BACKGROUND
Natural Justice is a non-profit organization rooted in the struggles of communities in Africa. As a team of pioneering lawyers and legal experts, we specialize in human rights, environmental, climate, land, indigenous, and heritage law, in pursuit of social, climate, and environmental justice.
The African Environmental Defenders Initiative (AEDI) was instituted by Natural Justice to enhance respect for the work of African Environmental Defenders and advocate for and secure their human rights. The Initiative aims to minimise or manage the risks faced by Defenders in Africa by offering support to enhance their resilience in terms of protection against threats.
JOB SUMMARY
Database developer with at least 2 years’ experience to design and develop an internal facing data management system that is accessible and secure. This role will involve optimizing the database, developing data pipelines, and ensuring the data is properly stored and retrieved, implementing data governance and compliance measures.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this consultancy is to build an encrypted, user-friendly digital database for the African Environmental Defender Emergency Fund.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Review, Analysis and System Design
- Conduct digital review and needs assessment to identify functional, security and usability requirements
- Map the programme requirements to inform database architecture, data structures and analytical ideation to deployment functionality
- Design a secure database system aligned to the AED Emergency Fund’s operational and data management needs
- Database Development, Security and Quality Assurance
- Design, develop and deploy an encrypted digital database to meet the AED initiative’s organizational needs
- Write, optimize and maintain efficient SQL queries, procedures and database functions
- Conduct code and peer reviews to ensure quality adherence to best practices
- Resolve incidents related to database functionality
- Collaboration, Documentation and Handover
- Collaborate with relevant NJ staff to ensure the database reflects the AED initiative’s key priorities
- Develop short database user-guide
- Support system handover and knowledge transfer to ensure sustainable and effective uptake by the AED initiative team
DELIVERABLES
- Concise Inception Report and Mapping Matrix
- Database Architecture and System Design Document
- Encrypted Digital Database for the Emergency Fund
- Documentation, Handover and Capacity Building Outputs
QUALIFCATION, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS REQUIREMENTS
The ideal consultant should possess:
- Demonstrated experience with databases (MS SQL development, SQL Server, PostgreSQL)
- Strong SQL skills (writing queries, procedures and optimizing performance)
- Bachelor’s degree in IT Computer science or related field (preferred but not required)
- Relevant certifications are an added advantage (SQL Server, Database certifications)
- Ability to troubleshoot and resolve database issues
- Knowledge of data security and encryption practices
- Experience with database performance tuning and backup/recovery
- Familiarity with data analysis or reporting tools is an added advantage
- Basic understanding of programming or scripting (e.g., Python, C#, or similar)
DURATION
Timeframe: Two (2) months
HOW TO APPLY
Interested applicants can apply by submitting the following documents to emergencyfund@naturaljustice.org by 24 April 2026;
- A detailed CV
- A comprehensive proposal including methodology and solutions proposed for this consultancy.
- A portfolio of relevant past work demonstrating experience in database development and data management