Manager, IT Support
Food4Education · Kenya, Kenya ·
- Work mode
- Onsite
- Employment
- Contract
- Category
- Support
- Experience
- 2+ years
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Department: Operations
Reports To: Senior Software Manager
Job Type: Fixed Term Contract
Working Model: On-site, 5 days a week
About Food for Education
Hungry kids can’t learn or grow. Food for Education (F4E) is an award-winning, locally rooted, and African-led solution to end classroom hunger. Building on more than a decade of learning by doing, we’re powering a new school feeding industry and sharing our blueprint to scale sustainable, nutritious, and affordable school feeding programs across Africa.
Today, we serve over 600,000 children daily in Kenya. Every day, we deliver more than a meal — improving nutrition and education outcomes for children while creating jobs and opportunities for whole communities.
About the Role
F4E feeds hundreds of thousands of children every school day. Behind that is a growing organisation that runs on its people and the people run on technology. IT Support exists to make sure that’s never the thing that slows us down.
As IT Support Manager, you own the IT Support function within the Technology department. You sit alongside managers in Product, Engineering, and Tech Support and together, you shape how technology is built and run at F4E. As we grow, we're looking for leaders who don't just maintain systems, they improve them. You'll play a key role in shaping how technology enables the organisation, bringing fresh ideas, solving meaningful problems and building an environment where your team can do their best work.
You'll work closely with teams across the organisation to understand their needs and deliver reliable, scalable solutions that make their day-to-day work easier. When we're at our best, technology fades into the background because it's enabling everyone else to succeed.
You'll be accountable for IT Support across Food4Education's offices, warehouses, kitchens, and field operations. In this role, you'll lead a team that delivers reliable, responsive support while continuously improving how technology enables our work. Success means creating an environment where colleagues can rely on technology to do their best work every day.
Key Responsibilities
You own five core areas — each one critical to F4E running smoothly at the pace and scale the mission demands.
Infrastructure & IT Operations
- Own the reliability and performance of F4E’s core technology environment: physical infrastructure, on-premise servers, enterprise networks and corporate connectivity across offices, warehouses, and field sites.
- Manage hardware and asset lifecycles ie procurement, deployment, maintenance and retirement so that every staff member has what they need to work.
- Be the escalation point for IT support. When something is broken, you know about it fast and it gets resolved faster.
- Collaborate with Tech Support on field devices and shared operational assets; ensure clear ownership boundaries so nothing falls through the gaps.
- Develop and maintain the IT roadmap, ensuring priorities align with business needs and stakeholders are informed of progress, risks, and upcoming initiatives.
- Lead technology initiatives from concept to implementation by:
- Discovery: Understand business needs and identify technology opportunities.
- Definition: Define clear requirements and success criteria.
- Build or Procure: Deliver or acquire the right solution.
- Pilot: Validate solutions before wider rollout.
- Rollout: Drive successful implementation and user adoption.
- Continuous Improvement: Gather feedback and enhance services over time.
- Evaluate emerging technologies, automation, and operational tools through structured pilots and business case assessments.
- Drive automation and process optimisation by implementing practical solutions that improve efficiency and service delivery.
- Partner with Product, Engineering and Tech Support to shape technology decisions and support the delivery of shared priorities.
- Build strong partnerships across the organisation to understand business needs and deliver technology solutions that create value.
- Partner with the People team to manage hardware assets and software provisioning, ensuring new joiners are equipped from day one.
- Provide proactive stakeholder updates on project progress, risks, key decisions and upcoming changes.
- Lead, coach and develop the IT Support team by setting clear expectations, providing regular feedback and supporting professional growth.
- Provide proactive leadership by identifying challenges early, removing barriers and enabling the team to deliver high-quality outcomes.
- Foster a high-performing team culture through clear documentation, consistent standards and proactive issue resolution.
- Lead workforce planning by assessing future capability needs, planning team growth and recommending additional resources where required.
- Execute and uphold the IT policy framework, ensuring compliance with organisational policies, standards and regulatory requirements while proactively managing risks.
- Ensure the security and integrity of M&E data, maintaining reliable data flows that support informed decision-making.
- Own business continuity planning by maintaining, testing, and continuously improving IT business continuity plans.
- Contribute to the Technology strategy by partnering with leaders across the Technology function and supporting the delivery of agreed priorities.
What Success looks like
Success in this role will be reflected in the outcomes you deliver across the following areas:.
- Infrastructure Uptime: Reliable and resilient systems with incidents resolved promptly, documented and proactively managed.
- IT Support Quality: High levels of user satisfaction with timely resolution of support requests and effective service delivery.
- Technology Rollouts: Successful delivery of initiatives through clear requirements, structured pilots, timely implementation and strong user adoption.
- Team Performance: A high-performing team that demonstrates ownership, continuous growth and consistent delivery.
- Security & Compliance: IT policies are consistently applied, critical risks are proactively managed and compliance standards are maintained.
- Asset & Procurement Management: Technology assets are accurately tracked and procurement activities are completed in a timely manner.
- Innovation & Continuous Improvement: New solutions are evaluated through structured pilots with outcomes measured and improvements implemented.
Qualifications & Experience
We're looking for someone who combines strong technical expertise with proven leadership experience and a passion for building reliable, scalable IT services
You'll bring:
- Demonstrated experience in IT management or technical leadership, with responsibility for infrastructure, vendor management and leading high-performing teams.
- A proactive, hands-on approach to leadership, with the ability to identify challenges early, take ownership and drive practical solutions.
- A strong understanding of technology lifecycle management, recognising that successful implementation extends beyond deployment to ongoing adoption, support and continuous improvement.
- A commitment to high standards, fostering a culture where issues are surfaced early, addressed collaboratively and resolved effectively.
- The ability to build strong partnerships across the organisation by understanding the needs, challenges and goals of the teams you support.
- Confidence contributing to strategic discussions and providing informed recommendations on how technology can best enable organisational success.
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to translate technical concepts into clear, practical guidance for both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Curiosity about emerging technologies, coupled with a disciplined approach to evaluating, piloting and implementing solutions that deliver meaningful value.
- A minimum of 5 years' experience in Information Technology, including at least 2 years in a team lead or management role.
- A bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field is an advantage. Relevant professional certifications (such as ITIL, CompTIA, or equivalent) are equally valued.
- Experience working in a fast-growing NGO, FMCG, logistics, manufacturing, or field operations environment is an advantage.
Career Growth and Development
We have a strong culture of constant learning, and we invest in developing our people. You will have regular check-ins with your manager and receive ongoing performance feedback. We hold 360 reviews every six months and set aside time to discuss your aspirations and career goals.
You will have the opportunity to shape a growing technology function, influence how IT enables a mission-driven organisation serving hundreds of thousands of children, and build a long-term career at F4E.
Equal Opportunity Employer
Food for Education is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against applicants on any basis. We do not charge job seekers any fees at any point of the recruitment process. All applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application. Due to the volume of applications received, we are unable to provide customized feedback to individual candidates.