Project Manager and Coordinator
🔍 Belgium
Post Context/Post Summary
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) is the Strategic Headquarters for Allied Command Operations (ACO). SHAPE supports the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) in fulfilling his terms of reference, as directed by the North Atlantic Council.
The Plans Directorate is responsible for the development, review and maintenance of Strategic Planning, Advanced Planning and Crisis Planning products for ACO; contributes to the development of strategic policy and concepts for ACO; preparation of the NATO Command Structure (NCS) and declared forces for current and future operations across the full spectrum of mission areas; developing Education, Training, Exercise and Evaluation (ETEE) direction and guidance in line with strategic policy; ensuring that forces are prepared in accordance with evaluation criteria; oversees and executes the ACO Lessons Learned (LL) process.
The Strategic Development of Forces Division (SDF) will coordinate and assure the synchronization and cohesion of all issues related to the development, generation and readiness of NATO forces and force capabilities. SDF will be responsible for generating forces and reporting force readiness, coordinating ACO’s contribution to NATO Defence Planning Process, identifying capability gaps and force operational requirements for C2 systems, and providing expertise for concepts, policies, and force standards that facilitate the development of comprehensive, interoperable, and prepared forces.
The post works directly to ACOS SDF, with responsibility for cross–division coordination. With increased HQ focus upon Forces at Readiness; the post will cohere staff effort across a number of high priority and demanding workstrands to include Force Generation, Verification, NATO Defence Planning Process (NDPP), Command and Control (C2) and emerging requirements such as the recently launched initiative to develop a ‘Single Version of the Truth’ data management tool programme. Working alongside the SDF Division Executive Officer (OF4), the post holder will ensure a coherent programme management approach across the full breadth of SDF tasks. They will provide coherence and direct staff support to ACOS SDF, in delivering an overarching view of products that supports executability of the plans, thus feeding in to the Command Group, directly informing decisions.
The post holder will have specific Project Management responsibilities, in direct support of ACOS SDF. Again focusing upon cross-Division workstrands, the post holder will be required to engage widely across ACO Divisions, co-ordinating with ACT, NHQ and subordinate commands, compiling information related to major projects from all SDF Branches. As an integral part of the SDF Command Team, they will be required to contribute to the full breadth of the Division’s outputs, whilst delivering against the specific project outputs as set by ACOS SDF.
Principal Duties
The incumbent's duties are:
1. Provide direct support to ACOS SDF to deliver decision support products to the Command Group.
2. Support SDF COM to maintain awareness of the full breadth of SDF tasks and workstrands, providing co-ordination for cross-Division workstrands.
3. Complete directed projects and tasks as directed by ACOS SDF.
4. Liaise across ACO and with ACT, NHQ and subordinate commands as required to support SDF workstrands.
5. Deliver a monthly progress report on previous activities.
6. Deliver a final report NLT two (2) weeks prior to the end of the contract.
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 up to 180 days.
The employee may be required to perform a similar range of duties elsewhere within the organization at the same grade without there being any change to the contract.
Essential Qualifications
A. Professional/Experience
1. Previous experience at a Strategic/Operational HQ related to Command and Control, Planning Processes or Organizational change.
2. Experience of working with military and/or political staff.
3. Experience of managing projects / coordinating the delivery of staff products.
4. Leadership experience, with proven track record of delivering outputs.
5. Experience in delivering high quality briefings, both verbally and written.
B. Education/Training
University Degree and 2 years post-related experience or Higher Secondary education and completed advanced vocational training in that discipline leading to a professional qualification / professional accreditation and 4 years post-related experience.
C. Language
English - SLP 3333 - (Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing)
Desirable Qualifications
A. Professional Experience
1. Experience in staff working area at National level or within NATO organisations OR experience related to HQ Organisation.
2. Knowledge on applicable specialized areas such as the application of AI, Space, Command and control, organizational change, Force Generation, Operational Concepts and Defence Planning.
B. Education/Training
1. University Degree / Masters Degree in political science, peace and conflict studies, international relations or related discipline and 3 years post related experience or Higher Secondary education and completed advanced vocational training in that discipline leading to a professional qualification or professional accreditation with 3 years post related.
2. NATO Information Knowledge Management (IKM) Course or equivalent.
3. Resource Management Education Programme (RMEP) course or equivalent.
4. NATO Orientation Course or equivalent.
5. Enterprise Documents Management System (EDMS) course or equivalent.
6. Tasker Tracker+ course.
C. Language
French SLP 1111 - (Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing)
Attributes/Competencies
1. Personal Attributes/Competencies: Initiative, original thought, and team building are key qualities for this post as the incumbent will need to work closely with staff within the office, other NATO Headquarters and Nations representatives. Because there will need to be close cooperation with high level civilian and military officers, tact and good judgment are essential. As the job will be demanding, and at times stressful, good physical and mental health, combined with a positive attitude, are highly desirable.
2. Professional Contacts: The Incumbent needs to network inside the ACO user community and arrange regular office calls.
3. Contribution to Objectives:
• This post directly contributes to the coordination between the division branches and also between the division and other stakeholders such as NHQ, subordinate ACO commands and national representatives.
• The nature of the post, working to ACOS SDF, will result in staff outputs from this individual directly informing Command Group decisions.
• The incumbent will be adding significant value due to the coordination of cross-Division activities and management of directed projects.
REMARKS:
Duration of contract: (Pending approval) The successful candidate will fill this post as a Project Related NATO International Civilian (PLN) with a three-year definite duration contract within the NATO 2030 Agenda. On expiry of this term the PLN will be deleted or absorbed into the ceiling pending approval or will exceptionally be considered for extension.
The salary will be the basic entry-level monthly salary defined by the NATO Grade of the post, which may be augmented by allowances based on the selected staff member’s eligibility, and which is subject to the withholding of approximately 20% for pension and medical insurance contributions.
NATO is committed to diversity and inclusion, and strives to provide equal access to employment, advancement, and retention, independent of gender, age, nationality, ethnic origin, religion or belief, cultural background, sexual orientation, and disability. NATO welcomes applications of nationals from all member Nations.
Building integrity is a key element of NATO’s core tasks. As an employer, NATO values commitment to the principles of integrity, transparency, and accountability in accordance with international norms and practices established for the defence and related security sector. Selected candidates are expected to be role models of integrity, and to promote good governance through ongoing efforts in their work.
Applicants who prove to be competent for the post but who are not successful in this competition may be offered an appointment in another post of a similar nature, which might become vacant in the near future, albeit at the same or lower grade, provided they meet the necessary requirements.
We believe that all people are capable of great things. Because of this, we encourage you to apply even if you do not meet all of the criteria listed within this job description.
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.
More information to be found on these links:
Shortlisted candidates will be requested to provide original documentary evidence and a set of copies supporting statements in their applications. Appointment is subject to obtaining a NS security clearance and a medical certificate.
Remarks:
A) Only nationals from the 32 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) NATO will not accept any phase of the recruitment and selection prepared, in whole or in part, by means of generative artificial-intelligence (AI) tools, including and without limitation to Chatbots, such as Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (Chat GPT), or other language generating tools. NATO reserves the right to screen applications to identify the use of such tools. All applications prepared, in whole or in part, by means of such generative or creative AI applications may be rejected without further consideration at NATO’s sole discretion, and NATO reserves the right to take further steps in such cases as appropriate.