Software Engineer - Health Information Systems (Technical Lead for Jr. Engineering Team-Rwanda)

The Government of Rwanda, through the Ministry of Health (MoH), is advancing the use of integrated health data to strengthen routine, evidence-based decision-making across the health sector. Central to this effort is the Health Intelligence Center (HIC), a national initiative focused on improving interoperability, analytics, and performance management across Rwanda’s digital health ecosystem.

Zenysis is a global technology company that partners with governments and international organizations to strengthen health systems through advanced data integration and analytics. Across Africa, governments rely on Zenysis technology to support healthcare delivery, disease surveillance, emergency response, and health system performance management.

This role is a mid-level secondment position supporting the Ministry of Health’s NHIC. The Software Engineer will remain an employee of Zenysis while working in close coordination with HIC leadership, Ministry stakeholders, and technical partners to support national health information system integration, interoperability, and data exchange initiatives.

Zenysis is a global technology company that partners with governments and international organizations to strengthen health systems through advanced data integration and analytics. Across Africa, governments rely on Zenysis technology to support healthcare delivery, disease surveillance, emergency response, and health system performance management.

The Role

We are looking for a Software Engineer – Health Information Systems & Technical Lead to support the integration, interoperability, technical reliability, and ongoing improvement of priority national health information systems within the NHIC.

This is a hands-on engineering role that also provides day-to-day technical leadership to junior software engineers seconded to the NHIC. The Technical Lead will help translate Ministry priorities into well-scoped technical work, guide implementation, review engineering outputs, mentor junior engineers, and ensure that work meets appropriate standards for quality, security, documentation, and maintainability.

The Technical Lead will also contribute directly to the development and maintenance of scalable data integration pipelines, APIs, and interoperability workflows that enable secure and reliable exchange of health information across national systems.

Working closely with NHIC leadership, Ministry stakeholders, Zenysis engineers, and partner technical teams, the Technical Lead will serve as a key technical bridge between NHIC priorities and engineering execution, while strengthening long-term local technical capacity and ownership.

Secondment Structure & Reporting Lines

• The role is seconded to the Rwanda Ministry of Health / NHIC.
• NHIC leadership and relevant Ministry stakeholders will guide overall priorities, deliverables, and operational needs.
• The Technical Lead will translate agreed priorities into technical tasks and support and coordinate day-to-day technical execution across the seconded junior software engineers
• The Technical Lead will provide technical guidance, mentorship, code review, troubleshooting support, and quality oversight to junior engineers.
• The secondee will maintain a functional reporting line to Zenysis for technical quality, performance management, escalation, and HR matters.
• Complex architectural, infrastructure, security, or platform issues will be coordinated with relevant Zenysis and Ministry technical leadership.
• Zenysis remains the employer of record and is responsible for compensation, benefits, and contractual obligations.
• The secondee will operate in accordance with Ministry data governance frameworks, security requirements, and applicable Zenysis policies.

Technical Leadership & Mentorship

• Provide day-to-day technical guidance and mentorship to junior software engineers seconded to NHIC.
• Translate NHIC priorities and technical requirements into clear, appropriately scoped engineering tasks and deliverables.
• Coordinate technical work across the junior engineering team, taking into account priorities, dependencies, skills, and timelines.
• Review code, integrations, technical designs, and documentation and provide actionable feedback to junior engineers.
• Support junior engineers in troubleshooting complex technical problems and developing stronger engineering practices.
• Promote consistent practices for version control, testing, documentation, deployment, security, and code quality.
• Identify technical blockers, risks, and dependencies and escalate them to appropriate NHIC or Zenysis technical leadership when necessary.
• Support sprint planning, technical working sessions, and tracking of engineering deliverables.
• Promote knowledge transfer and progressively stronger technical ownership within the NHIC engineering team.

Key Responsibilities

Data Integration & Engineering

• Support integration of priority national health information systems into the NHIC data warehouse and downstream analytics systems such as RHAP.
• Design, develop, maintain, and optimize scalable ETL/data integration pipelines using Python and SQL.
• Implement data harmonization, transformation, and quality assurance workflows to support national analytics and reporting requirements.
• Validate integrated datasets and troubleshoot integration failures or data quality issues in collaboration with stakeholders.
• Contribute to reusable integration components, automation, and technical documentation to improve maintainability and efficiency.

Interoperability, APIs & Data Exchange

• Support the design, configuration, and maintenance of interoperability workflows that enable secure and reliable exchange of health information across national systems.
• Develop, configure, and maintain APIs and system interfaces to improve data accessibility and facilitate data exchange between health information systems.
• Support implementation of interoperability and data exchange standards, including HL7 FHIR, ADX, and standardized metadata structures where applicable.
• Contribute to the design and documentation of reusable interoperability patterns and technical approaches to strengthen long-term sustainability.

Health Information Systems Management & Technical Support

• Support the ongoing management, technical improvement, and operational reliability of priority national health information systems within Rwanda’s health data ecosystem, including the NHIC data warehouse.
• Work with Ministry stakeholders and system owners to identify technical challenges, performance bottlenecks, and opportunities to strengthen system functionality and sustainability.
• Assist with technical assessments of system readiness, architecture, and operational needs to support integration and interoperability priorities.

Infrastructure, Reliability & DevOps Support

• Support the operational reliability, monitoring, and performance optimization of health information systems, integrations, and related infrastructure within the HIC environment.
• Monitor system health, troubleshoot failures, and assist in diagnosing application, infrastructure, and integration issues.
• Support deployment, configuration, and maintenance of systems across Linux-based, cloud, and on-premise environments where applicable.
• Assist with application profiling, system performance tuning, and reliability improvements to support stable operations.
• Contribute to secure engineering practices, monitoring approaches, backup processes, and operational safeguards aligned with Ministry data governance requirements.

Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement

• Work closely with Ministry of Health and NHIC stakeholders to translate operational, interoperability, and analytical needs into technical solutions.
• Participate in technical working sessions, architecture discussions, interoperability planning, and system coordination activities with Ministry and partner teams.
• Contribute to knowledge transfer and mentorship activities to strengthen long-term technical ownership within NHIC.
• Maintain clear technical documentation for integrations, APIs, configurations, workflows, and operational procedures.

Engineering Standards & Continuous Improvement

• Contribute to software engineering best practices including testing, maintainable code development, version control, and technical documentation.
• Collaborate with Zenysis engineering teams to improve interoperability frameworks, integration reliability, and operational efficiency.
• Stay current with emerging approaches in interoperability, digital health systems, infrastructure reliability, and data engineering.
• Contribute lessons learned and technical insights from Rwanda implementation activities to broader organizational learning where relevant.

Education:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related fields.

Experience:

• 3–6 years in software development, health information systems, data engineering, systems integration, or related technical roles.
• Strong experience with ETL pipeline development using Python and SQL.
• Experience working with APIs, interoperability workflows, and system integrations across multiple applications or platforms.
• Demonstrated experience providing technical guidance, mentorship, code review, or coordination of work across other engineers.
• Experience working with databases and orchestration tools (Airflow, Prefect, etc.).
• Comfort working in Linux environments and supporting on-premise and cloud deployments (AWS, S3, MinIO).
• Experience working closely with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience working with health information systems, digital health platforms, or interoperability initiatives is an advantage.

Technical Skills:

• Strong understanding of data integration and ETL design principles.
• Understanding of APIs, interoperability concepts, and system-to-system data exchange patterns.
• Advanced Python and SQL skills
• Familiarity with Linux command line, cloud services (AWS), Docker, and PostgreSQL.
• Familiarity with application monitoring, troubleshooting, deployment support, and system reliability concepts.
• Ability to write scripts (Bash/Python) to automate workflows.
• Ability to produce clear technical documentation.
• Familiarity with digital health interoperability standards (e.g., HL7 FHIR, ADX) is an advantage.
• Comfort using AI-assisted tools to enhance development and troubleshooting.

Additional Leadership & Behavioral Skills:

• Ability to provide technical leadership while remaining a hands-on engineer.
• Ability to organize and coordinate engineering work across multiple priorities.
• Strong mentoring skills and an interest in developing early-career engineers.
• Ability to review technical work critically and provide clear, constructive feedback.
• Sound judgment about when to resolve an issue independently and when to escalate.
• Strong analytical and root-cause problem-solving skills.
• Clear communication with diverse technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong ownership and accountability.
• Ability to operate effectively in an evolving government implementation environment with multiple stakeholders.

This secondment opportunity offers the chance to work directly with the Ministry of Health and HIC on high-impact national digital health initiatives. Team members gain hands-on experience supporting large-scale health data and systems integration projects while collaborating with both local and international technical teams.

Zenysis offers a supportive, mission-driven work environment and competitive compensation, including a 6% health allowance in addition to compliance with all applicable Rwandan labor requirements.

Join Zenysis as a Software Engineer and empower governments with life-saving health data solutions. Be part of a dynamic team transforming global health!