Tender for a Senior Software Engineering Trainer international
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 programme, 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 someone who has deep experience in working as a software developer in a European context, preferably a German context, as this is where most employers of Gym graduates are based.

The Expert needs to have immersed him/herself in the ways of work in Europe on-site and need to have this experience from several companies, allowing for more representative impression and not the limited perspective of a single company.

At the same time the person should have an initial understanding of the Rwandan context. S-he should have experienced working on-site in Rwanda, even if it is for brief period, so that the basics of working in the country are not completely alien. S-he should also have collected some experience working with Rwandan software developers from various companies.

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 an international Senior Developer. This aims at ensuring highest standards of code quality and best practice adherence, but it also aims at exposing our trainees to the expectations and habits regarding communication style and ways of work that an international senior developer has.

To this end we are looking for an international senior developer who will provide:

• 2 hours of code reviews and technical help on complex exercise projects per group of approx. 4 trainees every week.
• There will be 8 groups of trainees that require this coaching, meaning that we are expecting 16 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 208 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 help:
  • The trainer conducts a weekly call 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 expert needed
 

• General professional experience: At least 5 years of experience working as a Senior software developer in a European context, out of which:

• • At least 1-year experience in Germany;
  • Within at least 3 different teams on-side in Europe.

• Specific professional experience:

• At least 3 years as a Tech Lead in Europe on-site, out of which:

• • • • At least 1-year experience in Germany;

• Within at least within 2 different teams on-site in Europe. 

• • At least 5+ years of experience in coaching in professional skills in an international environment

• Leadership / management experience: Lead developer teams in at least 2 projects with an international team-composition, including the participation of Rwandan developers in at least 1 project.

• Experience in the region / knowledge of the country: at least 1 project in Rwanda, e.g. short-term assignment working on-site, leading or training Rwandan software developers.

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-Software-Engineering-Trainer-International

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