HEAD OF TECHNOLOGY

About Jacaranda Health

Jacaranda Health is a social enterprise leading digital health innovation in Africa, saving mothers' and babies' lives through affordable, scalable technology solutions in public hospitals across Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana. In partnership with governments, our AI-powered platform, PROMPTS, is transforming maternal healthcare—currently reaching more than 3 million women and delivering personalized care in low-resource communities at scale. We’re not just building software; we’re building a healthier future.

Jacaranda Health is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applications from qualified candidates regardless of race or ethnicity, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and any other protected characteristics. 

Departmental Overview

The Technology Department at Jacaranda Health is where innovation meets impact. We're a team of passionate Kenyan software and machine learning engineers building and scaling the life-saving platforms (including PROMPTS, MENTORS, and PULSE) that power our mission. Partnering with government and global organizations, we develop secure, integrated solutions for national health systems. Committed to data-driven decision-making and continuous learning, we’re pushing the boundaries of digital health every day.

Role Overview

The Head of Technology is a mission-critical leadership role, responsible for driving our technical strategy that contributes to our mission of transforming maternal healthcare across Africa. This position offers the opportunity to lead and grow a world-class team, advance AI-driven solutions, and make a tangible impact on millions of lives. You’ll optimize platform performance, ensure seamless health-system integration, and establish key strategic partnerships—all with zero tolerance for downtime and data errors. Only seasoned professionals who can hit the ground running should apply.

What You’ll Do

Technical Leadership & Vision:

• Drive ‘Effective, Simple, Cheap’: Champion solutions that maximize impact for mothers and babies, ensuring every technical decision is cost-effective, scalable, and high-impact.

• Architect for Excellence: Provide the roadmap for best-in-class engineering (agile, CI/CD, QA). Expect rigorous execution and a culture of ongoing improvement.

• Embrace Cutting-Edge Tech: Deploy and support the latest in AI/ML, cloud computing, and digital health tools—always pushing the boundaries for better healthcare outcomes.

• Seamless Integration: Lead integration with national health systems (EMRs, DHIS2, FHIR), ensuring our technology slots in effortlessly and reliably.

• Data Security & Compliance: Maintain 100% data accuracy, ensure bulletproof security, and 100% compliance with the Kenya Data Protection Act.

Strategic Leadership & Partnerships:

• Set the Tech Strategy: Define a forward-thinking Kenya-centric roadmap, positioning Jacaranda as a global leader in digital health innovation.

• Influence Policy: Advocate for our solutions in government and international forums, shaping digital health policy at the highest levels.

• Expand & Scale: Drive national and international expansion of Jacaranda’s platforms, bringing our solutions to millions more mothers in sub-Saharan Africa.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Integrate efforts with Product, Research, Data, and Programs to ensure technology solutions align with organizational goals.

• OKR Ownership: Lead annual planning, set ambitious OKRs, and enforce a results-focused mindset across your teams.

• Build Strategic Alliances: Support high-visibility collaborations with global technology giants (Google, AWS, OpenAI, Meta) and proposal development for grants and impact reporting.

Team Leadership & Development:

• Hire & Inspire: Recruit top technical talent and foster a culture of collaboration, creativity, and high performance.

• Mentorship & Growth: Conduct thorough annual performance reviews, offer candid feedback, and champion the professional development of every team member.

• Visionary Leadership: Create an environment where engineers feel empowered to test new ideas, fail fast, and iterate for success.

Operational Excellence:

• Reliability & Uptime: Aim for 99.9% system uptime and zero tolerance for any preventable downtime.

• Advanced Monitoring: Establish automated systems for rapid issue detection and resolution.

• Scalable Infrastructure: Build robust cloud solutions that can handle explosive user growth and large data sets, without compromising on cost efficiency.

• Data Governance: Enforce strict protocols to safeguard sensitive health information and maintain trust with our users.

Financial Management:

• Budget Planning & Monitoring: Own the annual and monthly technology budget planning to ensure optimal resource allocation.

• Accountability: Maintain strict budget adherence, promptly addressing any deviations and upholding full transparency with senior leadership.

What we are looking for

Education: Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field.

Experience:

• 7+ years in technology leadership, with deep engineering expertise.

• Proven success scaling technology to millions of users across multiple countries.

• Experience with end-to-end design, development, and deployment of scalable tech platforms.

• Demonstrated track record of near-zero downtime in mission-critical systems.

Skills and Attributes:

• Proven ability to make strategic technology decisions for organizations serving at least 250,000 users.

• Proficiency in leading and scaling technical teams of at least 10 engineers.

• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain strategic partnerships (government, donors, technology companies).

• Expertise in agile, CI/CD, and rigorous QA.

• Extensive experience with cloud platforms (AWS and GCP preferred), microservices, and system integrations (APIs, FHIR), managing infrastructure supporting at least 100,000 concurrent users.

• Strong experience implementing data validation and 100% ensuring data accuracy.

• Hands-on experience with AI/ML/NLP deployments.

• Expertise in data governance, security, privacy, and compliance (Kenya Data Protection Act).

• Proven ability to manage complex, multi-stakeholder projects.

Preferred:

• Experience with Salesforce

• Experience in Sub-Saharan African health systems, familiarity with maternal/newborn health, passion for technology in healthcare, and strong advocacy skills.

Why Jacaranda? 

1. Mission-driven work: Your expertise impacts the lives of millions of mothers and babies

2. Innovation-forward thinking: Work with cutting edge technology and analytics, at an organization that puts data first

3. High-growth organization: Be a part of a rapidly scaling organization both nationally and globally

4. People-centric culture: Work in collaboration with an ambitious, passionate and supportive global team

Do you have hands-on software engineering experience (designing, developing, and testing applications) and experience in technology leadership roles, including experience with Cloud technologies? If you do not, please do not apply.

Qualified candidates to apply now via this link to join our team of global health leaders!

Candidates should submit their applications by 5th March 2025.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Early applications are encouraged.