Independent Consultancy

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for an Independent Consultancy – Technical Planning and Coordination based in Portugal. Accountabilities
- Consortium coordination and stakeholder engagement: Facilitate collaboration across five partner organizations by preparing meeting agendas, guiding technical discussions, documenting decisions, and building consensus among stakeholders with different priorities and working practices.
- Needs assessment and user research: Interview data leads to assess existing datasets, systems, workflows, and user requirements. Help define priority audiences, use cases, access patterns, and the tools and assurances required by different user groups.
- Technical project management: Develop and maintain an integrated workplan covering milestones, dependencies, responsibilities, and deliverables. Monitor progress, manage risks and action items, and coordinate regularly with the consortium's secretariat and technical leadership.
- Data mapping and interoperability: Create a centralized inventory of datasets, data collection tools, and internal data assets across participating organizations. Identify gaps, overlaps, and opportunities to improve integration and reuse.
- Standards and documentation: Develop proposals for shared data schemas, identifiers, metadata standards, validation processes, and machine-readable documentation. Establish a framework for linking records across organizations through jointly governed identifiers and crosswalks.
- Platform architecture and technical recommendations: Evaluate hosted, federated, and hybrid architecture options, taking into account different data products, version control, data provenance, reproducibility, and integration requirements. Recommend shared protocols and a practical technical architecture.
- Data hub proof of concept: Define the requirements and scope of a limited proof of concept demonstrating how a shared platform could serve selected user groups. Coordinate the handover of requirements and assess the resulting prototype, which will be developed by external data engineering contractors.
- AI-ready energy data strategy: Contribute to approaches for making trusted energy datasets accessible and discoverable by AI systems, including through structured metadata, APIs, and other machine-readable interfaces. Support knowledge exchange on AI-assisted research methods.
- Roadmap development and reporting: Co-author the consortium's final plan with participating organizations, producing an implementation-ready technical and governance roadmap for the next phase. Deliver regular progress reports, meeting documentation, and agreed technical deliverables. Requirements Minimum qualifications
- At least 8 years of professional experience in data architecture, data management, or data product development, preferably within the energy or climate data sectors.
- Demonstrated experience facilitating and managing technical projects, working groups, or collaborative initiatives involving multiple organizations.
- Strong English communication skills, with the ability to lead discussions, synthesize complex technical information, and document decisions and recommendations clearly. Preferred qualifications and skills
- Strong stakeholder facilitation and consensus-building skills, particularly in environments where organizations have different technical practices, priorities, and governance structures.
- Hands-on experience with data integration and interoperability, including common schemas, identifiers, entity resolution, metadata standards, and data documentation.
- Familiarity with open energy data ecosystems, open-source energy modeling tools, reproducible data pipelines, and collaborative research infrastructure.
- Knowledge of data platform architecture, including hosted, federated, and hybrid models, as well as versioned data releases, APIs, and data provenance practices.
- Understanding of how AI systems access and interpret structured data, including machine-readable metadata, APIs, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers.
- Experience working with open-source, open-data, digital public goods, research, or other mission-driven organizations, including an understanding of data stewardship, licensing, and governance.
- Strong analytical, organizational, and project management abilities, with the capacity to translate complex technical concepts into actionable plans and deliverables.
- Based in Europe to facilitate time zone alignment with consortium members. Eligibility to work as an independent consultant will be assessed in the country where the services are performed before a contract is offered. Benefits
- Competitive consultancy budget: Approximately US$135,000 allocated to the assignment, with fees paid on a time-and-materials basis at an agreed hourly or daily rate.
- Remote working arrangement: Work remotely while collaborating with an int