Project Summary

The Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ), under the U.S. Department of State-funded Controlling HIV Epidemic Program (CHEP), supports the Government of Zambia in achieving and sustaining HIV epidemic control in line with national and global targets, including the 95-95-95 goals.

The CHEP project focuses on strengthening HIV prevention, care, and treatment services through a person-centered approach, while enhancing maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) and Global Health Security (GHS) outcomes. The project operates in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MOH) at national, provincial, district, and facility levels to ensure sustainability, country ownership, and transition readiness.

Job summary

Reports to Senior Technical Support Officer The Technical Support Officer will be part of the Health Informatics and technical data team within the SI Unit. He/she will be responsible for providing IT support to health facilities, coordinating technical support activities, and supporting the unit in various data activities including SmartCare Pro implementation and support.

Main Duties

• Designs, develops, automates, and maintains data collection tools, routine performance monitoring tools, and reports for CHEP and research projects to support programmatic and research needs.
• Collaborates with the ICT department in the deployment, maintenance, and support of IT equipment, software, and local area networks relevant to data operations and health facility support.
• Provides technical support for SmartCare Pro deployment, configuration, user account management, troubleshooting, and issue escalation to ensure continuous functionality at supported health facilities.
• Supports health facility staff in the effective use of SmartCare Pro through on-site mentorship, monitoring of system synchronization, backups, and performance management.
• Ensures timely submission of weekly and monthly reports and support other teams in meeting reporting timelines and requirements.
• Extracts routine and ad hoc datasets for programmatic and research purposes and manage the overall lifecycle, versioning, integrity, and storage of programmatic and research data and databases.
• Develops and implements SOPs for handling programmatic, research, technical, and general data systems to ensure standardization and data integrity.
• Participates in data collection, data quality assurance, quality improvement, and departmental planning activities to strengthen program implementation and performance.
• Mentors and supervises Data Coordinators, District Data Coordinators, and Data Associates in data use, reporting, indicator interpretation, and technical support to health facilities.
• Trains staff on data collection and entry procedures, including identification and resolution of common reporting and system-related errors and challenges.
• Supports the design, development, deployment, and maintenance of data storage applications and approved software for programmatic and research operations in line with organizational guidelines.
• Maintains up-to-date inventories of relevant equipment, software, licenses, and backups, and ensure that all resources related to data operations are properly documented and monitored.
• Maintains and monitors backup logs, helpdesk systems, and data support processes to ensure compliance with business continuity and information security requirements.

Qualifications

• Diploma in Computing/ICT, Mathematics, Engineering or related subject
• 3 years relevant work experience
• Experience in providing IT support will be an added advantage
• Experience working in a health-related organization will be an added advantage
• Experience supporting/deploying DHIS2, SmartCare Pro or other electronic health record systems will be an added advantage
• Relevant Certifications such as CCNA, CCNP, ITIL will be an added advantage
• Excellent LAN deployment and troubleshooting skills
• Programming in python
• Database management skills of any RDBMS, e.g. MS SQL Server, MySQL etc
• Programming skills in any programming language
• Basic knowledge of SmartCare Pro database structures and synchronization procedures

• Designs, develops, automates, and maintains data collection tools, routine performance monitoring tools, and reports for CHEP and research projects to support programmatic and research needs.
• Collaborates with the ICT department in the deployment, maintenance, and support of IT equipment, software, and local area networks relevant to data operations and health facility support.
• Provides technical support for SmartCare Pro deployment, configuration, user account management, troubleshooting, and issue escalation to ensure continuous functionality at supported health facilities.
• Supports health facility staff in the effective use of SmartCare Pro through on-site mentorship, monitoring of system synchronization, backups, and performance management.
• Ensures timely submission of weekly and monthly reports and support other teams in meeting reporting timelines and requirements.
• Extracts routine and ad hoc datasets for programmatic and research purposes and manage the overall lifecycle, versioning, integrity, and storage of programmatic and research data and databases.
• Develops and implements SOPs for handling programmatic, research, technical, and general data systems to ensure standardization and data integrity.
• Participates in data collection, data quality assurance, quality improvement, and departmental planning activities to strengthen program implementation and performance.
• Mentors and supervises Data Coordinators, District Data Coordinators, and Data Associates in data use, reporting, indicator interpretation, and technical support to health facilities.
• Trains staff on data collection and entry procedures, including identification and resolution of common reporting and system-related errors and challenges.
• Supports the design, development, deployment, and maintenance of data storage applications and approved software for programmatic and research operations in line with organizational guidelines.
• Maintains up-to-date inventories of relevant equipment, software, licenses, and backups, and ensure that all resources related to data operations are properly documented and monitored.
• Maintains and monitors backup logs, helpdesk systems, and data support processes to ensure compliance with business continuity and information security requirements.

• Excellent LAN deployment and troubleshooting skills
• Programming in python
• Database management skills of any RDBMS, e.g. MS SQL Server, MySQL etc
• Programming skills in any programming language
• Basic knowledge of SmartCare Pro database structures and synchronization procedures

• Diploma in Computing/ICT, Mathematics, Engineering or related subject
• 3 years relevant work experience
• Experience in providing IT support will be an added advantage
• Experience working in a health-related organization will be an added advantage
• Experience supporting/deploying DHIS2, SmartCare Pro or other electronic health record systems will be an added advantage
• Relevant Certifications such as CCNA, CCNP, ITIL will be an added advantage