Staff Officer (Cyberspace Programme Support)

Post Context

ACT contributes to preserving the peace, security and territorial integrity of Alliance member states by leading, at Strategic Command level, Warfare Development required to enhance NATO’s posture, military structures, forces, capabilities and doctrines.

The Capability Development Directorate (CAPDEV) comprises two Divisions—Requirements and Capabilities. The Directorate supports SACT in his Capabilities Requirement Authority (CRA) role. It is responsible for a holistic through lifecycle Capability Development approach that infuses innovation and transformative efforts that are an integral part of the Warfare Development. This includes responsibilities for elicitation, development, capture and collection, quality review, traceability and visibility of capability requirements.

The Capabilities Division coordinates the development of capabilities from capability planning through acceptance and then disposal with the management entities, NATO Headquarters staff and the NATO Governance Structure. This entails synchronizing horizontally across capabilities to achieve coherent efforts and outcomes.

The Cyberspace Branch provides scientific, technical and operational expertise for the development and continuous improvement of modern and agile Cyberspace capabilities including Cyber Defence and enabling cryptographic infrastructure. The Branch provides services and products through a competency-aligned structure to support appropriate product, programme coordination across DOTMLPFI lines of development throughout the lifecycle. The Branch supports cyber concepts development, capability requirements elicitation, architectures (including cryptographic reference and target architectures) and federated interoperability. This includes leveraging applied science, technology, operations research and horizon scanning. The Branch leads the development of Capability Programme Plans (CPPs)  and ensures delivery of programme outcomes by assessing throughout the lifecycle the CSSPR against agreed tolerances. The Branch leads the acceptance testing and documentation of assigned capabilities. The Branch analyses emerging technologies with stakeholders. It ensures military and technical coherence and persistent interoperability.

Within the Cyber Branch, the incumbent's main responsibility is to coordinate the development of the cyber programmes under the direction and guidance of the Programme Director.

Principal Duties:

• Serve as Cyberspace Capability Programme Coordinator. Coordinate the cyberspace capability development activities according to the Common Funded Capability Delivery Governance Model (CFCDGM) within the section and coordinate them with other sections and branches within HQ SACT, the Programme Director cyberspace, the Branch Head and Cyberspace Stakeholders outside HQ SACT.
• Support the Programme Director in the development and maintenance of branch strategy products such as roadmaps, work plans, horizon scans, and associated contents, while supporting technical engagement activities and events.
• Support and deputize the Programme Director in the development and implementation of the Branch’s annual Programme of Work (PoW) and associated budget, by contributing with the capability development portion of the PoW and budget/resource requirements.
• Coordinate the capability development part of the cyberspace Programme of Work (PoW) and the associated resources (manpower and budget).
• Support the Programme Director in the validation of technical contents of branch products, prior to Branch Head approval.
• Support Lessons Learned (LL) integration as part of all Cyber activities. Ensure LL requests, planning, creation, collection, staffing and handling in accordance with the NATO LL Process is an integrated part of any activity.
• Represent ACT on appropriate Cyber related committees, task force, panels and working groups as needed.
• Prepare relevant briefing materials, as required, and deliver presentations.

Essential Qualifications / Experience:

• University Degree  in information technology, information systems engineering, business administration, quality engineering, information security, computer science 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.
•  Expert-level and post-graduate certification (training alone will not suffice) as one of the following: Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), GIAC Security Expert or ISACA Certified Information Security Manager (CISM).
• Expert-level and post-graduate certification (training alone will not suffice) in one of the following: Programme Management Professional (PgMP), Chartered Project Professional (ChPP) or Axelos PRINCE2 practitioner. Subject to relevant experience, expert-level certification at the level of Programme Management Professional (PMP), AXELOS Management of Successful Programmes (MSP) or Project Professional Qualification (PPQ) may suffice.
• Four years' experience in the management of large (larger than 100 USD million) IT/CIS and/or cyber programmes, including requirements specification, architectural design, development, implementation, integration, test and evaluation, preferably for government or military including planning, financial, budget, and execution responsibilities.
• Four years' experience in the management and leadership of heterogeneous technical, development and implementation engineering teams.
• Four years' experience in system engineering, including systems specification, systems analysis and design, systems architectures, technology evaluation and insertion.

Language:

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

Desirable Qualifications / Experience:

• Master’s degree in computer science, systems engineering, network security, cyber-security or other equivalent field. The education requirement can be substituted with a comparable Bachelor Degree and 5 years of post-graduate experience in relevant field.
• ITIL qualification.
• General knowledge of the organization and structure of NATO.
•  Demonstrable experience working for NATO or any other military organization in the capacity of cyber technical expert and/or programme manager.
• Demonstrable experience in the development of NATO military capabilities under the Common-Funded Capability Delivery Governance Model (CFCDGM)

Attributes/Competencies:

Personal Attributes:

• Incumbent shall demonstrate attributes related to analytic mind-set, ability to decompose complex problems into solution sets, good judgement and common sense, adaptability, flexibility and tact, along with the ability to be target oriented and develop independently in a complex environment.
• Excellent analytical, problem solving, verbal, and written communication skills.
• Ability to work in team environments (as both a contributor and a leader).
• Experience interacting/briefing with/to senior leadership at the Flag/General Officers level.

Managerial Responsibilities:

• Although the incumbent is not expected to directly manage any HQ staff, he/she will be required to organize teams and their work and activities, being able to influence the work strategy and the expected results. Ability to plan, coordinate and synchronize activities will be required with a varied type of internal and external stakeholders. Soft skills will be essential.

Professional Contacts:

• The incumbent will have professional contacts, normally at a higher functional level, with others inside and outside the organization, Nations, Industry and Academia. Contacts requiring explanation, discussion, persuasion and approval of action. The incumbent will provide advice, may negotiate and commit the organization to a Course of action (COA).

Contribution To Objectives:

• The incumbent will work in the analysis or research of complete tasks, with recommendations affecting plans of the Branch.

Security Clearance

The successful applicant will be required to apply for and receive a NATO SECRET Security Clearance prior to final confirmation of contract and commencement of employment.

Contract

This position is linked to a specific NATO project and is for a limited duration of 3 (three) years only.

Serving NATO International Civilian staff will be offered a contract in accordance with the NATO Civilian Personnel Regulations.  Newly recruited staff will be offered a three year definite duration contract.

Notes for Candidates

The HQ SACT web site gives full details on the eligibility criteria and application processes to be adopted by all candidates.  However, candidates should particularly note:

Please answer each of the pre-screening questions completely in English. Expressions such as: “please see attached CV, please see annex, please see enclosed document, etc” are not acceptable; this is a cause of immediate rejection of the application.

Particular attention should be given to Education and Experience section of your application form, which should be populated with details of your career to date and educational achievements and certifications as they relate to your application.

The candidature of NATO redundant staff at grade G15 will be considered with priority.

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.

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, and strongly encourages women to apply

This vacancy will close on 09 June 2025 @ 17:59hrs (EDT)/11:59hrs (CEST).