Software Quality Assurance Associate at One Acre Fund

Job Location

Kakamega, Kenya

One Acre Fund relies on several key home-grown software systems. As we grow our organization we need to continually improve and adapt the features of these software systems. Our systems are developed in Microsoft Access, SQL Server, and C# and help us to manage a wide variety of operations including enrolling clients, taking farm supply orders, tracking millions of payment transactions, assisting with the delivery of seed and fertilizer, and creating a wide variety of business intelligence reports.

The organization is constantly looking for new ways to improve services to our clients often resulting in radical changes to the way we do things as an organization and in software. The Software Quality Assurance Associate will initially be based in Western Kenya, with an opportunity to relocate to other countries. S/he will:

• Improve our current testing procedures to test for a wide variety of data and use cases.
• Manage a team of locally-based QA Testers.
• Develop automated UI testing for web tools and Access in addition to manual test procedures.
• Perform scalability testing based on our client number projections.
• Update testing procedures according to changing requirements and new features.
• Test one-off scripts as well as structural migrations.
• Coordinate testing, software releases, bug reporting, and bug fixes with developers.
• Work with end-users to identify usage bottlenecks and requirement gaps.
• Develop tools to measure and analyze software usage in order to identify process improvements.
• Perform field visits to verify that tools/reports produced by the system are effective in the field.

Eventually, the Quality Assurance Associate could be promoted to Quality Assurance Manager and will be involved in long-term design and architectural decisions with developers answerable to the QA Manager for best practices in coding and documenting code.

Career Growth and Development

One Acre Fund will invest significant time in your career development. We provide constant, actionable feedback delivered through mentorship and through regular management consulting-style career reviews. We also have regular one-on-one meetings, where we listen to and discuss career goals, and work collaboratively to craft roles that each person can be passionate about. Because of our rapid growth, we constantly have new high-level roles opening up and opportunities in many functions. This results in fast career growth for our staff.

Qualifications

Candidates fitting the following profile are strongly encouraged to apply: 

• Solid programming skills.
• Knowledge of database concepts and SQL, experience with SQL server a plus.
• Very strong self-manager, very well-organized.
• A “test to break” attitude.
• An ability to take the point of view of the user.
• A strong desire for quality, and an attention to detail.
• Tact and diplomacy are useful in maintaining a cooperative relationship with developers.
• An ability to communicate with both technical and non-technical people.  
• Work experience, or internship, in some professional environment - ideally 2+ years of work experience.
• Willingness to commit to the position for at least 2 years, with ideally some experience living in a developing country.
• We are looking for passionate professionals who combine strong technical skills with good humor, patience, and a humble approach to service.

Preferred Start Date

Flexible

Compensation

Starts modest. However, this is a career-track role with fast raises for performance, paying a meaningful salary for long-term placement in developing nations.

Benefits

Health insurance, immunizations, flight, room and board.

Sponsor International Candidates 

Yes

East Africans strongly encouraged to apply.