Data Engineering RFP Checklist
50+ evaluation criteria for selecting your data engineering partner
Evaluation Progress
0/50 items checked1 Company Credentials
Snowflake Partner, Databricks Elite, AWS Advanced, etc.
ISO 27001, SOC2 Type II, GDPR compliance if needed
Minimum 3-5 years for stability
Revenue growth, funding, insurance coverage
Partner of Year awards, Gartner mentions, Everest recognition
2 Technical Proposal Quality
Clear current state → future state visualization
Rationale for platform choices, not just defaults
Dimensional, Data Vault, wide tables with trade-offs
Phased approach, cutover plan, rollback strategy
Validation rules, anomaly detection, monitoring approach
Encryption, access controls, PII handling, audit trails
How system handles 2-3x data growth
Query response times, pipeline latency, uptime targets
Alerting, dashboards, incident response
Technical risks identified with mitigation strategies
3 Team Composition
No "TBD" team members; actual people assigned
Detailed experience for each team member
At least 40% senior (5+ years experience)
Not just company-level, actual project team certs
Team has worked in your vertical before
Minimum 4+ hours overlap with your team
What happens if someone leaves project
Who to contact for issues beyond PM
4 Case Studies & References
Not just logos; actual problem-solution-results
At least 1 case study in your vertical
Comparable data volume and team size
Metrics: cost savings, performance gains, timeline
Don't just email; call for honest feedback
Team composition changes; recent work matters
Did they stay within 10% of quoted price?
How was handoff and ongoing relationship?
5 Commercial Terms
Fixed Price vs T&M vs Capped T&M; understand trade-offs
No hidden fees; travel, licenses, support included
Pay for delivered value, not time elapsed
10-20% retained until final acceptance
Work product belongs to you; vendor keeps pre-existing IP
How scope changes are handled and priced
30-day notice; clear exit obligations
Financial consequences for missing agreed SLAs
Minimum 90 days post-launch bug fixes included
Typically 1-2x total contract value
6 Delivery & Communication
Not too optimistic; buffer for unknowns
Daily standups, weekly reviews, monthly steering
Visibility into progress, blockers, budget burn
Training sessions, documentation, handoff criteria
Unit, integration, UAT, performance testing
Measurable success criteria for production readiness
Architecture docs, runbooks, data dictionary
Ongoing support, SLA options, transition plan
Next Steps
- 1. Complete this checklist for each vendor being evaluated
- 2. Score vendors on a 1-5 scale for each section
- 3. Weight sections by importance to your project
- 4. Calculate total weighted scores
- 5. Shortlist top 2-3 vendors for final presentations