This is a position within the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency), an organization of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
The NCI Agency is made up of teams of dedicated people from 29 different nations who are technology experts in their chosen fields. Our collective role is to help protect the lives of 1 billion people and contribute to maintaining world peace.
The NCI Agency is looking for a talented Senior Systems Engineer
Directorate Air and Missile Defence Command and Control (AMDC2), as part of the NCI Agency, ensures the harmonised planning, implementation, deployment, evolution and support of the Air Command and Control System (ACCS) and other AirC2 assigned programmes, in a way that satisfies the operational requirements and minimizes the military risk, taking into account the NATO political, economic and schedule requirements and using the most suitable industrial and technological solutions. Directorate AMDC2 is the procurement and implementation body of the NCI Agency, charged with the effective planning, execution, delivery into service, evolution and through-life logistic support of NATO’s and assigned national AirC2 systems.
The Engineering Branch (ENB) manages, controls, guides and orchestrates all technical aspects of all AirC2-related internal and contracted projects throughout their lifecycle. It provides estimation of the required effort for each project/task and staffs, plans, allocates and manages engineering resources according to agreed priorities. ENB executes overall design responsibility to ensure and harmonize the integrity, technical coherence and interoperability across all AirC2-related based projects throughout product lifecycles (requirements, design, implementation, test support and site support) and across assigned projects. ENB also maintains close coordination with Service Strategy and other key stakeholders across the Agency for technical roadmaps and engineering matters.
The System Engineering – In Service Support Section manages, controls, guides and coordinates all system engineering aspects (requirements, architecture/design, implementation, test support) and system engineering resources allocated to the in-service support of all AirC2-related projects.
Under the direction of Section Head, Platform Engineering Services you will perform duties such as the following:
Maintain an in-depth technical and architectural knowledge at system level of the systems allocated to the Directorate during the in-service support phase;
Evaluate user change requests (formulated through Engineering Change Proposals (ECP), or other relevant documents)from a technical and user requirement perspective;
Analyse and report on proposed system changes;
Translate approved system requirements into system design changes, such as hardware software design composition/decomposition, and ensure that the defined safety, security, documentation and quality attributes are met;
Document and maintain allocated system design documentation using appropriate methods and tools;
Support the project development teams in the planning and execution of proposed system changes;
Participate in project milestone and artefact reviews to ensure that the system documentation is correctly understood, implemented, verified and tested; that system design principles are maintained and adverse effects and regressions are adequately mitigated;
Liaise with operational experts to ensure operational requirements are met;
Address in-service support and evolution concerns through advice and guidance in technical discussions on system design and risk management issues in close coordination with other AMDC2 stakeholders;
Provides guidance at system expert level to external stakeholders, as directed;
Liaise with the Customer Service Desk for problem resolution and provide second-line support as required;
Assist in organizing, performing and supervising on-the-job-training, as required;
Act as lead engineer for a group for system engineers, when directed;
Deputize for higher grade staff, as required;
Perform other duties, as required.
In addition to 5 years experience (Master’s Degree) or 7 years of experience (Bachelor’s Degree) in the duties related to the function of the post, we also require the following:
Extensive experience in a successful large scale development programme, preferably in the AirC2 or related domain;
Recent experience in system engineering of large-scale distributed software-intensive transaction processing or management support systems (like management information-, decision support systems, etc);
General up-to-date knowledge of computer system architectures, requirement and baseline management, Local Area Network / Wide Area Network and Network concepts, programming techniques, Data Base Management Systems and Data Management concepts;
Experience in the architectural design of large-scale distributed software intensive transaction processing or management support systems;
Practical experience in technical and/or management responsibilities leading technical teams and/or projects.
The following will be considered as an advantage
Experience in system engineering applied to modern automated AirC2, Air Traffic Control or equivalent command/control systems;
Proven ability to synthesize and summarize large amounts of technical documentation;
Experience in modern software development and change management processes, such as Scrum and Development Operations.
Experience in system performance and safety engineering;
Experience in the operational use or maintenance of a current air operations, command and control or Air Traffic Control system;
Experience in automated tools supporting system engineering activities;
Knowledge of software life cycle management and quality management;
Prior experience of working in an international environment comprising both military and civilian elements;
Knowledge of NATO responsibilities and organization, including Allied Command Operations (ACO) and Allied Command Transformation (ACT).
We are looking for a person who demonstrates the following behavioural competencies:
Leading and Supervising - Provides others with a clear direction; motivates and empowers others; recruits staff of a high calibre; provides staff with development opportunities and coaching; sets appropriate standards of behaviour.
Persuading and Influencing - Gains clear agreement and commitment from others by persuading, convincing and negotiating; makes effective use of political processes to influence and persuade others; promotes ideas on behalf of oneself or others; makes a strong personal impact on others; takes care to manage one’s impression on others.
Presenting and Communicating Information - Speaks fluently; expresses opinions, information and key points of an argument clearly; makes presentations and undertakes public speaking with skill and confidence; responds quickly to the needs of an audience and to their reactions and feedback; projects credibility.
Writing and Reporting - Writes convincingly; writes clearly, succinctly and correctly; avoids the unnecessary use of jargon or complicated language; writes in a well-structured and logical way; structures information to meet the needs and understanding of the intended audience.
Applying Expertise and Technology - Applies specialist and detailed technical expertise; uses technology to achieve work objectives; develops job knowledge and expertise (theoretical and practical) through continual professional development; demonstrates an understanding of different organisational departments and functions.
Analysing - Analyses numerical data and all other sources of information, to break them into component parts, patterns and relationships; probes for further information or greater understanding of a problem; makes rational judgements from the available information and analysis; demonstrates an understanding of how one issue may be a part of a much larger system.
Planning and Organising - Sets clearly defined objectives; plans activities and projects well in advance and takes account of possible changing circumstances; identifies and organises resources needed to accomplish tasks; manages time effectively; monitors performance against deadlines and milestones.
Business travel to NATO and national (NATO and non-NATO) facilities as well as frequent travel between the NCIA offices;
May be required to undertake duty travel to operational theatres inside and outside NATO boundaries
A thorough knowledge of one of the two NATO languages, both written and spoken, is essential and some knowledge of the other is desirable.
NOTE: Most of the work of the NCI Agency is conducted in the English language.
Supervisory/Guidance Duties
You may supervise, administer and give professional guidance to staff.
NCI Agency normally offers contracts of employment of a definite duration, not exceeding three years. Contracts may be for less than three years as required to support short-term projects, meet uncertainty with respect to the business outlook, staff performance and other factors.
Definite duration contracts may be extended for further periods. When extending contracts, the following is taken into consideration:
Renewal is in the interest of the Agency.
Staff member's desire to remain with the Agency.
The financial situation provides sufficient funding for the post held.
The skills, competencies and behaviours, potential and work experience of the staff, versus the requirements of the Agency's work and/or availability of funding.
Staff member has served the Agency with performance to the required standard as defined by the Agency,
Staff member's deployability to operational theatre.
Serving civilian members of NATO will be offered a contract in accordance with the NATO Civilian Personnel Regulations.
The first six months of definite duration contracts are a probationary period. During this period the staff member's work is assessed to ensure that he/she has the ability to carry out the duties of the post. At or before the end of the probationary period, the staff member will be notified in writing that the appointment is confirmed or terminated or, in exceptional cases, that the probationary period is extended.
Excellent tax-free salary, including (where eligible) expatriation household and children's allowances and additional privileges for expatriate staff.
Education allowance for children (where appropriate) and an excellent private health insurance scheme;
Generous annual leave and home leave (if eligible).
Retirement Pension Plan.
To learn more about NCI Agency and our work, please visit our website.
Please note: Due to the Agency’s transition into a new structure in the near future, this post may be subject to transfer to one of our other locations, as well as to a change of reporting lines. The final decision will be made at the time of a firm offer.
The Agency’s recruitment team advises you that due to the large volume of applications it receives the screening process may take up to 2 months.
We appreciate your patience.
