EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI) IT CASUAL STAFFING AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT SERVICES REQUIRED

About Touchstone Institute

Touchstone Institute ("Touchstone") is a non‑profit corporation governed by a Board of Directors and supported by the Government of Ontario. Touchstone Institute works closely with physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals to design and deliver technology‑enabled assessments, learning programs, and digital platforms that support competent practice and workforce readiness across the health system. Building on its mandate to facilitate entry to training or practice for Internationally Educated Health Professionals, Touchstone continues to expand its digital capabilities to support excellence, scalability, and innovation in program delivery.

Purpose of this Expression of Interest

Touchstone is seeking Expressions of Interest (EOI) from qualified IT recruitment and staffing firms to provide on‑demand technology professionals who can augment Touchstone’s internal development teams across multiple technology projects.

This EOI is intended to establish a pre‑qualified pool of IT staffing partners who can supply skilled resources on an as‑needed basis to support the full Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Engagements may vary in duration, scope, and intensity depending on project needs.

Individuals supplied through this arrangement will not be considered employees of Touchstone Institute but will work under an Independent Contractor services arrangement through the selected recruitment firm(s).

Nature of the Engagement

Services will be provided on a project‑based, or time‑limited basis

One or more firms may be selected

There is no guarantee of volume or duration of work

Touchstone may engage multiple firms concurrently for different projects or roles

Each engagement will be governed by a Services Agreement with a clearly defined scope, timeline, and deliverables

Scope of Services

The successful firm(s) will be expected to provide qualified candidates capable of integrating into existing agile delivery teams and contributing productively with minimal ramp‑up.

Roles That May Be Required

The following roles may be required, individually or in combination:

Web Frontend Developers

Backend Developers

Full‑Stack Developers

Mobile Application Developers

Software Testers / QA Analysts (manual and automated)

Test Automation Engineers

DevOps / Cloud Engineers

API / Integration Developers

Technical Business Analysts

UX / UI Developers (as part of frontend delivery)

Other SDLC‑related roles as required

Technology Environment

Candidates provided by the firm should have demonstrated experience with modern web, cloud, and API‑driven architectures. Touchstone’s current technology environment includes (but is not limited to):

A) Application Technologies

Frontend: React, Angular (v21+), Material 3 UI, PrimeNG

Backend: Node.js (v24), Express

Databases: MongoDB, MySQL

Mobile: Flutter

Additional Languages: Go (Golang)

B) APIs and Integration

RESTful APIs

Graph‑based APIs

Secure authentication and authorization patterns

C) Cloud and Infrastructure

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

ECS and Fargate

S3 and CloudFront

Containerized and scalable architectures

Experience with CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure‑as‑code, monitoring, logging, and secure cloud practices is considered a strong asset.

Expected Capabilities of the Recruitment Firm

Interested firms should demonstrate the ability to:

Source, vet, and deploy qualified IT professionals with relevant technical and domain experience

Provide candidates who can quickly integrate into established agile or hybrid delivery teams

Assess both technical competence and collaboration / communication skills

Support rapid turnaround staffing requests where project timelines require

Ensure continuity, reliability, and appropriate backfill where required

Manage contractual, payroll, and compliance obligations for supplied resources

Candidate Quality and Delivery Expectations

Resources supplied through this EOI are expected to:

Follow Touchstone’s development standards, security practices, and governance requirements

All candidates must pass Touchstone Institute Skills test

Collaborate effectively with internal staff, vendors, and stakeholders

Produce maintainable, well‑documented, and testable code

Participate in agile ceremonies, sprint planning, reviews, and retrospectives as required

Adhere to privacy, security, and confidentiality obligations

Requirements for Firms

Qualified firms must demonstrate:

Proven experience supplying IT professionals for software development and digital delivery projects

Access to a diverse and skilled talent pool across multiple SDLC roles

Strong screening, vetting, and quality assurance processes

Ability to operate within Canadian regulatory and privacy requirements

Services Agreement

Selected firm(s) will be required to enter into a Services Agreement with Touchstone Institute as a condition of engagement.

Agreements may be established for a term of up to three (3) years with potential extension for additional 2 years

Agreements will be non‑exclusive

Touchstone reserves the right to make minor amendments to agreement terms prior to execution

This EOI, related appendices, and submitted materials may form part of the final agreement by reference

Submission Requirements

Interested firms should submit an Expression of Interest that includes:

Company profile and relevant experience

Overview of IT staffing and recruitment capabilities

3 curriculum vitae of potential casual staff to demonstrate capability

Summary of candidate vetting and quality assurance processes

Experience supplying resources across the SDLC

Relevant sector experience (healthcare / public sector, if applicable)

Services rate card/pricing schedule

related to the technology stack in the scope of this Expression of Interest

Any potential or perceived conflicts of interest

 EOI Submission Process

Interested parties should forward their EOI package electronically, to Georgina Ankrah, at [email protected] No later than 5:00PM (EST) on Wednesday, April 15. Questions about the EOI or the services outlined above may be submitted to Georgina Ankrah, no later than Tuesday, April 7, 2026.  A consolidated list of all questions and answers will be available to any party, by request, by Wednesday, April 9, 2026. To receive a copy of the consolidated list of questions and answers, please contact [email protected]

*Note: Responses to the Expression of Interest should address all of the qualifications listed in the above Services section for which you are applying and include any potential or perceived conflicts of interest.