Consultant - Site Reliability Engineering, Sprout Platform Infrastructure Development & Support - Remote

Background:

Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible. In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within.

Drawing on Mercy Corps’ experience implementing the AgriFin Mobile, AgriFin Accelerate and AgriFin Digital Farmer programs, GIZ has engaged Mercy Corps to understand how young technology innovators can be supported in scale and operational viability by engaging with emerging models of digital platforms. The GIZ smart development hack is a six-month, €1,300,000 initiative to work with a cohort of partners in Kenya and Nigeria to develop digital solutions that address challenges in the agriculture sector especially brought about by the Covid 19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to the complex fragility of many countries, highlighted most clearly in the interplay of public health, markets and food systems. Early warning signs are emerging that the continent is on the brink of an unprecedented food security crisis. In Kenya it is estimated that there are sufficient strategic reserves for three months, but disrupted food systems, logistics and evidence of food hoarding may shorten that timeline, particularly as the largest desert locust invasion in 70 years.

This project aims to promote zero contact and prevent the spread of COVID-19 by utilizing technology to expand access to food, improve distribution of agriculture outputs by consumers through support farmers utilize updated agriculture extension information to bolster production, cultivation, marketing and distribution of food in Kenya.

The OKTA - Sprout Smart Farmer Innovation (SSFI) Program intends the Sprout Platform to play the role of a global public good, where content can be consolidated and shared with farmer-facing organizations and distributed to smallholders through their various digital channels, supporting farmers to leverage the information to build their capacity and become more resilient.  The program aims to develop and pilot the delivery of hyperlocal services for farmers via the Sprout Platform.

Sprout, The Open Content Agriculture Platform, a project of Mercy Corps Agrifin (MCA), is partnering with KALRO to provide a content marketplace/exchange for expert content developers to offer high quality digital-ready, farmer-friendly content that can be used free of charge by content distribution partners. The goal of Sprout is to enable MCA partners to cost effectively, acquire and use this content to build productivity, earned income and resilience of farmers at scale.

Purpose / Project Description:

The Site Reliability Engineering Consultant will be expected to help improve and maintain the technical infrastructure of the Sprout Platform.

Consultant Objectives:

Mercy Corps AgriFin (MCA) is seeking a to engage a Site Reliability Engineering Consultant to improve and maintain the technical infrastructure of the Sprout platform, reducing product development time, reducing infrastructure costs, and keeping the platform highly reliable and available for users. The engineer will report to D-CSA Program Director and Sprout Lead for deliverables; and will work closely and collaborate with other Sprout consultants and staff of MCA, particularly the senior technical advisor.

Consultant Activities:

The Consultant will conduct the following activities:

• Deployment Support
  • Evaluate Sprout’s current AWS deployment and provide recommendations to improve reliability, reduce complexity, and reduce costs, incorporating feedback from the Sprout team
  • If the consultant and the Sprout team determine that major infrastructure changes are needed, develop a testing plan to determine if these changes would achieve their stated goals
  • If needed, implement the testing plan and measure its effectiveness, adjusting the new infrastructure plan based on the results and feedback from the Sprout team
  • Develop a rollout plan to make any infrastructure changes in production
  • Roll out and document any infrastructure changes approved by the Sprout team
  • Evaluate the performance of any changes in the production environment and make incremental improvements as necessary
• Development Support
  • Evaluate Sprout’s current local development setup for software engineers and provide recommendations to simplify the setup, improve performance, and make the development process more efficient
  • Implement and document any improvements to the development environment approved by the Sprout team
  • Support the software development team by making incremental improvements to the development environment and fixing any issues that arise
• Infrastructure and Application Monitoring
  • Propose a comprehensive plan for monitoring site availability, performance, and application logs
  • Implement and document any parts of the monitoring plan approved by the Sprout team

Consultant Deliverables:

The Consultant will:

(estimated completion date May 31, 2023):

• Written recommendations to improve reliability, reduce complexity, and reduce costs of Sprout’s current AWS deployment
• Written recommendations for Sprout’s current local development setup (for software engineers) to simplify the setup, improve performance, and make the development process more efficient
• Implement any improvements to the development environment approved by the Sprout team
• Written documentation for any implemented improvements to the development environment approved by the Sprout team

(estimated completion date July 31, 2023):

• Written documentation of the new infrastructure plan after presenting recommendations and incorporating feedback from the Sprout team, including options considered but rejected
• If the consultant and the Sprout team determine that major infrastructure changes are needed, a written testing plan to determine if these changes would achieve their stated goals
• Implementation of any testing plan
• Adjustments to the written documentation of the new infrastructure plan based on the results of testing, if needed
• Implementation and written documentation for any incremental improvements or bug fixes for the development environment, if needed

(estimated completion date September 30, 2023):

• Implement and roll out any infrastructure changes approved by the Sprout team
• Written documentation of any infrastructure changes implemented
• Written recommendations for monitoring site availability, performance, and application logs
• Implementation and written documentation for any incremental improvements or bug fixes for the development environment, if needed

(estimated completion date October 31, 2023):

• Implementation of any parts of the monitoring plan approved by the Sprout team
• Written documentation of the monitoring plan implementation
• Implementation and written documentation for any incremental improvements or bug fixes for the infrastructure, if needed
• Implementation and written documentation for any incremental improvements or bug fixes for the development environment, if needed

The Consultant will report to:

Mercy Corps AgriFin’s D-CSA Director, Sprout, and Ethiopia Lead

Payments will be made based on days worked capped at a maximum number of 60 days within the period of May 1st -October 31st, 2023

Timeframe / Schedule:

The Timeframe will be between May 1st -October 31st, 2023

The Consultant will work closely with:

The Mercy Corps Agrifin Technical team and Sprout Consultants

Required Experience & Skills:

• 7-10 years of technically relevant experience
• A bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Technologies or related field
• Experience administering and monitoring Amazon Web Services (AWS) deployments
• Experience administering highly available web application deployments with Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, and Terraform
• Experience building and maintaining development environments to support efficient software development and testing
• Strong bash, Python, and/or equivalent scripting skills to support developing, building, and deploying web applications
• Excellent Computer, verbal and written communication skills, including documentation development, writing and editing
• Strong interpersonal skills.
• Pro-active, self-disciplined, responsive to requests
• Demonstrated analytical and problem-solving skills
• Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members

**Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
**Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.

We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment OpportunityWe are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & EthicsMercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our stakeholders and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC's policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.