Chief Information Officer - SPARK Schools
SPARK Schools, South Africa
Job Description
SPARK Schools is a social impact disruptor and is leading change in the education space through its network of affordable private schools. The SPARK Schools network provides transformational education innovation through Africa’s first blended learning model, which elevates student achievement and provides the tools teachers need to serve their students effectively.
The blended learning model, which combines classroom teaching and online instruction, allows teachers to anticipate student needs and equips schools to provide personalised education at an affordable cost. SPARK Schools is pioneering this transformative education model to ensure the accessibility of university and careers for all.
SPARK Schools is a high growth, mission and values-driven entrepreneurial organisation, operating 21 primary schools, 5 high schools and serving over 15,500 families in 2024. We are looking for dynamic people to join our team.
Requirements
Purpose of Role:
The Chief Information Officer operates at an executive level and is responsible for developing and governing our information technology strategy in order to drive intelligent business decisions and build scalable systems to support the rapid growth of the SPARK network.
This role oversees the optimisation of current systems and critical business processes while also being accountable for the implementation of new technologies, ensuring that they meet the business requirements and that they are delivered on time and within budget.
The Chief Information Officer develops required policies and procedures, and works closely with various functions within the SPARK business to collect, prepare, organize, protect and analyze technology assets while ensuring that the company meets industry best practices. This will often require that they lead interdisciplinary project teams to improve and streamline SPARK’s systems while ensuring compliance to the relevant regulations (POPIA, GDPR etc.)
A successful candidate will have a proven track record in information technology systems and tools. A strong background in IT, mathematics, analytics, business leadership and will be advantageous.
Reports To: Chief Executive Officer
Responsibilities:
- Design and refinement of a future-fit technology strategy for SPARK Schools supported by a strong business case.
- Definition of systems integration and architecture requirements based on the data and technology strategy, with a particular focus on the Customer Journey and the alleviation of pain points therein.
- Development of best practice data migration processes and procedures to support the migration from existing systems, back-ups and archives to new ones.
- Impact assessment of data and technology changes ahead of implementation.
- Overseeing the change management for various stakeholders before, during and after systems and technology migration
- Designing risk mitigation initiatives for the technology work streams
- Feasibility assessments of projects aligned with the SPARK Schools technology strategy.
- Oversee the collection, storage, management, quality and protection of data.
- Oversee the implementation of data privacy policies and complying with data protection regulations.
- Delivering actionable insights derived from data for decision-making across the business.
- Overseeing maintenance and management of SPARK’s big data solutions and tools.
- Leading, motivating and managing technical teams.
- Updating functional job knowledge of technology and data teams by facilitating and encouraging participation in educational opportunities
- Training of existing and onboarding of new staff formulated with the professional development team as part of the relevant KPIs relative to the competency frameworks for the appropriate roles.
- Ongoing industry and functional research to ensure that SPARK aligns to best practices and to minimize project risks.
- Reporting to the Executive Committee and Board on key strategic projects to ensure alignment, buy-in and adequate return on investment.
Qualifications and Criteria:
The ideal candidate will possess the following qualifications and criteria:
- BSc / BCom in Computer Science, Information Systems or related degree(s)
- 5 to 10 years' experience in a senior-level technology management role
- 5+ years of experience in Pamp;L ownership
- MBA or another aligned post graduate qualification preferred
Competencies:
- Extensive experience in cloud computing (infrastructure, storage, platforms and data), working with a variety of technology systems, designing solutions, or developing business applications
- Experience working in a start-up or scale-up organisations