Job Description

Mercy Corps Front-end Engineer Jobs vacancy in Kenya 2019 

Organization: Mercy Corps Kenya

Scope of Work / Terms of Reference

Project / Program: Kenya Catalytic Jobs Fund

Assignment Consultancy for a Front-end Engineer

1. Programme Background

About Kenya Catalytic Jobs Fund

Through the Kenya Catalytic Jobs Fund, the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) is looking to test and support innovations with the potential to stimulate large-scale job creation.

The Kenya Catalytic Jobs Fund (KCJF) is a 4-year catalytic jobs fund that will, through a mix of technical assistance and grant support, test competitively selected innovations that have potential to unlock market constraints and create jobs, including for the most vulnerable, e.g. people living with disability.

The programme contains a strong emphasis on learning and evidence. It seeks to generate knowledge, data and evidence on ways of addressing barriers to job creation and disseminate findings to relevant stakeholders, including potential investors.

Mercy Corps is implementing the pilot phase of the KCJF programme.

About Lynk

Lynk is a startup which builds technology to connect blue collar workers in Kenya – from carpenters to cleaners – to jobs.

Our suite of products seeks to satisfy a breadth of consumer needs, which provide multiple channels to increase incomes for workers in our system:

• Lynk Requests: A marketplace product enabling customers to request services in over 50 categories from cleaners, to masseuses, to plumbers, and tailors, and receive shortlisted bids.


• Lynk Shop: An e-commerce product enabling workers on the platform to sell ready-to-buy products or services.


• Byld: A tech-based platform for the recruitment and management of workers on large construction sites.

Lynk is consistently regarded ia one of the most exciting and socially impactful start-ups in Africa:

• (2018) Africa regional winner of the MIT Inclusive Innovation Challenge for global technology solutions that improve livelihoods


• (2018) Selected into the prestigious MIT 2018 SOLVER class of solutions that are changing the world, in the subcategory of “work of the future”


• (2018) Named one of East Africa’s top 10 startups to watch by I-Dev international


• (2017) Grand winner of the Ford Foundation and the Global Center for Youth employment Ideathon for initiatives that can bring disruptive change to youth employment


• (2017) Selected to the inaugural XL Africa fellowship put on by the World Bank for high potential startups in Africa

2. Purpose of engagement

Kenya Catalytic Youth Fund is looking for a service provider to support the development of a data analytics platform for its partner Lynk.

The consultant will be placed at Lynk and work from their offices with the technology team, along with other teams at Lynk.

The consultant will:

• Support Lynk’s frontend team in the development, testing and deployment of segment specific technology for our new Cleaning & Care Segment


• Collaborate with a team of designers and developers to build a robust and interactive dashboard


• Organizing different data sources and data sinks in order to make sure we are collecting and analyzing everything that is relevant


• Build scalable and highly usable frontend applications using VueJS, Backbone and other Javascript frameworks


• Solve (many) real problems using tech


• Support in taking correct technology decisions

The ideal consultant will be as described. As a Frontend Engineer with a focus on analytics, you enjoy making beautiful user interfaces and dashboards.

You have strong opinions based on experience about which frameworks to work with and you know which mistakes to avoid.

Good UX design is something you live by and you have the right mind to decide when to use additional tools and frameworks and when to work with vanilla JS.

You have a passion for data and implementing data heavy designs comes natural to you.

3. Deliverables:

The key deliverables from the project are:

1. Technical deliverables:

• Event tracking with segment.com analytics: We are looking to better understand customer behavior on the Lynk platform. An important interaction point with Lynk is our website. We have chosen to use segment.com in order to track customer interactions across our platform. Now we need to track these customer interactions. In order to do that we want to add tracking code at all relevant interaction points. This requires collecting and sending the correct data to segment.com from within our VueJS application when specific actions are taken by the users.


• Timeline: 6 weeks after starting the engagement

• Set up sales funnels on Amplitude: In order to have meaningful insights into the data generated from tracking our events we need to set up visualizations and dashboards. Amplitude provides good insights into user interactions on our platform. We would like to extend our dashboard with sales funnel analysis and make it accessible to the marketing team. These funnels are described in the attachment.


• Timeline: 2 weeks

• Test and review the tracked data with relevant stakeholders. Adjust event tracking as requested to track the following 4 product metrics: Engagement, Stickiness, Retention and Growth.


• Timeline: 2 weeks

2. Thought leadership:

The consultant will provide support in developing a 2-pager style thought leadership document that provides actionable recommendations on designing data analytical systems/technology systems within a tech startup environment, that can inform decision making within the broader industry (with support from the Lynk business development team and Youth Impact Labs)

Timeline: 1 week

Deliverable evidence: Screenshots taken from segment.com as well as amplitude evidencing the event tracking in action as well as the user story describing which events are being tracked and why

Completion Date: start date + 6 weeks

Deliverable evidence: Screenshots taken from Amplitude evidencing the generated dashboard with written explanations of their use

Completion Date: start date + 8 weeks

Deliverable evidence: Write-up of adjustments with explanation for why they are necessary. Signed confirmation from CTO to confirm completion

Completion Date: start date + 10 weeks

4. Application

To apply provide a brief proposal of no more than 10 pages/ slides containing the following:

• Consultant’s CV or consulting firm’s overview and team structure including CVs of team members; if applying as a firm, include firm registration documents. The profile should show and demonstrate:


• Deeply experienced in Javascript on server and client

1. Good understanding of ES6


2. Data specific frameworks like D3js a plus


3. Experience with analytics frameworks like analytics.js, segment.com, mixpanel, amplitude or others a plus


4. Experience with SQL a plus


5. Background in data science or data analytics a plus


6. Deep knowledge of web technologies (REST/HTTP, web sockets, …)


7. Good understanding of popular programming paradigms (e.g. object orientation, functional programming, …)

• Summary of sample work plan and approach;


• References, web links or electronic copies of at least three work samples of recently completed analytics platforms*


• List of references. At least 3 referees.


• Detailed budget, clearly outlining each cost and the total anticipated project cost

Proposals will be evaluated on both technical and financial criteria as detailed in the annex.

Proposals must be sent digitally to ke-pr@mercycorps.org by 5:00 pm, Monday, 12th of August.

5. Reporting Lines

The consultant shall work under the direct supervision of the CTO, Lynk with strong liaison with the post investment and learning advisor, Kenya Catalytic Jobs Fund

6. Ownership and control of work/ publication

Ownership and control of all work products related to this scope of work and partner engagement shall belong to Lynk and while learning outputs shall belong to Mercy Corps. Any use of material, learnings or publications derived from the work product will require prior written approval from Lynk and Mercy Corps.

7. Timeframes and Budgets

Kenya Catalytic Jobs Fund anticipates that the assignment will take up to 11 weeks.

The works shall be executed between 8th August 2019 and 25th October 2019.

The total costs of the assignment will be negotiated with the service providers.

Selection Criteria

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