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Product Innovation Manager
Full-Time
Onsite(Nairobi, HQ, Spring Valley Lower Kabete Road)
26th May 2025
Senior Level
About The Job
Power Learn Project (PLP) is on a mission to empower young Africans with tech skills and create scalable pathways into meaningful employment. As we scale our Learning Management System (LMS) to support thousands of learners across the continent, we are seeking a Product Innovation Manager to drive the evolution of our tech stack, engineering practices, and platform stability. This is a hands-on leadership opportunity for someone driven to build scalable, resilient, and user-focused systems that create impact at scale. In this role, you will lead a talented team of engineers, influence both product and technical direction, and deliver solutions that prioritise performance, growth, and innovation.
Functional Responsibilities
- Provide technical leadership across multiple teams and projects.
- Architect, design, and implement scalable and maintainable software systems, with a focus on microservices architecture.
- Mentor and support the growth of junior and mid-level engineers through code reviews and knowledge sharing.
- Ensure adherence to engineering best practices, coding standards, and quality assurance processes.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define technical requirements and deliver reliable solutions.
- Manage and improve CI/CD pipelines and deployment workflows.
- Oversee system performance, availability, and security.
- Drive continuous improvement in team processes and technology usage.
- Act as a representative of PLP in relevant technology forums, conferences, and industry events, sharing insights, showcasing our innovations, and building thought leadership.
- Stay continuously informed about emerging technologies, trends, and tools, and bring back actionable insights to inform product development and innovation strategies.
- As PLP continues to evolve in a dynamic tech landscape, the Product Innovation Manager may be assigned additional responsibilities beyond the scope outlined.
Tech Stack (Preferred Experience)
- Programming Languages: Golang, NodeJS
- Frontend: ReactJS, NextJS
- Databases: MongoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL
- Infrastructure: AWS, Docker, Kubernetes
- Messaging: Kafka, RabbitMQ
- Monitoring: Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack
- Caching & Performance: Redis
- AI Integration: Experience with AI/ML APIs or services (e.g., OpenAI, Vertex AI)
- Testing & Quality: Jest, Mocha, Postman, Swagger/OpenAPI
- Third-Party Integrations: Proficiency in integrating and managing external APIs and SDKs
Essential Qualifications
- 5+ years of software engineering experience, with 2+ years in a leadership or senior engineering role.
- Strong understanding of distributed systems, microservices, and API design.
- Experience with cloud-native infrastructure and container orchestration.
- Proficiency in designing and optimizing data-intensive applications.
- Hands-on experience with CI/CD tools and DevOps practices.
- Strong communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills.
Nice to Have
- Experience in high-growth startups or fast-paced development environments.
- Familiarity with event-driven architecture and asynchronous processing.
- Exposure to security best practices and infrastructure automation.
What Success in This Role Looks Like
- Scalable Systems: Our LMS infrastructure seamlessly supports 100,000+ concurrent learners with high uptime and performance.
- Team Growth & Velocity: A high-performing team that ships quality features quickly, maintains low defect rates, and regularly improves delivery processes.
- Innovation & Impact: New technologies (e.g., AI/ML, blockchain) are meaningfully integrated into learner experience and credentialing.
- Stakeholder Trust: Product, design, and program teams see engineering as a reliable and strategic partner.
- Platform Maturity: Continuous evolution of the platform’s stability, observability, and security posture.