Company Overview

RwandAir Ltd is the flag carrier airline of Rwanda. It operates domestic and international services to East Africa, Central Africa, West Africa, Southern Africa, Europe and the Middle East from its main base at Kigali International Airport. Our mission is to provide unsurpassed, safe, and reliable services in air transportation, including strategically linking Rwanda with the outside world while ensuring a fair return on investment. As part of the expansion strategy, we are looking for interested, qualified, and competent candidates to fill the following position:

Job Purpose

This role is responsible for delivering the solutions that come out of a BUILD decision in the "Buy vs Build" process, and for integrating the systems that the airline buys with our other systems. The jobholder will develop and support applications for all business units, and will be assigned to projects based on approval and project priority.

Examples of work done by the section include the electronic memo and approval system, online supplier invoicing, petty cash, staff travel clearance and the integration of AIMS flight and crew data into WBHUB. The section also works with partners and vendors for resource augmentation, so that we can increase or reduce capacity when needed. The jobholder must be able to work well with these external resources.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Development

• Develop applications following the full software development life cycle (SDLC), from requirements to deployment and support.
• Meet users to understand their process, and prepare requirements, flowcharts, screen layouts and specifications.
• Assess whether a request is technically and operationally feasible and estimate the effort required.
• Write clean, secure and testable code, and review code written by other team members.
• Convert manual and paper based processes into online workflows with electronic approval, usable on computer and mobile.

Integration

• Build and maintain APIs and interfaces between our in-house applications, vendor systems and external partners.
• Develop and support interfaces that process airline messages and files, such as ACARS movement messages, SITA Type B messages, SSIM schedules and crew data.
• Support the processing of revenue and sales files (BSP, HOT, RET, ATPCO, bank files) and make sure errors are detected and reported.
• Connect applications to the company login (Active Directory / Microsoft 365) so that users do not need separate passwords.

Testing, deployment and support

• Prepare test plans and test cases, write automated tests, and support users during user acceptance testing.
• Use Git for source control and deploy applications through the agreed deployment process, with approved change requests.
• Troubleshoot, debug and upgrade existing systems, and resolve incidents within the agreed service levels.
• Follow secure coding practices and fix security weaknesses found during reviews, scans or audits.
• Be part of the on-call roster for business critical applications.

General

• Document the applications developed, including technical documents and user guides, and keep them up to date.
• Work with vendors and augmentation partners, review their deliverables and make sure knowledge is transferred to the RwandAir team.
• Give users timely and courteous support and act on their feedback.
• Keep up with new technologies, including AI tools, and propose how they can improve our work.
• Perform any other duties related to the role as assigned by the supervisor.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology or a related field.

Experience

• At least three (3) years of proven experience as a Software Engineer or Software Developer.
• Experience developing web applications and APIs that are used in production.
• Experience working with relational databases, preferably Oracle.
• Experience working in an Agile / Scrum team.

TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE

Area Required knowledge

Programming

Good knowledge of Java and at least one other language such as Python, C# or C++. Object oriented design.

Web development

Spring Boot or a similar framework. JavaScript/TypeScript with a modern front end framework such as Angular or React. HTML and CSS.

Area Required knowledge

APIs and integration

REST APIs, JSON and XML, file transfer (SFTP), message queues. Knowledge of airline messaging (SITA Type B, ACARS, SSIM) is an advantage.

Databases

SQL and PL/SQL, database design, and ORM tools such as JPA / Hibernate.

Tools and deployment

Git, CI/CD pipelines, Linux, Docker. Basic knowledge of cloud services.

Security

Secure coding (OWASP Top 10), authentication and access control, protection of personal and payment data.

Testing

Unit and integration testing (e.g. JUnit), API testing with Postman or similar.

Other

Low code or workflow tools (e.g. Power Automate) and integration of AI services into applications are an advantage.

DESIRABLE

• Previous experience in an airline or another 24/7 industry such as banking or telecom.
• Knowledge of airline systems such as reservations (Amadeus), AIMS, TRAX or revenue accounting.
• A professional certification in Java, cloud or Scrum.
• Experience working with outsourced development teams.

SKILLS TO DEVELOP (NEXT FIVE YEARS)

The jobholder will be expected to build the following skills over the next five years, with support from the company through training and certification:

• API based integration and airline retailing standards such as IATA NDC and ONE Order, as the commercial systems change.
• Cloud development and deployment (Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Azure or AWS), containers and Kubernetes.
• Use of AI tools in software development, and building AI features such as chatbots, document reading and data analysis into our applications.
• Mobile and self-service applications for staff and customers.
• Low code and process automation (RPA) to digitalize simple processes faster.
• Data and analytics skills to build dashboards and reports on top of our systems.

KEY COMPETENCIES

• Takes ownership of work from start to finish.
• Good analytical and problem solving skills.
• Positive attitude towards users and user support.
• Good communication in English, both written and spoken. Knowledge of French or Kinyarwanda is an advantage.
• Willing to learn and to share knowledge with the team.
• High level of integrity and confidentiality.

WORKING CONDITIONS

Normal office hours, with on-call duty on a rotation basis. Some deployments are done outside working hours to avoid disturbing operations.

• Develop applications following the full software development life cycle (SDLC), from requirements to deployment and support.
• Meet users to understand their process, and prepare requirements, flowcharts, screen layouts and specifications.
• Assess whether a request is technically and operationally feasible and estimate the effort required.
• Write clean, secure and testable code, and review code written by other team members.
• Convert manual and paper based processes into online workflows with electronic approval, usable on computer and mobile.
• Build and maintain APIs and interfaces between our in-house applications, vendor systems and external partners.
• Develop and support interfaces that process airline messages and files, such as ACARS movement messages, SITA Type B messages, SSIM schedules and crew data.
• Support the processing of revenue and sales files (BSP, HOT, RET, ATPCO, bank files) and make sure errors are detected and reported.
• Connect applications to the company login (Active Directory / Microsoft 365) so that users do not need separate passwords.
• Prepare test plans and test cases, write automated tests, and support users during user acceptance testing.
• Use Git for source control and deploy applications through the agreed deployment process, with approved change requests.
• Troubleshoot, debug and upgrade existing systems, and resolve incidents within the agreed service levels.
• Follow secure coding practices and fix security weaknesses found during reviews, scans or audits.
• Be part of the on-call roster for business critical applications.
• Document the applications developed, including technical documents and user guides, and keep them up to date.
• Work with vendors and augmentation partners, review their deliverables and make sure knowledge is transferred to the RwandAir team.
• Give users timely and courteous support and act on their feedback.
• Keep up with new technologies, including AI tools, and propose how they can improve our work.
• Perform any other duties related to the role as assigned by the supervisor.

• Java
• Python
• C#
• C++
• Object oriented design
• Spring Boot
• JavaScript/TypeScript
• Angular
• React
• HTML
• CSS
• REST APIs
• JSON
• XML
• SFTP
• message queues
• SITA Type B
• ACARS
• SSIM
• SQL
• PL/SQL
• database design
• JPA / Hibernate
• Git
• CI/CD pipelines
• Linux
• Docker
• cloud services
• OWASP Top 10
• authentication and access control
• protection of personal and payment data
• JUnit
• Postman
• Low code or workflow tools
• Power Automate
• AI services
• IATA NDC
• ONE Order
• Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
• Azure
• AWS
• Kubernetes
• chatbots
• document reading
• data analysis
• RPA
• dashboards
• reports
• Analytical skills
• Problem solving skills
• Communication in English
• French
• Kinyarwanda

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology or a related field.
• At least three (3) years of proven experience as a Software Engineer or Software Developer.
• Experience developing web applications and APIs that are used in production.
• Experience working with relational databases, preferably Oracle.
• Experience working in an Agile / Scrum team.
• Knowledge of airline systems such as reservations (Amadeus), AIMS, TRAX or revenue accounting.
• A professional certification in Java, cloud or Scrum.
• Experience working with outsourced development teams.