

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science/ Information Technology or equivalent education and experience from a recognized institution.
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in IT support, systems and network administration in a professional organization. Those with experience working in healthcare setting will have an added advantage.
• Those with a valid Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) / Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) OR CompTIA Network+ will have an added advantage.

HOW TO APPLY

Eligible candidates meeting the required qualifications and experience above should submit their applications with detailed Curriculum Vitae (CV) relevant copies of Certificates, three traceable referees, include the job title to

The Human Resource Manager
Partners in Hope
P.O. Box 302.
LILONGWE.
Or e-mail: jobs@pihmalawi.com

The deadline for receiving application is 25th October, 2024. Please note that only shortlisted applicants will be contacted. Partners In Hope thanks all applicants for their interest.