Requirement: IT Ops Specialist
Location: The Hague, NETHERRLANDS
Full Time On-Site: Yes
Time On-Site: 100%
Not to Exceed Rate: 63 EUR
Total Scope of the request (hours): 836
Required Start Date: 25 May 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
Duties & Role:
Under the direction of a project manager, team leader, or system manager, the incumbent will perform duties such as the following:
- Perform implementation and maintenance of authorized software changes, related applications software and the integration/tailoring of vendor supplied components, following established procedures for quality, configuration control, testing, documentation and security;
- Support the transition of systems and services to the operational environment;
- Provide expeditious technical support services to the NATO Functional Area Services including emergency troubleshooting and on-site assistance (at NATO and national sites) to ensure key information systems remain operational;
- Take appropriate and effective action where possible to troubleshoot hardware and/or software related problems occurring in the fielded FAS baselines, and where necessary request assistance of counterparts in other NCIA branches or in sister support agencies for solving system related problems;
- Organize/Administer user help requests. Requests must be logged, solved and forwarded to the 2nd level support. The elapsed time in order to handle the requests must be monitored and priorities must be recommended to the system manager as necessary
- Provide Technical Assistance. Replying to incoming requests for technical assistance from both NATO and National users on the site. The requests can cover software, data communications system and network configuration: licensing issues, and documentation, System Administration Operation and Maintenance for the FAS domain. This includes but not be limited to:installing and configuring the operating system, application software and related components on operational FAS computers; configuring and maintaining the network of new and legacy servers; managing system backups
- Support development of new NATO capabilities by capturing and validating user requirements;
- Assist in the preparation of, and occasionally deliver, briefings and presentations;
- Respond to situations where first-line product support has failed to isolate or fix problems in malfunctioning equipment or software;
- Assist other members of the team with technical issues that need further troubleshooting before escalating to Engineering;
- Ensure that customer relationships are managed through proactive rapid customer communication;
- Resolve customer issues which will routinely include working in complex product and infrastructure configurations;
- Problem troubleshooting and isolation, performance tuning and optimization;
- Escalate product defects and issues and drive them towards resolution while managing the customer;
- Coordinate and cooperate with other Service Lines and organizational elements, interact with peers on other projects within and between NCI Agency Service Lines;
- Performs other duties as may be required.
Skill, Knowledge & Experience:
- The candidate must have a currently active NATO SECRET security clearance
- A minimum requirement of a Bachelor's degree (such as Computer Science or Computer Engineering) at a nationally recognised/certified University in a related discipline and 2 years post-related experience.
- Or exceptionally, the lack of a university degree may be compensated by the demonstration of a candidate's particular abilities or experience that is/are of interest to NCI Agency, that is, at least 6 years extensive and progressive expertise in duties related to the function of the post.
- Fluency in English: 3232 (Listening, speaking, reading and writing).
- Documented experience in operation, administration, testing and maintenance of software for modern IT systems in a networked, distributed and production application environment;
- Documented experience in operating systems that are currently used for modern information systems (familiar with Microsoft Windows, experience with Linux/Apache a plus);
- Hands on experience with the configuration and system administration of UNIX and Windows operating systems.
- Hands on experience with administration of WEB Services
- Hands on experience with administration and maintenance of Virtualisation technologies,
- Support of applications based on object-oriented and structured programming languages;
- Documented experience in relational databases management including backups, archiving and replication;
- Documented experience in database administration of any of the following: Microsoft SQL Server; Oracle Database; POSTGRESQL RDBMS
- Documented experience in maintenance or knowledge of all supporting components such as monitoring, alarming and performance analysis systems;
- Documented experience in modern digital networking techniques, protocols and standards;
- Data communications experience including TCP/IP.
- Documented experience in data and systems interoperability, interoperability testing standards, procedures and methodologies.
- Minimum of one year hands-on experience with administration of FASes including e.g. JOCWatch, JChat, NIRIS, JTS/FAST
- Minimum of one year hands-on experience with support of FAS Systems deployed in NATO Secret Network and Mission Secret
- Hands on experience with server side scripting
