Last week, the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Development Centre was launched in Nairobi, Kenya. The good news has been followed by more good news as Amazon has advertised open positions. Yesterday, AWS posted online 30 job vacancies. The company is looking for Kenyans in the tech sector to fill up the positions.
Being a cloud service provider, the AWS vacancies lean heavily on tech experts with experience in cloud computing and data. The tech giant has advertised positions such as Cloud Support Engineers. Crucially, the company is looking for tech professionals with experience in the AWS platform.
Indeed, this is a great start for the company and an opportunity for many IT professionals to pursue careers in cloud computing and serve the globe from Kenya.
The AWS development centre was inaugurated by Kenya’s President, William Ruto. During the launch, the president was accompanied by Megan Whitman, the US Ambassador to Kenya. Also present were Amazon officials, and other government representatives.
The development centre is a hub for essential operations, including software development, support services and retail services. Amazon also stated the Nairobi hub will host research and development teams. These teams will be tasked with innovating solutions for Amazon partners and clients across the globe.
AWS Hub Shows Need for More Tech Pros
AWS Nairobi Centre is the second to be hosted in Africa. The other one is located down in Cape Town, South Africa. The Nairobi hub puts more demand on the Kenya tech talent pipeline.
Earlier in the year, Amazon and the ICT Authority announced plans to upskill Kenya’s tech talent through training via the AWS academy. The cloud computing provider promised to train 10,000 Kenyan students drawn from local universities.
Kenya continues to be a tech hub for many global tech giants. This factor has led to the problem of lack of enough tech talent to take up positions. Local telco Safaricom has been affected by a massive exodus of its talent to the global giants.
Yesterday, Safaricom introduced a student apprenticeship program that will help it develop a talent pool and mitigate the problem
