Independent Consultancy - Technical Planning and Coordination

• Facilitate the planning process with all five ORA members, preparing agendas and materials, guiding discussions, building consensus among members with different practices and priorities, and documenting decisions and next steps.

• Interview the data leads at each member organization to assess data assets, systems, workflows, and priority user needs.

• Facilitate a shared definition of the platform’s priority users (for example, energy modelers, policy analysts, journalists, civil-society researchers, planners in developing geographies, and AI systems) and the access patterns, tools, and guarantees each needs.

• Lead members through review of, and decisions on, the proposed shared protocols, architecture options, and data hub scope, ensuring all members have meaningful input.

• Project Management:

• Develop and manage an integrated workplan for the foundational phase, with milestones, dependencies, and responsibilities across the five member organizations.

• Track progress, risks, decisions, and action items.

• Coordinate with the ORA Secretariat on communication with members and ORA leads.

• Coordinate with GEM on the data hub proof of concept. The Consultant will define its requirements with the members, and GEM will manage the build.

• Technical Planning and Analysis

• Develop a centralized map of the datasets, scrapers, and in-house data held across the five members, and identify gaps and opportunities for greater interoperability.

• Develop proposed common schemas, identifiers, and metadata documentation, including a framework for a jointly governed identifier crosswalk linking each organization’s records.

• Guide the members to develop shared approaches to automated validation and open, machine-readable documentation.

• Analyze and recommend a design for the data platform (whether hosted, federated, or hybrid, and potentially varying by data product), ensuring datasets are clearly versioned and provenance is traced to primary sources.

• Work with GEM’s Chief Data Officer to contribute to a strategy for presenting the consortium’s trusted datasets to AI systems as a preferred source for energy and climate queries, and a structured learning exchange on AI-assisted research methods.

• Scope and define requirements for a limited proof of concept showing how a centralized hub/platform could serve particular user groups, and assess the prototype, which will be built by data engineering contractors working under GEM’s direction.

• Co-author the consortium plan with the five members and prepare an implementation-ready technical and governance roadmap for the next phase.

Deliverables

The Consultant will produce the deliverables below. The inception workplan will set out agreed delivery dates, review responsibilities, and acceptance criteria for each deliverable.

• Changes to scope, deliverables, or milestones require mutual written agreement between GEM and the consultant, following consultation with the ORA Secretariat

• Inception report and integrated work plan

• Assessment report on members’ data assets, systems, and priority user needs

• Cross-member data map and gap analysis

• Agreed priority audiences and use cases

• Draft shared approaches to metadata, identifiers, validation, and data documentation

• Options paper on platform architecture

• Architecture recommendation and draft shared data protocols

• Requirements and scope for the data hub proof of concept, handed over to GEM

• Final consortium plan, including the roadmap for the next phase

• Meeting agendas and notes, and monthly progress reports

Timing and Payment Structure

The consultancy is expected to begin in mid-December and will run for 12 months from the agreed start date. Any extension will require a separate written agreement covering scope, duration, and fees subject to funding availability.

The estimated level of effort is equivalent to approximately 20 hours per week over the assignment. This is a planning estimate rather than a requirement to work a fixed weekly schedule. The consultant will organize their time to meet agreed milestones and participate in mutually scheduled consortium meetings.

The proposed budget allocation for this consultancy is approximately US$135,000. Services will be provided on a time and materials basis at an hourly or daily rate agreed before execution. The consultant will submit monthly invoices showing time worked and services provided, along with a brief progress report against the workplan. The Consultant manages their own schedule and working arrangements and is responsible for their own taxes, insurance, equipment, and benefits.

Contract Oversight and Coordination

GEM, as the current host of the ORA Consortium, will be the contracting party and administer the consultancy. GEM’s Chief Data Officer is the primary technical and contract contact, confirms milestones with the consultant, and approves deliverables against the agreed scope and acceptance criteria. This oversight concerns project requirements and outputs; the consultant remains responsible for how the services are performed.

The Consultant will coordinate with the Chief Data Officer, GEM’s director of Product and the ORA Secretariat Coordinator to obtain member input, arrange reviews, and support delivery. The Secretariat Coordinator will review deliverables in partnership with the Chief Data Officer, and GEM will make payments under the terms of the contract.

Minimum Qualifications and Preferred Qualifications: The successful candidate will be evaluated based on the following minimum and preferred qualifications:

Minimum Qualifications:

• A minimum of 8 years of working experience in data architecture, data management, or data product development, preferably in climate and energy data.

• Demonstrated experience facilitating and managing technical projects or working groups across multiple organizations in English.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Strong facilitation skills and experience building consensus among organizations with different practices and priorities.

• Demonstrated experience designing or implementing data integration and interoperability, such as common schemas, identifiers or entity resolution, metadata standards, and data documentation.

• Knowledge of the open energy data ecosystem, including open datasets, open-source energy modeling tools, and reproducible data pipelines.

• Experience with platform architecture choices (hosted, federated, and hybrid), versioned data releases, and APIs.

• Understanding of how AI systems consume data, including machine-readable metadata, APIs, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers.

• Experience working with open-source, open-data, digital public goods, research, or mission-driven organizations, including governance, licensing, and data stewardship.

• Based in Europe, to support time zone overlap with consortium members. Eligibility for an independent consultancy will be assessed in the country where the services will be performed before a contract is offered.

Application Submission Details

Interested candidates must submit their CV and cover letter through GEM’s Careers Page no later than November 11, 2026. Please provide:

• Resume or CV.

• Cover letter: a brief letter addressing (1) your experience related to the assignment - including past experience with data integration, interoperability standards, and facilitation across multiple organizations; (2) your availability and earliest start date; and (3) your location and time zone.

• One or two examples of relevant work, such as a data architecture proposal, interoperability framework, technical roadmap, or report developed through collaboration across organizations. Please briefly describe your contribution to each example. Links or anonymized excerpts are welcome; please do not submit confidential materials.

• Your proposed hourly or daily rate in US dollars. If quoting a daily rate, please indicate the number of hours included.

References may be requested from shortlisted candidates.

The evaluation committee will evaluate applications based on the preferred skills and experience outlined above and availability to undertake the assignment.

GEM reserves the right to request clarification, conduct interviews with shortlisted candidates, negotiate the final scope and terms, or decline to make an award.

Originally posted on Himalayas

• Technical Coordinator
• Data Architect
• Technical Project Manager
• Data Platform Consultant

Source: Himalayas