Consultant for the Development of the Campaign Information Management System (CIMS)
About The Position
The Bioko Island Malaria Elimination Project (BIMEP) is a 22-year partnership between the Government of Equatorial Guinea, oil sector partners, and MCD Global Health, working towards malaria elimination. The 2026-2030 phase extends program activities from Bioko Island to mainland Equatorial Guinea and Annobón Island. The Campaign Information Management System (CIMS) is a proprietary MCD platform that holds programmatic data for BIMEP field interventions. MCD seeks a consultant to consolidate its analytical processes (PALU) onto a documented, cost-effective architecture using GitLab, AWS, and potentially Databricks. The consultant will work under the technical direction of the Digital Health Tools and Systems Lead, with the goal of enabling MCD staff to operate and extend these systems independently. This is a two-month pilot engagement from November to December 2026, with the potential for extension in 2027.
Requirements
- Degree in computer science, software engineering, information systems, or related field, or equivalent professional experience.
- At least five years of experience in DevOps, cloud infrastructure, or data engineering.
- Hands-on experience configuring GitLab CI/CD, including runners, pipeline schedules, and protected variables.
- Experience administering AWS environments, including identity and access management, EC2, RDS, S3, networking, and cost management.
- Strong SQL and PostgreSQL skills.
- Working knowledge of Python.
- Experience with dbt and building data pipelines from APIs.
- Experience applying security practices in cloud environments: access control, secrets management, backup and recovery.
- Clear technical writing in English.
Nice To Haves
- Experience with Databricks or a comparable platform (Snowflake, BigQuery), including cost modeling.
- Experience with ODK Central, DHIS2, or other health information systems.
- Experience with containers and infrastructure as code (e.g., Docker, Terraform).
- Previous work supporting health programs in Africa.
- Working knowledge of Spanish.
Responsibilities
- Assess Databricks against PALU's data warehouse needs and active projects, comparing it with the existing PostgreSQL environment on AWS.
- Set up and configure a small data model in Databricks using a representative subset of PALU data to estimate costs.
- Configure connectors to priority external data sources to test data warehouse population and maintenance.
- Prepare a cost-benefit analysis for Databricks adoption.
- Draft plans for future projects addressing data interoperability, governance, and localization.
- Document all configuration, test results, and findings.
- Configure GitLab CI/CD pipelines for PALU processes, including automated reports, dbt model builds, and data extraction.
- Configure a CIMS repository for CI/CD, including automated builds, version control, release tagging, and test stages.
- Assist with configuring application logging for CIMS and PALU.
- Address deployment dependencies with ODK Central versioning.
- Define and configure pipeline notifications and reporting.
- Manage access control in GitLab, including user roles, protected branches, and credential storage.
- Review the current AWS account structure, services, and costs to identify cost-saving opportunities.
- Explore cost saving opportunities such as reserved instances or savings plans, architecture unification, and technology migration.
- Configure GitLab runners on AWS if required.
- Modernize and streamline the deployment of MCD applications using containers and infrastructure as code.
- Review and provide feedback on draft documentation for new systems, standards, and processes.
- Write code for system configuration not covered by other deliverable areas.
- Provide guidance and training to relevant team members, including handover sessions.
- Apply security patches and dependency updates, including GitLab runners and ODK Central.
- Monitor pipelines, scheduled jobs, and infrastructure, and fix failures.
- Confirm backups run and test a restore.
- Review AWS and Databricks costs monthly and flag unexpected changes.
- Keep documentation and runbooks current.
- Triage and resolve maintenance tickets in Jira.
Benefits
- MCD pays directly for cloud and software license costs in MCD accounts, including Databricks usage during the pilot.
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What This Job Offers
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
Associate degree
