About the Client

The Spix Foundation is a US-based nonprofit organization with bright new offices in Nairobi, Kenya. We have already launched Version 1 of the world’s first free and open source Digital Public Infrastructure for Education (DPI-Ed), as called for by the African Union Development Agency's African EdTech Vision 2030: Vision and Plan (https://is.gd/jjtQyg). That DPI-Ed is called the RESPECTTM Platform. RESPECT makes it easy for Ministries of Education to embrace Africa's new EdTech Vision. RESPECT makes it easy for EdTech developers to scale their apps online or offline, across languages, and across jurisdictions – and to get paid by the Spix Foundation based on their app's usage. RESPECT makes it easy for educators to use a single sign-on for all RESPECT CompatibleTM apps, and for those apps to interoperate smoothly. RESPECT makes it easy for EdTech researchers to have the world's best data on student-courseware interactions. RESPECT is the disruptive technology that will turn Africa's struggling EdTech industry into a global exporter of the world's best courseware by 2030. To do this, we need your help! If you want to lead Africa's EdTech industry to global leadership, while ensuring that all of Africa's educators and students have access to the world's best EdTech apps, then join us, work hard, learn fast, and make a difference every day!

Job Purpose

We are seeking a highly skilled and mission-aligned Linux System Administrator who will administer key Linux servers and work with administrators at Mobile Network Operators, Ministries of Education, and other entities who operate their own servers to receive and store RESPECT-sourced data while honoring data security, privacy, and sovereignty rules. You will ensure that best practice is followed to ensure a highly secure and reliable environment. This is a key technical role in a globally distributed team working to deliver one of Africa’s most developer-friendly and resilient EdTech platforms.

Function: RESPECT Platform Server, Core Infrastructure set up & operations

Reports to: Head of Office, Africa

Key Responsibilities

Server and System Administration

• Provision, configure, and maintain Linux servers for production and staging environments.
• Monitor system health, performance, and usage
• Manage cloud infrastructure including VM provisioning, security groups, backups, and auto-scaling.
• Automate infrastructure tasks using relevant and approved tools.
• Support CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitHub Actions, GitLab CI) and containerized deployments.
• Implement system hardening, patching, and access control policies
• Monitor and respond to security incidents, vulnerabilities, and system errors.
• Manage automated backup and disaster recovery procedures.
• Provide Tier 2/Tier 3 support to development teams and technical partners.
• Maintain system documentation, diagrams, runbooks, and asset inventories.
• Collaborate with the Platform Support team to ensure developer environments are reproducible and stable.
• Assist in deploying and securing interoperability bridges
• Support custom infrastructure deployments across African countries.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field
• At least 5 years of experience administering Linux systems in production environments.
• Prior experience with nonprofit or public infrastructure projects is a plus.
• Highly familiar with the Linux command line, editing key configuration files, managing installed packages via apt, snap, etc, writing/modifying shell scripts.
• Strong understanding of networking; able to configure firewalls on server
• Good awareness of security standards and best practices
• Understanding and experience with Africa’s Ministries of ICT (MOICT), Ministries of Digital Economy (MDE), Telecom Infrastructure, configurations, policies and regulations.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with UPS (Uninterruptible Power Systems).
• Experience with solar energy systems.
• Familiar with configuration automation tools eg. Cfengine or Puppet.
• Familiar with uptime monitoring tools e.g. Nagios.
• Familiar with sustainable public sector services and models for business continuity.

What is on Offer

• A purpose-driven role contributing to transformative digital infrastructure in education.
• Flexible working environment.
• A collaborative and inclusive team environment.
• Competitive compensation and benefits package aligned with experience with the opportunity for international exposure
• The opportunity to build something that truly matters from grounds up.

How to apply:

If you meet the above job requirements, we would like to connect with you. To apply, please submit your updated CV with a short cover letter explaining why you are a good fit to recruit@platinumadvisory.co.ke within the deadline.

Safeguarding, Inclusivity and Equality: All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to ethnicity, gender, race, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, marital status, or any other characteristic that has no bearing on the ability to perform the required job duties.

Data Protection: By submitting your application, you confirm that the submitted information is true and authorize Natural Justice to use your personal data, to further process your engagement for lawful purposes related to the organization’s vision, including conducting background checks.

Due to the high volume of applications we receive, only shortlisted candidates who qualify for the next recruitment stage will be contacted.

Disclaimer: Please note that we do not charge a fee at any stage of this recruitment process.