Software Review Consultancy (Individual or Organisation)

Job Introduction

The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) is a purpose-driven, not-for-profit organisation, with a mission to equip leaders to build open, prosperous and inclusive societies. We believe that politics done well has the power to transform lives. When governments work well, they are able to create economic and social change in a way that promotes fairness, social justice and opportunity. We are optimists, and we work relentlessly to support leaders and governments with the challenges they face: giving them practical solutions and actionable insights, that once implemented, can be transformative for their people.   

We do this within two connected divisions:  

Government Advisory  

Our Advisory Practice works directly with political leaders and governments around the world to implement reforms that improve the lives of their citizens. It has both non-profit partners and a client base and its outputs cover a range of disciplines and projects across countries in Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and South Asia. We are currently in a rapid expansion phase from c. 18 countries at present, to 30 by December 2022.  

Policy Futures  

Our Policy Futures work encompasses three broad areas:  

• Renewing the Centre: developing a bold and innovative domestic policy programme to help renew the centre ground of British politics;  

• Tech and Public Policy: exploring the policy challenges and opportunities presented by the technological revolution; and  

• Extremism Policy Unit: creating solutions designed to tackle the threat of extremist ideologies in the UK and around the world.  

As an organisation, the core beliefs we all embrace are:  

• Open and Progressive: you’ll believe in the value of teamwork  

• Bold and Pragmatic: you’ll approach everything you do with integrity and authenticity  

• Optimistic Changemaker: you’ll be focused on results  

Overview of services (deliverables):  

TBI’s Centre of Government and Delivery (CoG/D) Team is a central function that provides technical leadership and support around TBI’s CoG/D initiatives in Africa. Our mission is to be a global centre of excellence for learning and innovation in Centre of Government effectiveness. The Team complements TBI’s embedded Government Advisory work, and currently spans across 16 centres of government in Africa, through iterative solution curation and implementation, market development and thought leadership services. 

Over the past two years, TBI has been developing a Digital Delivery Dashboard to aid partner governments in planning, monitoring, and evaluating their projects. The software has been built in-house and continues to be improved with feedback from partner governments. It is currently available in English, French, and Portuguese. The CoG/D’s aim is to improve and secure this dashboard to help governments achieve ambitious economic and development targets through harnessing technology. 

We are seeking an exceptional organisation or individual with experience in building bespoke tech tools to do a technical review of the underlying software with a focus on recommendation for scalability and stability. You will provide the following services: 

Key Outputs & Scope of Consultancy: 

• Review the Digital Delivery Dashboard’s underlying software to ensure stability, security, speed, extensibility, and access in inconsistent and unavailable internet scenarios and propose improvement and mitigation measures  

• Analyse the Digital Delivery Dashboard’s ability and propose methods to integrate with other platforms and databases including but not limited to project management tools such as Monday.com, databases such as PostgreSQL, REST APIs, document management platforms such as Google Sheets/Drive, Microsoft 365, and chat tools such as WhatsApp, Slack, Teams, SMS etc.  

• Evaluate and make proposals on the Digital Delivery Dashboard’s ability to migrate and be deployed across different environments and hosting providers to improve service reliability and functionality  

• Analyse the Digital Dashboard’s adaptability to different project management methodologies and reporting frameworks particularly agile workflows.  

• Review the Digital Dashboard’s system for knowledge management for the CoG/D team and end-users in collaboration with Digital Dashboard Lead, CoG/D Lead, Governance Advisors and Country Teams. This includes but is not limited to user documentation, product videos, and presentation slide decks  

• Additionally, suggest tech-based centre of government and delivery tools that speak to the objectives of partner governments and merge the latest best practices in centre of government, adaptive management, and delivery  

All the points above will be expected to be compiled in a gap analysis with recommendations carried out in a period not exceeding 3 months.  

Skills & Know How: 

You or your team will have the following skills, knowledge, and experience:  

• 5+ years of experience in analysing, building and maintaining SaaS (Software as a Service) products and/or web technologies and experiences, and product-led growth strategies  

• Fluency in Python programming language and SQL databases specifically Django, graphene frameworks, and PostgreSQL  

• Experience with JavaScript programming languages and frameworks, specifically React and Graphql  

• Experience standing up and maintaining Linux-based virtual machines in AWS, GCP, Azure, and/or any other hosting provider  

• Experience with Dokku, Elasticsearch, Redis, Memcached, and RabbitMQ technologies  

• Experience with React Query, Redux, PWAs, React Native and other offline-supported JavaScript frameworks and libraries  

• UI/UX skills with an eye for harmonistic design strategies that include typography and colour schemes  

• Deep understanding of agile methodologies and use of tools such as Kanban boards, Trello, Pivotal Tracker etc  

• Excellent written and spoken communication skills  

• Excellent interpersonal, networking and negotiation skills  

• Proficiency in French will be an added advantage  

• Experience in consumer and enterprise SaaS, management consulting or centre of government/delivery work in Africa would also be an added advantage