Lead Application Engineer

Role Overview

This position blends two critical missions: protecting the hospital’s day-to-day technology backbone and leading a major transformation of its clinical and administrative software. In practice, you will oversee the availability, security, and performance of all systems, networks, and databases while also directing a team of developers and QA engineers who are building and rolling out the new Hospital Management Information System. Your decisions influence how reliably clinicians access patient data, how smoothly the hospital runs, and how safely sensitive information is handled.

Key Responsibilities

• Direct the design, development, and delivery of new HMIS features, working with product and clinical stakeholders to translate operational needs into working software.
• Structure the engineering workload through a clear work breakdown, prioritised backlogs, and strict Definition of Done criteria, while assigning tasks to developers and tracking progress.
• Own quality assurance across all hospital applications, coordinating functional, regression, performance, usability, automated, unit, integration, and end-to-end testing before any feature reaches users.
• Lead technical architecture decisions for system integration, API validation, data integrity, and SQL-based reporting checks so that all hospital platforms share accurate and consistent information.
• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines and automation frameworks that enable continuous testing, rapid feedback, and dependable software releases.
• Oversee the hospital’s IT infrastructure, including hardware, networks, databases, and security controls, ensuring every component operates reliably and supports clinical workflows.
• Support the Director ICT & Transformation Services in preparing and monitoring the ICT annual budget, keeping spending aligned with planned initiatives and procurement priorities.
• Embed quality compliance into ICT operations by implementing hospital-approved standards such as ISO, Environmental Management Systems, and Occupational Health & Safety requirements.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in IT, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field with a strong mathematics and physics foundation; a master’s degree is an added advantage.
• At least 12 years of hands-on experience in technology roles, plus a minimum of 10 years in IT operations, systems implementation, architecture, security, or business-wide strategic planning, including 5 years in a management position.
• Relevant professional ICT certifications from recognised institutions, demonstrating current knowledge in software engineering, quality assurance, or infrastructure management.
• Proven record of improving software quality, shortening regression cycles, and validating complex business workflows in collaboration with cross-functional, agile teams.
• Hands-on familiarity with test automation tools such as Playwright, Cypress, Selenium, or Robot Framework, along with API testing, SQL data validation, and CI/CD platforms like GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or Azure DevOps.
• Experience with large-scale enterprise systems in fast-moving sectors such as fintech or health tech, particularly involving data security, database administration, and complex system rollouts.
• Strong leadership, mentoring, and coaching abilities, with the communication skills to influence stakeholders across clinical, operational, product, and engineering functions.

What We Offer / Why Join

This is an opportunity to take a senior, strategically important role in a hospital environment during a defining system implementation. You will shape both the operational stability of hospital technology and the new HMIS that clinicians and administrators will rely on every day, while leading and developing a dedicated engineering and QA team. The Nairobi Hospital also confirms that it does not charge recruitment fees at any stage of its hiring process.