IT Support Associate

Title: IT Support Associate
Reporting To: Manager, IT Support
Location: Nairobi, Kenya (regular field travel, approximately 40% of your time)
Collaborates with: Tech Support, People, Field Operations, Service Centre teams
About Food for Education
Food4Education is accelerating Africa's school feeding economy so that no child ever has to learn hungry.   
Since 2012, we have worked alongside families, schools, smallholder farmers, and governments at every level across Kenya to design and deliver school feeding served with dignity and operated with excellence. Powered by our digital backbone Tap2Eat, a distributed kitchen network, and a dedicated team of 6000 and counting, we move more than 100 million meals annually from farm to spoon.
 
Today, we serve more than 700,000 children daily, and the blueprint we built in Kenya is now in motion across the continent, fit for any local context. As a not-for-profit social enterprise, we bring the reach of government, the discipline of business, and the clarity of mission to one of the smartest investments any nation can make in itself.
 
Food4Education is public infrastructure for a generation. We are not running a program. We are building the systems, financing mechanisms, and government partnerships that make sustainable school feeding endure.
 
To learn more, please visit www.food4education.org 
About the Role
F4E runs a large, distributed operation of more than 5,500 staff. Kitchens cook meals for hundreds of thousands of children every school day. Field teams track deliveries, manage stock, and report on every site. Our Service Centre staff, more than 400 of them, support field teams and keep us executing on our long-term strategy. All of this depends on technology that works: devices that turn on, networks that connect, and hardware that doesn’t fail mid-service.
As IT Support Associate, you are the hands-on first line of that promise. You are the first person colleagues come to when technology gets in their way, and you are the one who keeps devices, networks and sites working across HQ, warehouses, kitchens and field locations. You keep the support queue moving, you keep the asset register honest, and when the Manager, IT Support is running a rollout, you are the person delivering it on the ground.
This is a delivery role rather than a strategy role, and that is deliberate. The Manager sets the roadmap, the standards and the escalation path. You execute against them, you work independently once the standard is clear, and you bring back what the field is telling you. It is a role with real scope and a clear path: build operational discipline here and your ownership grows with it.
Your Mandate
Hardware and Device Management

• Set up, configure and maintain end-user devices, including laptops, tablets, phones, printers and site hardware, across F4E’s offices, warehouses, kitchens and field sites.
• Maintain the asset register for every device under your care: logged, tagged, assigned and reconciled, with a physical verification each quarter.
• Carry out hardware lifecycle steps under the process the Manager sets: raise procurement requests, prepare and deploy devices, arrange repairs, and prepare retirements for approval.
• Make sure every new joiner is set up and ready to work on day one. No one should be waiting on IT to start their job.
• Carry out routine administration on on-premise servers and core systems under the Manager’s direction: health checks, updates, backup checks and user account changes.

Network and Connectivity across HQ, Warehouses, Kitchens and Field Sites

• Install, configure and maintain network equipment, including routers, switches and access points, to the standards and site designs the Manager sets, working alongside vendors and contractors on physical installations.
• Diagnose connectivity issues across sites. Travel when the problem needs eyes on the ground, and direct site staff or vendors when it doesn’t.
• Monitor network performance across sites and flag degradation before it becomes an outage, with a recommendation on what to do about it.
• Maintain documentation for each site, covering topology, equipment, credential handling and known issues. Nothing lives only in your head.
• Work closely with kitchen, warehouse and field teams to understand how they use connectivity, and make sure it supports the way they actually work.

IT Support

• Be the first point of contact for IT support across the organisation. Log every request, resolve what sits within your remit, and keep the requester updated until it is closed.
• Work the support queue to the priorities and response times the Manager sets, so nothing sits unattended and the urgent items are dealt with first.
• Escalate what you can’t resolve to the Manager, following the escalation matrix, with full context: what happened, what you tried, and what you think is going on.
• Keep clean records of requests, resolutions and recurring issues. Spot the patterns, surface them, and propose a root-cause fix rather than absorbing the same ticket every week.
• Build and maintain self-service guides and setup checklists, and run short sessions with teams so colleagues can handle the simple things themselves.

Project Delivery

• Deliver the workstreams assigned to you on IT projects and rollouts the Manager is leading: site readiness, device builds, pilot logistics, user training, rollout checklists and post-rollout snagging.
• Run your workstream properly. A plan, a schedule, a clear view of what is done and what is stuck, and an update to the Manager and affected teams before they have to ask.
• Coordinate vendors day to day for hardware and site work: log the job, track the order, verify what was delivered, and chase what is late. Supplier selection and contracting sit with the Manager.
• Gather requirements from the ground. You are closest to the teams using these systems, so what you report back through the Manager shapes what gets built.
• Use AI tools and light scripting to build small automations, quick fixes and internal prototypes. Anything headed for day-to-day use is reviewed with the Manager first.

Security and Risk

• Apply the security controls the Manager sets across the devices and sites you support: patching, endpoint protection, access provisioning and deprovisioning, and safe handling of credentials.
• Process access requests accurately and on time, and make sure leavers lose access on their last day, working from People team exit notifications.
• Report suspected phishing, lost or stolen devices, and anything that looks like a compromise immediately. Early and noisy beats late and quiet.
• Support the Manager on cybersecurity and business continuity, including new controls, staff awareness, audit remediation and continuity testing, by taking them to site level and reporting back on what actually landed.

How We Measure Success
In the first three months, success looks like knowing the estate. Every site, every device, every system, every recurring issue the team is fielding. The asset register is clean and current. Requests are logged, prioritised and closed rather than piling up, and at any point you can say what is open, what is stuck and what keeps coming back.
By six months, support has a rhythm. Response times are being met. Patching and endpoint protection are current across the devices you support, and no leaver keeps access past their last day. Field sites and kitchens have reliable connectivity, with issues caught before they affect a shift rather than reported after. You have delivered your part of at least one rollout that teams in the field actually noticed. When kitchen teams, field staff or the Service Centre have a technology problem, they come to you, and you know enough about how they work to give them a useful answer fast.
At a year, the measure is the patterns you have broken. The same issues are not recurring week after week, because you documented them and brought the Manager a root-cause fix. Site documentation is good enough for someone else to work from. The teams you support trust IT in a way they probably didn’t before you arrived, and the Manager isn’t spending time on operational noise because you have it covered.
Qualifications
Required

• Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent hands-on experience.
• 2-4 years of hands-on IT support or field technician experience.
• Solid working knowledge of Windows, macOS and Linux operating systems.
• Practical understanding of networking fundamentals: TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, VPN and Wi-Fi configuration.
• Proven ability to troubleshoot and resolve hardware and software faults independently.
• Comfortable working in field environments and travelling to sites outside Nairobi regularly.

Preferred

• Experience administering Google Workspace and/or Microsoft 365.
• Familiarity with an IT ticketing system such as Jira or equivalent.
• Basic understanding of cybersecurity principles and safe IT practices.
• Certification such as CompTIA A+, Microsoft Certified Fundamentals or equivalent.
• Experience using AI tools for automation, scripting or building quick prototypes, for example Copilot, ChatGPT or Claude.

Who You Are

• You are hands-on with hardware setup, troubleshooting and network configuration. What sets you apart isn’t only what you can fix. It’s that you pay attention to what keeps breaking.
• You’re comfortable in the field. Travelling to kitchen and school sites, working in non-office environments and dealing with unpredictable conditions doesn’t faze you.
• You see things through. If something is broken and it’s in front of you, you don’t walk past it, and you don’t hand it on half-finished.
• You’re organised and proactive. You track what’s open, what’s recurring and what’s getting worse. You notice when the same issue comes up three times in two weeks, and you find out why.
• You communicate clearly. The people you support aren’t technical, so you explain things in a way that helps rather than confuses.
• You work well inside someone else’s plan. You take direction on priorities and standards, deliver against them without supervision, and say so early when something isn’t working.
• You’re in this to grow. This is an entry point into a technology function that is still being built, and you want to understand more than your immediate remit.
• You keep up with how AI is evolving, and you experiment with it without waiting to be told to try a new tool or a faster way of working.
• You understand that the work you do has a direct line to children eating well. That matters to you.

Core Competencies
Technical

• Hardware Setup and Troubleshooting
• Network Installation and Maintenance
• IT Support and Service Delivery
• Asset and Inventory Management
• Documentation and Record-Keeping
• Basic Systems Administration

Behavioural

• Personal Accountability
• Attention to Detail
• Communication
• Problem Solving
• Adaptability
• Reliability and Follow-Through

Career Growth and Development
We have a strong culture of constant learning, and we invest in developing our people. You will have regular check-ins with your manager and receive ongoing performance feedback. We hold 360 reviews every six months and set aside time to discuss your aspirations and career goals.
You will work closely with the Manager, IT Support, get exposure to a wide range of technology challenges across a large and complex operation, and take on more responsibility as you build trust and capability.
Equal Opportunity Employer
Food for Education is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against applicants on any basis. We do not charge job seekers any fees at any point of the recruitment process. All applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application. Due to the volume of applications received, we are unable to provide customized feedback to individual candidates.