Requirement: Provision of SATCOM Network Engineering Services
Location: Mons, Belgium
Cost Not to Exceed:
2026 Base: 30,510 EUR
Period of Performance:
2026 Base: 01 October 2026 (tentative) - 31 December 2026
Required Security Clearance: NATO SECRET
Please do NOT apply for any NATO contract positions unless you meet ALL the following criteria:
- Current National or NATO SECRET clearance
- Nationality of one of the NATO member countries
- Current work visa for the specific location if applying for an in-country position
Introduction
- The NATO Integrated Mission Services Centre (NIMSC) is responsible for the coordination, planning, and delivery of engineering and operational support capabilities across Mobile CIS Infrastructure, including Deployable CIS Services (DCIS), Dispersible Systems, Highly Mobile Systems, SATCOM, and Wireless Communications. To ensure the sustained availability, performance, and resilience of these mission-critical capabilities, NIMSC requires specialized SATCOM Network Engineering Services aligned with NATO governance, interoperability requirements, service management processes, and operational priorities.
- Through this Statement of Work (SoW), the NIMSC seeks industry support to deliver SATCOM Network Engineering Services. The Contractor, through the selected personnel, will provide dedicated SATCOM engineering support for SATCOM projects and services, including the development of detailed project proposals, technical assessments, and engineering artefacts supporting NATO communication and space domain capabilities. The support shall ensure alignment with operational requirements, interoperability standards, emerging technologies, and NATO policies, while ensuring that SATCOM capabilities remain operationally effective, secure, resilient, and aligned with NATO standards.
- The scope covers the Provision of SATCOM Network Engineering Services, including the design, integration, implementation, operation, maintenance, troubleshooting, and optimisation of SATCOM network infrastructure and associated communication systems. The Contractor shall deliver the services in a structured and proactive manner, ensuring alignment with operational priorities, interoperability requirements, emerging technologies, and NCIA governance processes.
- The Contractor shall provide services contributing to the availability, performance, resilience, and continuous operation of SATCOM networks and associated communications infrastructure. The services shall be delivered through the assignment of one (1) qualified personnel as set out in the Requirements section. The assigned personnel shall perform the activities defined herein and contribute to the achievement of the agreed technical objectives, engineering deliverables, and performance requirements.
- The Contractor shall ensure that the assigned personnel possess the required qualifications and experience; perform the tasks in accordance with NCIA processes and procedures; and maintain continuity and quality of service delivery.
Specific Technical Qualifications
- University Degree or Higher Vocational Training in Telecommunications, Electronics, Information Technology, Network Engineering, SATCOM Engineering, or a related field.
- A minimum of five (5) years of experience in IP networking, including routing, switching, WAN technologies, and troubleshooting of complex network environments.
- Experience supporting SATCOM, WAN, or deployed communication systems in operational or mission-critical environments.
- Proven understanding of network concepts, including TCP/IP, IPv4 addressing and subnetting, TCP and UDP protocols, MTU and MSS considerations, and Layer 2 and Layer 3 networking fundamentals.
- Practical experience with routing and switching technologies, including static routing, OSPF, IS-IS, VLANs, Layer 2 and Layer 3 services, and the ability to analyse routing tables, forwarding decisions, routing convergence issues, and end-to-end traffic paths.
- Basic understanding of BGP fundamentals and route redistribution concepts.
- Practical experience with tunnelling technologies, including GRE, IPSec, GRE over IPSec, and L2TP.
- Ability to deploy, troubleshoot, and validate tunnelled environments, including diagnosis of encapsulation issues, connectivity problems, MTU and MSS-related issues, and end-to-end communication across multiple network domains.
- Proven understanding of SATCOM architectures, including SCPC and MCPC systems, SATCOM transport characteristics, satellite latency and bandwidth constraints, and integration of SATCOM transport into enterprise IP networks.
- Experience with VLAN tagging, mapping, trunking, traffic segmentation, SD-WAN technologies, and hybrid WAN architectures.
- Understanding of the impact of packet loss and jitter on operational services and applications.
- Ability to diagnose and resolve end-to-end connectivity issues, including routing issues, tunnel failures, packet loss, high latency, application connectivity problems, and asymmetric routing.
- Experience supporting operational deployments, exercises, and mission-related activities.
- Experience with Cisco routing and switching platforms.
- Understanding of network monitoring and performance management tools.
- Experience with service management processes, including incident management, problem management, and operational support processes.
- CCNA certification, or equivalent practical experience.
- Solid understanding of NATO operational standards, procedures, responsibilities, and communication protocols.
- Experience with SATCOM operations, engineering support, deployed communication systems, or related defence communication environments.
- Strong analytical capability applied to system performance, interoperability, troubleshooting, technical assessments, and fault isolation activities.
- Experience with IT Service Management (ITSM) platforms and service reporting tools in complex enterprise environments.
- Knowledge of SLA, OLA, and underpinning service management concepts.
- Proficiency in service performance reporting, trend analysis, and customer communication.
- Familiarity with network and unified communications technology domains to provide technically credible service support.
- English language proficiency at minimum C1 level.
