Terms of Reference: Consulting Data Engineer

Terms of Reference

Consulting Data Engineer

August 2022

Who We Are

We’re a global creative non-profit combining expertise in media, mobile, brand, and international development, a unique mix of skills we use to solve global problems in a new way. Started by the Nike Foundation in 2004, we’re now an independent organization working from nine global locations in more than 50 countries where girls are marginalized and vulnerable, focused on Africa and Asia.

We use our in-depth understanding of girls’ real needs so that they are enabled to make choices about their health, education, and economic future. We use multiple touchpoints for branded story-telling and participation that millions of girls, and boys, love and interact with – from apps that build skills to TV dramas that explore vital issues to magazines written and distributed by girls.

We help girls change their lives by tackling social, cultural and gender norms – leveraging digital technologies to create change through creative content that engages and entertains audiences – designed to change and shift attitudes, knowledge and behaviors in tangible, measurable ways.

Our work is supported and funded by a wide range of people and organizations, from governments and philanthropists to NGOs and corporates. Recent examples include GAVI (The Vaccine Alliance), Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Facebook, UNICEF, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), Vodafone Foundation, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Nutrition International, and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Background

For over a decade, we have been building technology that aims to create a safer and more accessible world for women and girls, using the insights and experiences girls share with us. Innovation for us is not necessarily about using the latest tech; it’s about using the right tech in the best way to reach girls and meet their challenges.

For example, most recently, and in recognition of the number of girls now using messaging apps, we developed two chatbots: Big Sis and Bol Behen, live on Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Big Sis is our AI-powered chatbot providing girls in South Africa with safe, private, and non-judgemental information on topics they do not feel comfortable discussing elsewhere, like sex and STIs. And Bol Behen (meaning “Speak! Sister”) answers girls’ questions on sensitive topics like relationships and reproductive health who are living in India’s Hindi belt.

As technology evolves and girls’ habits change, we continuously strive to adapt and improve the platforms, processes, and infrastructure that underpin everything we do.

What we are looking for:

We have recently moved into a new, exciting period of our tech development – growing our internal tech team, establishing relationships with new tech vendors, and migrating our tech to new homes.

Our data infrastructure plays an essential role in this new tech ecosystem, providing us with evidence, directions for our decision-making, and insight into our impact.

We are now looking for a consultant to assist us in managing our data infrastructure to meet the challenges of and maximize the opportunities in our growing tech ecosystem, particularly our chatbots.

Working closely with Girl Effect’s Tech Team and our external vendors, the individual can provide us with expert advice on maintaining and optimizing the current data visualisation tools we use at Girl Effect across our chatbots and our programmes and products more broadly.

Requirements will include but are not limited to, proactively monitoring data pipelines, debugging any issues related to the up-time of our Tableau Dashboards, and consulting with Girl Effect Team Members to implement data requests.

Key Areas Outlined:

• Tableau Dashboard Development
• Understand and help meet our data visualization requirements, including developing Tableau dashboards and managing users via Tableau online
• Monitoring all the Data Infrastructure
• Monitor and raise concerns in ETL pipelines
• Monitor the AWS infrastructure
• Monitor the Tableau infrastructure
• Other
• Keep up to date with trends and developments in the field of data and data technology and share these with the team where relevant.
• Provide input on new modifications happening in chatbot development more broadly
• Extract data from the database and share it with users
• Apply exceptional levels of safety to our data and protocols

Expected Commitment

This will be a three-month part-time consultancy contract, subject to renewal based on future needs. The consultant is expected to commit a minimum of 40 hours a month (i.e. 10-12 hours per week), which can vary depending on our budget and your fee requirement.

Location

The consultant will be remote and must be conducive to working with teams in the UK, USA, Brazil, Sub-Saharan Africa & India.

Intended Timeframe

• Terms of reference published: 19 August 2022
• Deadline for responses: 26 August 2022
• Supplier selection, contracting, and briefing: End August 2022
• Project commencement: September 2022

Reporting

This position will be managed by Girl Effect’s Director of Technology, who will work with the successful consultant to ensure its timely and thorough execution.

Who You Are

Skills and expertise:

• B.Tech/B.E./M.Tech Degree
• Minimum 5 years of technical and practical knowledge and experience in data warehousing, databases, and ETL pipelines
• Proficient in Python
• Proficient in SQL
• Experience in Tableau development or equally relevant experience with similar tooling
• 2 or more years of experience in AWS (lambda, redshift, ECR, API Gateway)
• Working knowledge of Github, Docker, and APIs
• Understanding how a chatbot works

Proposal Submission

Interested consultants are asked to submit the following to support their candidature (Max 5-10 pages):

• Your understanding of the brief and why you feel you are well placed to advise us on this
  • Showcase any previous relevant work experience
• Contact details of three referees that can attest to the scope and magnitude of similar assignments
• CV with a cover letter
• Proposed consultancy fees

Evaluation Criteria

The criteria against which proposals will be evaluated are listed below:

Technical Evaluation

• Interpretation and understanding of this TOR-10%
• Staff with relevant experience as demonstrated by their CV – 20%
• Technical Leadership experience – 10%
• Demonstrated technical knowledge in the field of Software Development- 20%
• Evidence of a minimum of three contactable references – 10%

Financial Evaluation

• Value for money/proposed budget breakdown – 30%

Technical and Financial proposals will need to be submitted as separate documents. Financial bids will not be opened until the technical evaluation and then only for those proposals deemed qualified and responsive.

Please note that Girl Effect is not liable for any cost incurred during the award/contract preparation, submission, or negotiation of the award/contract. All submitted documentation and/or materials shall become and remain the property of Girl Effect.

VALIDITY of the proposal shall be for 90 days from the date of bid closure.

Equal Opportunities

Girl Effect is committed to equal opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity, or expression. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.

We are committed to building an organization that is truly representative of the communities that we serve. To this end, due regard will be paid to procuring consultancy services of organizations and individuals with a deep understanding and experience of our programming markets and diverse professional, academic and cultural backgrounds.

Safeguarding

You may be required to undertake safeguarding checks. Shortlisted consultants will be assessed on our organizational values at the interview stage. The successful consultant will be expected to adhere to our safeguarding policy. We encourage you to read and understand our safeguarding policy, the executive summary of which can be found here. We have zero tolerance for all forms of violence against children, beneficiaries and staff.

Tax

Applicants are advised to ensure that they have a clear understanding of their tax position with regards to provisions of their local jurisdiction tax legislation when developing their proposals.

Disclaimer

GE reserves the right to determine the structure of the process, the number of short-listed participants, the right to withdraw from the proposal process, the right to change this timetable at any time without notice, and reserves the right to withdraw this tender at any time, without prior notice and without liability to compensate and/or reimburse any party. GE shall inform the ONLY successful applicant(s). The process of negotiation and signing of the contract with the successful applicant(s) will follow.

How to apply

How to Apply

Please submit proposals, as described below, to[email protected] by 26 August 2022, 11:59 pm SAST latest. Please clearly mark your email with the subject ‘Consulting Data Engineer’