Organization
3iS is a non-for-profit organization that provides information management services to humanitarian and development organizations. Through information management, we help our partners target assistance to the world’s most vulnerable populations, and we support local authorities and institutions to enhance their capacities and become autonomous in their internal data and information management activities.
Scope of Work
This service provides the technical leadership necessary to achieve 3iS’s objective of enhancing information management in humanitarian contexts. It involves leading the design, implementation, and optimization of the innovative Agentic Risk & Environmental Management System (AREMS). The Solution Architect or Cloud Engineer will apply expertise in AI and data science to architect the entire system on Google Cloud Platform—from data processing pipelines to chatbots and AI tools—ensuring the platform facilitates informed, timely decision-making for vulnerable populations.
AREMS is a groundbreaking initiative designed to transform humanitarian response and localized decision-making. By leveraging advanced AI, AREMS will create a comprehensive knowledge graph that fuses formal data (humanitarian reports, statistics, GIS data) with real-time, community-sourced intelligence. The platform will utilize AI agents, accessible via common messaging apps, to provide non-technical users with actionable insights, risk analysis, and decision support.
Description of Duties
Architectural Design and Strategy
• Lead the end-to-end design of the AREMS solution architecture in Google Cloud Platform, encompassing data ingestion, NLP processing, AI agent interaction, and user-facing applications
• Coordinate with the engineering team on data ingestion, data processing, and knowledge graph development
• Define the technical roadmap for the acceleration phase and beyond, ensuring alignment with project OKRs
• Design and oversee the cloud strategy, including workflows using Google Cloud Run, Dialog Flow, Vertex AI, BigQuery, Spanner, Kubernetes Engine, and Cloud Storage
Technical Oversight & Implementation Guidance
• Oversee the design and implementation of data ingestion pipelines for structured, unstructured, and geospatial data
• Provide expert guidance on applying the AREMS ontology within the chosen graph database
• Architect interactions between AI agents, Large Language Models (Google Vertex AI), the knowledge graph, and other data sources like PostGIS
• Ensure scalable integration of community-generated data via chatbots into the core knowledge graph
Performance, Security & Cost Management
• Identify and mitigate performance bottlenecks, especially for complex graph queries and real-time data ingestion
• Implement best practices for data security and governance
• Design cost-aware architecture with recommendations on instance types, serverless usage, and data storage tiers
Leadership & Documentation
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to define technological solutions tailored to humanitarian contexts
• Strengthen team capabilities in using AI tools
• Contribute to new project proposals from an AI technical perspective
• Serve as the technical authority, providing mentorship and resolving complex challenges
• Create and maintain architectural documentation including system diagrams, data flow models, and technical specifications
• Communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
Requirements
Education
• Accredited professional in Data Science, Systems Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, or related fields
• Postgraduate studies in AI or Data Science are an asset
• Certifications in AWS, GCP, or Azure are valued, especially GCP with a portfolio of AI/Data Science projects
Languages
• Fluency in English required
• Additional language skills in Spanish, Nigerian Pidgin, and Amharic are an asset (to be specified in the application)
Experience
• Minimum 3 years as a Solution Architect, Cloud Engineer, or similar role
• Experience with managed AI/ML services, especially Google Vertex AI
• Strong data engineering skills including ETL/ELT pipelines, unstructured data processing, and data modeling
• Proficiency in Python
• Understanding of serverless architectures, especially Google Cloud Run
• Familiarity with agentic frameworks (GraphRAG, LangChain, Langraph, LlamaIndex)
• Knowledge of Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Agent to Agent (A2A) framework
• Experience with relational SQL, NoSQL, and vector databases
• Expertise in data fusion, graph and semantic databases (Google Spanner, Neo4J, Protégé, ONTOP)
• Proficiency in Prompt Engineering and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) methodologies
Skills
• Ability to work based on objectives and meet performance standards
• Excellent communication skills for technical and non-technical audiences
• Capacity to work in multidisciplinary and multicultural environments
• Results-oriented mindset and problem-solving skills
Organizational Commitment
As part of 3iS’s commitment to organizational development, all personnel are expected to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit both the organization and individual professional growth.
Terms of Employment
Job Title: Solution Architect / Cloud Engineer
Duty Station: Home-based (acceptable time zones: Colombia, Europe, Africa)
Type of Contract: Consultant
Expected Starting Date: 15 July 2025
Duration: 15 months
Fees: USD 3200 – 3500
Closing date: 04 July 2025