Background

BURN designs, manufactures, and distributes aspirational fuel-efficient cooking products that save lives and forests in the developing world.BURN has revolutionized the global cookstove sector by proving the business case for selling a high quality, locally manufactured and unsubsidized cookstoves.Since 2013, BURN has sold 200,000+ high quality, locally manu...

Responsibilities

Enterprise Technology Strategy & Budget — Set and execute the technology strategy for internal systems and IT operations across all markets. Own the IT and internal software budget: licensing, cloud hosting, hardware, vendor contracts, and staffing. (Connectivity/SIM budget sits with Connected Products.)

Internal Tools — Build, Buy, or Outsource — Hold full authority over the make/buy/outsource decision for every internal tool: ERP and NAV integration, CRM and agent apps (Buisy, Nexus), ESS, intranet and knowledge base, helpdesk tooling. Deliver through the Internal-Tools Delivery team — integration of bought tools, internal builds, management of outsourced development, QA, maintenance, and SLA adherence.

Demand Interface & Product Owners — Receive prioritised demand from CPO-side Product Managers through the quarterly prioritisation council; size capacity and commit a roadmap. Maintain 1–2 Product Owners who translate roadmaps into backlogs and acceptance criteria. Report delivery against SLAs.

Infrastructure, NOC & Enterprise Systems — Design, implement and run 24/7 IT infrastructure across all factories and offices — networks, servers, endpoint security, cloud services, and the Network Operations Centre. Ensure availability and integration of enterprise business systems (ERP, finance, sales, HR). Provide Infrastructure-as-a-Service for Connected Products with defined SLAs.

Cybersecurity, Data Protection & Risk — Own the security stack and its active management (DLP, endpoint protection, identity alerting, disk encryption, awareness training), data-protection compliance (GDPR and applicable local law, e.g. the Kenya Data Protection Act), the IT risk register, business continuity and disaster recovery. The security baseline applies to both organisations.

Asset & Estate Governance — Own the asset register as the company's system of record for the device estate. Reconcile the endpoint estate (currently ~1,800 devices visible to endpoint protection against ~400 reconciled records) and institute device-lifecycle management with IT Operations.

IT Governance & Service Management — Establish and enforce governance frameworks, policies and standards; chair the IT Steering Committee; run the helpdesk service model and the ITSM build-out (ticketing, SLAs, escalation paths, user lifecycle) supporting staff across all markets.

Vendor & Partner Management — Manage software, infrastructure and IT-services vendors and outsourced development partners for quality, cost-effectiveness and alignment. (Connectivity vendors — MNOs, IoT SIM providers — sit with Connected Products.)

Team Leadership & Organisational Development — Build and lead the Information Systems department (~35 people) through the Head of Internal-Tools Delivery, the Head of IT, and a Project Manager / Chief of Staff of the role holder's choosing. Confirm or recruit into acting roles; develop and retain the team through organisational change.

First-Year Delivery Book (indicative)

The role inherits a live portfolio of ~45 open projects, including:

• Asset estate reconciliation — close the gap between ~1,800 endpoint-visible devices and ~400 reconciled register records; establish the system of record.
• ERP resilience — the ERP is locally hosted today with backup not started; deliver backup infrastructure and a tested disaster-recovery plan.
• M365 licence right-sizing — audit and optimise a ~$250K/yr licence estate: counts, tiers, and alternatives.
• Telephony replacement & CX automation — migrate off a ~$160K/yr telephony platform; deliver IVR, robocall automation, and call-centre enablement across four markets.
• ITSM & user lifecycle — ticketing standards, SLAs, incident and escalation processes, device management.
• Cloud & monitoring — AWS infrastructure-as-code migration, AD migration, unified server/network/M365 monitoring, server-room power redundancy.
• Security stack completion — DLP and policies, security-audit action execution, active endpoint protection management, identity alerting, disk encryption, and awareness campaigns.

Qualifications and Experience

Skills and Experience

• Senior enterprise-technology leader (CIO-shaped) with a track record running both delivery organisations and IT operations at multi-site, multi-country scale.
• Strong sourcing and vendor muscle: has made and managed build/buy/outsource decisions with measurable cost outcomes.
• SLA-driven service-management discipline; comfortable operating as an internal service provider to a demanding product organisation.
• Deep security, governance, and risk credentials; has owned a risk register, BC/DR posture, and compliance programmes.
• A distributed-systems / SRE background is a strong advantage for the infrastructure-as-a-service model.
• Proven builder and retainer of teams through restructuring.
• Senior enterprise-technology leadership spanning delivery and IT operations, multi-site / multi-country.
• Build/buy/outsource sourcing and vendor management with measurable cost outcomes.
• Security, governance, and risk ownership - risk register, data protection, BC / DR.
• SLA-driven service management; able to operate as an internal service provider.
• Team building and retention through organisational change.
• Distributed-systems / SRE background
• Hardware-attached / IoT / PAYGO business experience

• Set and execute the technology strategy for internal systems and IT operations across all markets. Own the IT and internal software budget: licensing, cloud hosting, hardware, vendor contracts, and staffing.
• Hold full authority over the make/buy/outsource decision for every internal tool: ERP and NAV integration, CRM and agent apps (Buisy, Nexus), ESS, intranet and knowledge base, helpdesk tooling. Deliver through the Internal-Tools Delivery team — integration of bought tools, internal builds, management of outsourced development, QA, maintenance, and SLA adherence.
• Receive prioritised demand from CPO-side Product Managers through the quarterly prioritisation council; size capacity and commit a roadmap. Maintain 1–2 Product Owners who translate roadmaps into backlogs and acceptance criteria. Report delivery against SLAs.
• Design, implement and run 24/7 IT infrastructure across all factories and offices — networks, servers, endpoint security, cloud services, and the Network Operations Centre. Ensure availability and integration of enterprise business systems (ERP, finance, sales, HR). Provide Infrastructure-as-a-Service for Connected Products with defined SLAs.
• Own the security stack and its active management (DLP, endpoint protection, identity alerting, disk encryption, awareness training), data-protection compliance (GDPR and applicable local law, e.g. the Kenya Data Protection Act), the IT risk register, business continuity and disaster recovery. The security baseline applies to both organisations.
• Own the asset register as the company's system of record for the device estate. Reconcile the endpoint estate (currently ~1,800 devices visible to endpoint protection against ~400 reconciled records) and institute device-lifecycle management with IT Operations.
• Establish and enforce governance frameworks, policies and standards; chair the IT Steering Committee; run the helpdesk service model and the ITSM build-out (ticketing, SLAs, escalation paths, user lifecycle) supporting staff across all markets.
• Manage software, infrastructure and IT-services vendors and outsourced development partners for quality, cost-effectiveness and alignment.
• Build and lead the Information Systems department (~35 people) through the Head of Internal-Tools Delivery, the Head of IT, and a Project Manager / Chief of Staff of the role holder's choosing. Confirm or recruit into acting roles; develop and retain the team through organisational change.

• Senior enterprise-technology leadership
• Sourcing and vendor management
• SLA-driven service management
• Security, governance, and risk management
• Team building and retention
• Distributed-systems / SRE background
• Hardware-attached / IoT / PAYGO business experience

• Senior enterprise-technology leader (CIO-shaped) with a track record running both delivery organisations and IT operations at multi-site, multi-country scale.
• Strong sourcing and vendor muscle: has made and managed build/buy/outsource decisions with measurable cost outcomes.
• SLA-driven service-management discipline; comfortable operating as an internal service provider to a demanding product organisation.
• Deep security, governance, and risk credentials; has owned a risk register, BC/DR posture, and compliance programmes.
• A distributed-systems / SRE background is a strong advantage for the infrastructure-as-a-service model.
• Proven builder and retainer of teams through restructuring.