Consultant - Chief Technology Officer

ABOUT THE COMPANY

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. Now, and for the future. We help people overcome poverty and conflict. Working with communities, we leverage local logic to help people transform their lives. To grow more food, earn higher incomes and ultimately advocate for their needs. We see global challenges as an invitation to pioneer innovative, sustainable solutions

JOB SUMMARY

The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Consultant will support the ongoing development of the Sprout Platform working with an internal and external team of developers to implement the Dynamic Marketplace and Digital Advisory Services MVP.Consultant Activities:The CTO will take an active lead in both designing and leading in the implementation of the identified features for the next phase of the Sprout Platform with the Mercy Corps AgriFin team and external partners. The CTO will lead the project team on the Sprout Platform advisory and marketplace services MVP. These services will be built upon the existing platform, capabilities and offer:Platform content /services organizations the ability to connect to the Sprout platform and directly reach farmer facing organizations and their millions of users in a uniform wayContent/service users (farmer facing organizations) who connect into the platform to have the ability for their respective farmer to have access advisory information and services based on the data that farmer facing organizations have about their farmers (i.e. GPS coordinates, plot size, primary and secondary commodities, etc. ) in a uniform wayThe CTO will be responsible for identifying the technical approach and implementing the MVP with content providers, service providers and farmer-facing organizations.The CTO will also work with the following sets and types of organizations, but this is not a complete list of partners:Content creators (KALRO, AGRA, Ethiopian ATA, Ministries of Agriculture, Research Institutes, CIP, and many others.)Content/Service Providers (CIAT, CGIAR, CYMMT, Ignitia, aWhere, PlantVillage, , and many others)Content users (One Acre, Pula, KALRO, Digifarm, Mshamba, FSPN, CoAmana, and many others)Digitally enabled farmers.Required Experience & Skills:10 years' experience in system architect roles in medium to large customer environmentsExperience managing small development teams across different programming disciplines including cloud, mobile, IoT, and AIExperience establishing technology operations and developing technology standards across multiple project teamsAbility and experience steering multiple software products and teams simultaneouslyExperience in, and knowledge of, complex architectural customer, business, applications and, where appropriate, Infrastructure environments.Experience designing and implementing SMS and WhatsApp for Business platforms, Chatbots and other computer programs that simulate human conversation through voice commends or text chats.Required deep knowledge of architect processes tools and offering and ability to translate customer requirement into Sprout Platform and servicesExperience designing and building technology solutions for emerging marketsMust be passionate about modern technologies and effectively using them for creating innovative digital solutionsProven experience in tech design for Developing marketsExperience developing Platforms/APIsPrior experience with Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network (CKAN) and/or other open data and knowledge portals highly preferredAble to manage team and clients remotely

RESPONSIBILITIES

The CTO will:Engage and meet with partners to further define and understand use cases, prerequisites, and capabilities to design the requirements for the platform.Provide recommended specifications around the technology architecture for the pilot MVP delivery, as well as recommendations for its future development.Identify potential solution providers and/or technical design partner or skills required for implementationAssist partners utilize and integrate Sprout Content and services into the their respective platforms.Implement an MVP for the smart farming advisory and guidance around product parameters and support testing the newly designed features.Lead in implementation of a structured survey tool and feedback loop with Sprout partners – Farmer Facing Organizations (FFOs) - to gather track insights and ensure CIAT can access these insights.Evaluate the Sprout Data Provision Platform's usability for FFOs and develop recommendations for improvements in the platform to improve content access, integration, and decision support tools for FFOs and SSFsSupport the ideation of the next phase development of Sprout as well as the longer-term product roadmap for the facility as an AgriFin initiative moving forward.Support the AgriFin team and external partners implement both the short-term project strategy and longer-term growth strategy for the Sprout Platform to evolve toward a global open access platform.Support the AgriFin team an MVP for the smart farming advisory and Sprout marketplace into new geographiesSupport the AgriFin and partners develop new use cases for sprout.Based on the inputs from stakeholders, design new MVPs and work with partners to implement agreed upon MVPs.Consultant Activities:The CTO will:Support Sprout PlatformManage platform infrastructure report and troubleshooting issues.Support/lead definition new features and functionally to be developed.Support the Sprout Digital Weather Services MVP & ChatbotCo-develop product features with product and content teams for Deliver MVPsEngage with FFO users to gain feedback and evolve feature functionality.Develop engineering requirements, hire, train resources to build out MVP platform to specification.Lead development of the platforms.Update the Chatbot Infrastructure Strategy.Support the AgriFin team and External partnersSupport Agrifin team as well as external partners in putting the project's short- and long-term growth strategies into action.Assist AgriFin and collaborators in creating fresh applications for Sprout.Along with the facility's longer-term product strategy, support the development of this facility's next phase of development.Consultant Deliverables:The consultant will work to produce updates on the deliverables below alongside regular progress reports and activity time logs, in close collaboration with the Digital Climate-Smart Agriculture and Sprout Platform Lead:Support Sprout PlatformManage platform infrastructure report and troubleshooting issues.Support/lead definition new features and functionally to be developed.Support the Sprout Digital Weather Services MVP & ChatbotCo-develop product features with product and content teams for Deliver MVPsEngage with FFO users to gain feedback and evolve feature functionality.Develop engineering requirements, hire, train resources to build out MVP platform to specification.Lead development of the platforms.Update the Chatbot Infrastructure Strategy.Support the AgriFin team and External partnersSupport Agrifin team as well as external partners in putting the project's short- and long-term growth strategies into action.Assist AgriFin and collaborators in creating fresh applications for Sprout.Along with the facility's longer-term product strategy, support the development of this facility's next phase of development.Timeframe / Schedule:The time frame will be between June 17, Oct 31, 2024.The Consultant will report to:AgriFin Sprout engagement and DCSA leadThe Consultant will work closely with:The Agrifin Technical team

REQUIRED SKILLS

Project management, Process development, Partnerships, Collaboration, Planning

REQUIRED EDUCATION

Bachelor's degree