Descriptions

1. Key Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end development of the Alumni Portal
• Collaborate with the CA Team and stakeholders for requirement gathering and planning
• Develop secure and scalable backend and frontend systems
• Design modern, responsive, and accessible user interfaces
• Conduct regular fortnightly/monthly knowledge transfer sessions with the internal CA Team developers
• Ensure thorough testing, documentation, and technical training for future maintenance
• Suggest and implement additional features to enhance functionality, upon mutual agreement

1. Deliverables
2. Platform Architecture & Accessibility

• Fully responsive web-based Alumni Portal accessible via desktops, tablets, and smartphones, based on the School of St Jude colour themes and logos.
• Backend designed with scalable architecture and shared APIs to support seamless development of future Android and iOS mobile applications as well as integration with other platforms.

1. Multitenant User Account & Profile Management

• Role-based access control (Alumni, Admins, Moderators, Staff)
• Secure account provisioning via admin-imported verified emails (no self-registration)
• Custom profile fields (academic, professional, interests)
• Alumni can edit and update profiles with admin review workflow

1. Dashboards & Analytics

• Visual dashboards for user engagement, login trends, content interactions
• Real-time analytics using best standard tools and features (e.g., Graphs, Google Analytics)
• Admin tracking by role, location, activity type, and growth metrics

1. Interactive Opportunity Board

• Jobs, internships, and scholarships posting with expiry countdowns and status badges
• Features: like, comment, share, document attachments
• Alumni-contributed listings subject to admin moderation

1. Events Management System

• Calendar/list views of alumni reunions, webinars, and workshops
• Features: RSVP, join events, like, comment, discussion threads, automated reminders

1. Alumni Service & Business Board

• “Alumni Marketplace” where alumni showcase goods/services for staff, alumni, and community
• Listings include descriptions, attachments, contact info, post expiry, etc.
• Interactive features: like, comment, share
• Admin approval required

1. Alumni Contribution & Support Section

• Forms for volunteering, donating, and contributing to alumni-administered initiatives
• Support categories (Donation, Mentorship, Sponsorship, Skill Sharing)
• Submissions routed to admins with email notifications

1. Community Groups & Interest Circles

• Interest- or profession-based alumni groups
• Group creation with admin approval
• Group-level news feeds, documents, discussion threads
• Interactive features: like, comment

1. Alumni Connect – Learning Resource Centre

• Career development repository: courses, guides, articles, videos, PDFs, DOCX, links, etc.
• Users can like, rate, comment, and bookmark materials
• Content managed by admins and moderated alumni contributions

1. Feedback & Survey System

• Form-based tools to collect user experience, feature requests, and engagement data
• Optional anonymous submissions
• Results visualized in the access given users’ dashboard

1. Communication Tools & Notifications

• Real-time messaging between users: Alumni, Admins, etc.
• Support Chat with category-based routing
• Multi-channel notifications: email, in-portal alerts, and SMS
• Admin-controlled communication templates

1. Secure API Integration Framework

• RESTful API with access control for external service integration
• Token-based authentication (OAuth2/API Keys)
• Developer documentation for internal/external use

1. Social Media Interaction & Sharing

• Ability for users to share posts, events, and opportunities directly to and from social media platforms
• Integration of social sign-in and profile linking (e.g., LinkedIn, Facebook)
• Real-time display of alumni social mentions, highlights, or achievements

1. Security & Privacy Enhancements

• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)-style privacy settings
• Consent-based data usage and session management
• Audit logs, encrypted sessions, login alerts, and secure file storage
• Comprehensive system logs capturing all user activities and admin operations for audit purposes

1. Hosting, Launch & Technical Documentation

• Virtual Private Server (VPS)-based deployment with staging and production
• Secure Socket Layer (SSL) configuration, performance optimization, automated backups
• Source code and documentation on the School of St Jude GitHub Account
• Admin and developer handover, training sessions, and user manuals

1. Data Export & Reporting Capabilities

• All user-generated data (profiles, posts, submissions, etc.) and analytics can be exported in multiple formats including XLS, CSV, and PDF
• Role-based access to reporting tools for data visualization and download

1. Interactive Capabilities Summary

All applicable content types (opportunities, events, resources, groups, service listings, posts, comments, attachments, etc.) will support:

• Like
• Comment
• Share
• User edits (own content), while giving the selected admins access to historical edits
• Admin moderation
• Etcetera

1. Required Qualifications & Experience

• 5+ years in full-stack web application development
• Bachelor Degree in Computer Science, IT, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering or any other related field.
• Proficiency in:
  • Backend: PHP (Core + Frameworks)
  • Frontend: Bootstrap, HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, AJAX
  • Database: MySQL/MariaDB
  • Web servers: Apache, Nginx, IIS
  • Version control: GitHub
• Strong grasp of web security and RESTful API development
• Experience with remote consulting and international projects
• Proven a minimum of three previously delivered projects actively in use using the mentioned technologies (provide proof from the clients) 

Preferred:

• Mobile app development experience (Android/iOS)

1. Working Conditions

• Work Mode: Hybrid / On-site (at the School of St Jude, Arusha)

Are you interested?

Send your cover letter and an up to date Curriculum Vitae to [email protected] (subject line must include the reference number: TSOSJ/HR/SIS/HO/CONS/CA/06/25), portfolio of similar projects (three at a minimum), short technical proposal (development methodology).