IBM Head Quarters.
The Nairobi IBM innovation hub was opened in August this year and is a partnership between the Kenya ICT board and the American tech firm.The government will invest $2 million (Sh170 million) for the next five years, while IBM will provide the hardware, software and high-end scientific expertise from its global $6.5 billion (Sh552 billion) research and development budget.
IBM laboratories have been credited for many innovations in information technology, including the invention of floppy disks, hard disk drive, magnetic stripe card, Universal Product Code (bar codes) and the SABRE airline reservation system among others.
IBM has neither disclosed the total number of employees nor the terms of service for the techies and researchers to be based at its Nairobi research lab.
“It is IBM policy not to disclose our recruitment numbers, the nature of staff contracts nor how much we pay our staff,” the firm said in a statement to the Business Daily.
Nairobi already plays host to innovation hubs such as iHub, Start Up Garage, iLab, mLab, Nailab, Pawa 254, Nokia Research Centre and the World Bank funded Climate Innovation Centre.
The firms are attracted by Kenya’s rich human resource talent that has seen Nairobi emerge as a pacesetter in apps development and m-commerce exemplified by mobile money transfer solution M-Pesa and a crisis-mapping platform Ushahidi.
The IBM Africa Lab, located at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa Langata campus in Nairobi will focus on three key research areas which include digitisation of public service through e-governance solutions; urban development and planning; and ICT skills training. The ideal candidates will be required to demonstrate a mix of academic qualifications, job experience and possess skills such as software programming, geospatial skills, data mining, and information retrieval.
“Experience in human computer interaction design and evaluation/testing, with emphasis on visualisation, and a strong publication record in top-tier HCI conferences and journals,” reads one of the required qualifications.
Candidates will also be required to have knowledge in public policy and infrastructural issues such as traffic management, water and energy which are the IBM Africa Research Lab key thematic areas. Researchers at the IT hub are expected to develop applications to improve efficiencies in traffic flow.
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