Analyst

SHAPE is looking for full time professional Analyst to perform Political and Security Analysis (PSA) and contribute to long term projects including PSA involvement in crisis identification (horizon scanning). If you have minimum 2 years’ experience in political analysis and enjoy working in an international, fast paced environment, this post is for you.

General Background:

SHAPE, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, is the Headquarters of Allied Command Operations (ACO), one of the two major military commands of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).  ACO safeguards an area extending from the northern tip of Norway to the eastern border of Turkey.  This equates to nearly two million square kilometres of land, more than three million square kilometres of sea, and a population of about 320 million people.

POST DESCRIPTION:

Location: Casteau/Mons, 60 Km south of Brussels (Belgium)

Division:  CCOMC

Post Context/Post Summary

SHAPE is the strategic level command responsible for the planning, preparation, conduct and execution of NATO operations, missions, activities and tasks as directed by Council in order to achieve the strategic objectives of the Alliance.

Within SHAPE, the Strategic Employment Directorate delivers comprehensive situational awareness, enabling the identification of crises, and supports estimates, response options and planning.  In monitoring NATO’s current operations, it enables SACEUR’s direction and guidance to be disseminated, ensuring coherent Joint Effects, whilst providing comprehensive assessments to NATO HQ. In the Employment Directorate the Comprehensive Crisis and Operations Management Centre (CCOMC) is SHAPE’s organization for thinking, planning and acting strategically and comprehensively in multiple crises and operations simultaneously.

PSA group applies regional and thematic (primarily Political, Economic and Social) expertise through research and analysis activities, in order to develop products contributing to SACEUR’s contextualised understanding of emerging, and on-going crisis and current operations especially as they impact Alliance interests.

The Analyst (Political and Security) conducts conflict analysis related to SACEUR's Strategic Spaces.

Principal Duties

The incumbent's duties are:

a) Reviews, monitors and assesses trends which might affect the political situation and the political impact of the region assigned, and provides actionable recommendations.

b) Analyses political and related events in the assigned area with a view to provide early warning advice.

c) Prepares analytical reports and papers on sensitive and high-profile matters of concern to NATO. Drafts political point papers, background notes, talking points for NATO senior officers/officials.

d) Acts as focal point for collection and analysis of information on political issues related to the region of responsibility.

e) Maintains contacts with other groups, divisions and entities within SHAPE, NATO HQ and beyond.

f) Contributes to CCOMC Groups' holistic situational understanding in support of planning, execution and assessment of operations.

g) Interacts with networks of experts within and external to NATO to achieve a holistic understanding of potential crisis areas.

h) Conducts, within the assigned strategic spaces, collaborative analysis with assigned analyst teams and external analytical capacities.

i) Proposes more appropriate analytical methods and problem solving approaches, and applies other methods as directed by the Principal Analyst.

j) Generates clear, holistic and actionable products for decision makers and staff; to include self-explanatory presentation.

k) Follows direction and guidelines on standardizing PSA production, information acquisition, collation, storage, catalogue, protection and dissemination.

Special Requirements and Additional Duties

The incumbent may be required to undertake deployments in support of military operations and exercises, and/or TDY assignments, both within and without NATO boundaries. Such operational deployment may exceed 30 days duration up to 183 days in any period of 547 days, and may be on short notice. For NATO International Civilian Staff, acceptance of an employment contract linked to this post constitutes agreement to deploy in excess of 30 days if required.

The work is normally performed in a Normal NATO office working environment.

Normal Working Conditions apply.

The risk of injury is categorised as: No Risk.

Essential Qualifications

a.         Professional/Experience

1. Minimum 2 years of recent (in the last 5 years) experience in a Ministry for Foreign Affairs, international organizations or think-tank with a responsibility related to political analysis.
2. Minimum 2 years of experience in political analysis and/or diplomacy related to Eastern Europe or Asia.
3. Minimum 2 years of experience in the application political early warning and horizon scanning techniques.
4. Minimum 1 year experience in networking with research institutions, think tanks in the area on international security.
5. Minimum 2 years experience in drafting political analysis and associated recommendations.

b.        Education/Training

University Degree in political science, economy, international relations, social sciences or related discipline and 2 years function related experience, or Higher Secondary education and completed advanced vocational training in that discipline leading to a professional qualification or professional accreditation with 4 years post related experience.

c.         Language

English - SLP 3333 (Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing)

NOTE: The work both oral and written in this post and in this Headquarters as a whole is conducted mainly in English.

Desirable Qualifications

a.         Professional Experience

Minimum 1 year experience in peace-making while supporting a negotiator/mediator.

Attributes/Competencies

a.         Personal Attributes

Motivated, flexible, highly collaborative team player and effective communicator. Able to convey complex problems simply; open to new analytical and problem solving techniques.

b.         Professional Contacts

Collaborates as required with subject matter experts and customers across SHAPE staff, ACO-subordinate commands and other information partners (i.e. international, governmental and non-governmental organizations, centres of excellence, and academia) to obtain necessary information/analysis to support ACO's knowledge requirements.

c.         Contribution To Objectives

Lead of analytical work on specific elements of the CCOM processes, the incumbent is the academic integrator of experts from other contributing disciplines and organizations cooperating in the analysis area. He/she delivers the contents of the comprehensive and dynamic situation awareness to commanders and planners by means of briefings, planning sessions, or short deployments to the operations area.

This post reports to OSC OOAX 0070 - Principal Analyst.

There are no reporting responsibilities.

REMARKS:

Given the COVID19 situation the selection process for this post will proceed in phases at dates to be fixed according to the evolution of current limitations. On-line testing and interviewing might be considered.

Redundant NICs of grade 15 will be given priority consideration provided their CHRM notifies SHAPE Recruitment Section by not later than the vacancy’s closing date.

Duration of contract: The successful candidate will be offered a 3-year definite duration contract, which may be renewed for a further period of up to 3 years. The maximum period of service foreseen in this post is 6 years.

HOW TO APPLY FOR A NATO CIVILIAN POST AT SHAPE:

Applications are to be submitted using NATO Talent Acquisition Platform (NTAP) (https://nato.taleo.net/careersection/2/jobsearch.ftl?lang-en).  Applications submitted by other means (e.g. mail, e-mail, fax, etc) are not accepted. 

NTAP allows adding attachments.  A copy of the qualification/certificate covering the highest level of education required by the job description must be provided as an attachment.

Essential information must be included in the application form. Particular attention should be given to Education and Experience section of the application form. Each question should be answered completely.  Expressions such as “please see attached CV, please see annex / enclosed document” or invitations to follow links to personal webpages are not acceptable and will be disregarded. All answers should be in English (preferably) or in French.

Shortlisted candidates will be requested to provide original documentary evidence and a set of copies supporting statements in their applications.

Current and past civilians working for NATO or any Coordinated Organization, shall indicate their last grade and step held (next to job title), and specify the name of employing NATO body or Coordinated Organization.

Remarks:

A)          Only nationals from the 30 NATO member states can apply for vacancies at SHAPE. 

B)          Applications are automatically acknowledged within one working day after submission. In the absence of an acknowledgement please make sure the submission process is completed, or, re-submit the application.  

C)          Qualified redundant staff of the same grade interested in this post should inform this office, via their HR/Personnel Office by not later than vacancy’s closing date.

D)        Candidates’ individual telephone, e-mail or telefax enquiries cannot be dealt with. All candidates will receive an answer indicating the outcome of their application.