PRMS Architectural Redesign Blueprint Consultancy

CGIAR

8h

About The Position

This consultancy is for an architectural blueprint for a rebuilt Performance & Results Management System (PRMS) for CGIAR. The PRMS is CGIAR's core infrastructure for portfolio planning, results reporting, quality assurance, adaptive management, risk management, and accountability. The current system, built for a stable institutional environment, needs redesigning to accommodate dynamic, on-demand, user-defined outputs, heterogeneous data from Window 3/bilateral funding, orchestration by AI tools, multiple data sources, and the technological revolution in data management. The new system must be modular, reconfigurable, and interoperable, designed for AI-native handling of data. The blueprint will serve as the design basis for a subsequent build investment, focusing on user needs and making the system lighter to feed and cheaper to run and extend. It aims to create a system that is orchestrable, allowing AI agents to operate across any layer, or for processes to run without AI, depending on risk appetite. The atomic unit will be a result linked to a causal pathway, enabling a 'report once, use many times' approach. The system will function as a data layer for CGIAR tools and authorized external actors, moving beyond predetermined outputs. The blueprint must address the cost shift from human effort to AI-driven processing, AI operating costs at scale, and historical suboptimal adoption by Centers and Programs. The deliverable is a conceptual design, not a detailed technical specification, with a roadmap for a 2027 interim release and a fuller rebuild.

Requirements

• Senior-level expertise in data architecture and API design for complex, federated data environments.
• Experience designing for AI orchestration and agentic access patterns.
• Advanced understanding of AI/ML pipeline requirements, including practical understanding of what LLM-based and agentic tools require from upstream data infrastructure.
• Practical understanding of cost modelling at scale for AI/ML.
• Deep experience in MEL and risk-informed systems in international development, including results frameworks, theory of change, indicator management, and bilateral reporting structures.
• Proven ability to advise on organizational change and adoption in federated, multi-stakeholder settings.
• Track record producing architectural blueprints that non-technical leadership can act on and developers can build against.
• Strong capacity to translate user, governance, and reporting needs into system and data requirements.
• A service-design sensibility that starts from what users must be able to answer.
• Resume and cover letter in English.
• Technical proposal including CVs, cover letter, and a short approach to the work (2-4 pages).
• Financial proposal in USD, quoted as a lump sum with a cost breakdown by level of effort per deliverable.
• Combine technical and financial proposals in one document.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with CGIAR, multilateral research organizations, or comparable federated institutional environments.

Responsibilities

• Map the demand the system must serve, identifying priority users and uses, and their required outputs.
• Distinguish current system strengths from user-perceived gaps.
• Assess existing foundational building blocks (e.g., Theory of Change, Projected Benefits model, Results Framework) as a base for the redesigned system.
• Characterize the data supply, its fragmentation, and implications for a system drawing on existing sources.
• Define the connecting layer between demand and supply, establishing principles for a FAIR, API-first, orchestrable system that accommodates heterogeneous W3/bilateral data.
• Show how the redesign lightens the load, reducing manual entry, duplication, and double reporting, while being honest about trade-offs including AI operating costs and the need for human judgment.
• Set out the direction of travel and a phased path, including a costed view of the interim 2027 release and the fuller rebuild.
• Diagnose strategic reasons for historical Center and Program workarounds of PRMS and specify design requirements to reduce friction.
• Produce an architectural blueprint and roadmap.
• Provide a Performance and Results Management Steering Group briefing deck.
• Address W3/bilateral data integration as a distinct architectural problem.
• Diagnose Center and Program adoption challenges and specify design requirements to reduce friction.

Benefits

• Multi-cultural, multi-color, multi-generational, and multi-disciplinary, collegial working environment.
• Inclusive organization that reflects global character and commitment to gender equity.

What This Job Offers

• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed