Tender for two Senior Software Engineering Trainers for code reviews (Local Expert Position) as trainer for the Rwandan software development trainee program "The Gym"

1. General information

1.1. About KB21

KB21 Ltd. is committed to promoting the Rwandan IT scene. We focus on capacity developmentand job creation in the Rwandan IT economy. KB21 Ltd. has been partnering with Rwandan companies, institutions, and individual trainers in several projects, connecting Rwandan tech teams to international projects and remote work opportunities.

In 2019, we introduced our independent training program, called “The Gym”, together with our partner Tech in Ruanda e.V., guiding young Rwandan ICT talent through a structured set of technology and professional skills modules empowering them to provide services for global clients.

1.2. About “The Gym”

The Gym is Rwanda's most intense software development trainee program. Trainees join the program with solid foundations in software development and undergo a rigorous 6-month, full-time, on-site training in software development, professional skills and ways of work that brings them to the level of being able to join international software development teams as Junior Developers. Graduates of The Gym work remotely from Rwanda for international companies. Find out more on https://www.thegym-rwanda.com/

For this assignment: We are looking for two senior software engineering trainers to provide specialized support for code reviews and one-on-one technical coaching for our trainees.

The experts need to have extensive experience as software developers, including working in advanced roles on international projects, and should have prior experience coaching junior developers and acting as trainers. They should be skilled in conducting code reviews, providing detailed feedback on participants’ mistakes, and guiding their technology skill development.

At the same time, the experts should be able to deliver focused, individualized technical coaching sessions to participants, helping them overcome challenges and improve their proficiency in specific technologies.

2. Contractual information 

• The service can be performed remotely.
• The service performance period is March 2026 to May 2026.
• The legal entity that is carrier of The Gym is KB21 Ltd., a Rwandan limited liability company.
• Quotes for this tender can be specified in EUR or in RWF.
• You can either apply as an individual freelancer or as a company. If you apply as a company you need to specify the individual trainer who will be conducting these trainings and share the information (CV, references etc.) related to that specific trainer.
• Companies will only be able to change the expert trainer during the duration of the contract with prior written consent of The Gym. When the trainer changes The Gym will have the right to terminate the contract, if it does not consent to the change of trainer.

3. Tasks to be performed by the contractor 

Our trainees work on exercise projects in groups of approximately 4 people. Their work is peer reviewed and reviewed by coaches. But additionally, we want it to be reviewed by two Senior Software Engineering Trainers. This aims at ensuring highest standards of code quality and best practice adherence.

To this end we are looking for 2 Senior Software Engineering Trainers for code reviews (Local Expert Position) who will provide in total:

• 2.5 hours of code reviews on complex exercise projects per group of approx. 4 trainees every week as well as one-on-one-technical coaching sessions
• There will be 8 groups of trainees that require this coaching, meaning that we are expecting 40 hours of coaching per week.
• This will be done for a defined portion of the cohort period, totalling approximately 3 months.
• The total number of consultant hours is going to be 480 hours 

Detailed task breakdown:

• Code reviews:
  • Trainees use GitHub as a version control system and remote repository.
  • When they work on exercise projects they share their code with the trainer through a pull request. Pull requests are either feature-based or they represent the coding progress done up to a certain point in time (e.g. via a dev->main PR at a certain predefined cutoff-date)
  • The trainer then adds detailed comments to individual lines of code in the pull request through GitHub's built-in commenting functionality. Comments relate not only to errors but also to best practices and code quality criteria.
  • Comments need to be detailed and make the recommended improvement explicit.
  • Trainees then edit their code and ask for a re-review.
  • This continues until comments have been addressed to the full satisfaction of the trainer in which case the trainer marks the comments as resolved.
  • When all comments have been resolved the trainer merges the pull request.
  • Notifications about pull requests, comments, requests to re-review etc. are triggered through GitHub's built in notification functionalities. Additionally, they can be shared on discord or any other similar communication platform that is used for coordination between the trainer and the trainees. 
• Technical one-on-one coaching:
  • The trainer conducts weekly one-on-one-calls with the trainees to talk through noteworthy issues identified during code reviews and to help with particularly challenging questions faced by the trainees.
  • Trainees prepare questions for these calls about issues they are stuck on and share those questions with the trainer before the call.
  • During the call the trainer provides ideas for how to solve the issue verbally and shares any resource-links in the chat of the call.
  • In some cases, requests for such technical help may also be shared in between calls on discord or any similar communication platform that is used for coordination between the trainer and the trainees.

4. Tender requirements

4.1. Qualifications of the experts needed
 

• General professional experience: At least 5 years of experience working as a Software developer

• Specific professional experience: At least 3 years of experience working in an advanced developer role in international projects 

• Coaching / Training experience: Experience in coaching Rwandan junior developers and experience as a trainer

4.2. Specifications of input

Calculate your financial bid exactly in line with the quantitative requirements of the specification of inputs above. There is no contractual right to use the full number of hours. No travel costs are foreseen for this assignment. 

5. Requirement on the format of the tender

The quote should include:

• A financial quote
• Evidence of commercial register entry (for companies) or tax registration as a freelancer (individuals)
• A declaration by the company / individual submitting the quote, stating that the eligibility criteria listed in the "Eligibility criteria" section of this tender are met.
• Trainer CV
• The criteria table. Please make sure to provide a reference for each experience you mention in the criteria table.

The structure of the tender must correspond to the structure of the ToR. In particular, the detailed criteria table should be organised in accordance with the positively weighted criteria in the assessment grid (not with zero). The tender must be drawn up in English language. 

Criteria table

Please submit a table in the format below. Use one row for each criterion, and list the name of the company / organization, the name of the person that is a reference, their position at the company at the time you worked with them and their email address.

6. Evaluation Criteria

The technical assessment is based on this technical assessment grid.

An offer will be selected, if the vendor is eligible and the offer ranks the best based on the combined reached points in the technical assessment (weighted 70%) and the price assessment (weighted 30%).

7. Eligibility criteria

Eligibility criteria for this tender are:

• Evidence of commercial register entry (for companies) or tax registration as a freelancer (individuals)
• Exclusion grounds: The tenderer must provide a signed declaration confirming that none of the following situations apply:
  • Criminal convictions for corruption, fraud, money laundering, or other offences affecting professional integrity;
  • Insolvency, bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceedings;
  • Serious professional misconduct affecting the ability to perform the contract;
  • Actual or potential conflict of interest with the contracting entity or the project.

8. Submission of Quotes, relevant dates

Deadline for submission of quotes is the 25th of February 2026.

Please submit your quotes by uploading them to https://www.the-gym.rw/Senior-Trainer-Local-Expert

Service provision is expected to start on the 01st of March 2026.