Requirement: Cyber Threat Intelligence Researcher
Location: Brussels, BELGIUM
Full Time On-Site: No
Time On-Site: 40%
Not to Exceed Rate: 95 EUR
Total Scope of the request (hours): Base period 2027: 38 hours/week for a total of 42 weeks and a total of 1596 hours
Period of Performance: 2027 BASE: 18 Jan 2027 to 31 Dec 2027
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 Cyber Threat Analysis Branch (CTAB) is looking for a Cyber Threat Intelligence Researcher to support in the provision of technical cyber threat intelligence to the NATO Enterprise and Alliance through researching threat actors' tactics, techniques and procedures.
Background Information
The Joint Intelligence and Security Division (JISD), under the leadership of the Assistant Secretary General for Intelligence and Security (ASG I&S), comprises two principal pillars: Intelligence - headed by the Deputy ASG for Intelligence; and the NATO Office of Security (NOS) - headed by the Deputy ASG for Security. Intelligence is responsible for ensuring the situational awareness of the North Atlantic Council and the Military Committee, for the analysis of the indications and warnings in support of the NATO Crisis Response System and for the development of intelligence policies and capabilities for NATO. Its functional areas address: intelligence analysis and production, intelligence policy and capability development.
The joint civilian and military Intelligence Production Unit (IPU), under the JISD, delivers strategic intelligence-based analysis to support North Atlantic Council (NAC) and Military Committee (MC) decision making on strategic issues of concern. The IPU produces a range of planned and tasked intelligence products on regional issues in Eurasia, Africa and the Middle East, and on transnational issues such as hybrid warfare, terrorism, instability, weapons of mass destruction and energy security.
The Cyber Threat Analysis Branch (CTAB), under the IPU, is responsible for providing evidence-based assessments of the cyber threat landscape to empower NATO stakeholders to make risk-informed decisions. The multidisciplinary team combines all-source data with cutting edge technologies to support and enhance the Alliance leaderships' understanding on the nature of cyber competition and conflict. CTAB systematically identifies strategic patterns and trends in cyber space and generates tailored insights to support network defence and mission assurance with predictive analysis, cyber threat intelligence, and threat hunting.
Statements of Objectives
Corporate Objective
The contractor (Cyber Threat Intelligence Researcher) will support the work of the Cyber Threat Analysis Branch and help conduct research into threat actors' tactics, techniques and procedures - and will create accurate, actionable and relevant technical reporting of interest to the Alliance.
Contract Objective
Obtain specialist consulting services to support the following initiatives
Create scripts and queries to accurately and automatically track threat actor infrastructure and tools using commercial and open-source information and tools
Write technical threat intelligence products, including detection signatures, meant for network defenders to aid network defence, threat hunting and adversary emulation efforts;
Aid in translating technical cyber threat intelligence into operational and strategic intelligence products to inform decision-makers at NATO.
Management Objective
Allow the Contractor the maximum flexibility to innovatively manage its corporate resources and expertise so as to provide a high-value contribution in support to the NATO's corporate and contract objectives within existing constraints and available funding.
Requirements
General Requirements
All general and domain specific qualification requirements stated in the AAS+ Framework Agreement shall be applicable (e.g., required English proficiency).
- The Contractor will require a NATO SECRET clearance.
In addition to the generic qualification requirements established in the AAS+ Agreement, The Contractor must have:
- A university degree from a nationally recognised/certified university in a quantitative discipline (Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics, Operations Research, etc.) with substantial computer science content and 2 years of specific experience - OR - at least 4 years' experience similar to the tasks described in this SoW and relevant industry recognized certificates.
- Knowledge and experience in analysis of various threat actor groups, attack patterns and tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) to produce actionable threat intelligence to enable network and host defences in organizations with demonstrable impact.
- Experience with and knowledge of the intelligence lifecycle, analytical tradecraft and frameworks such as MITRE ATT&CK.
- Good communication skills, both orally and written. Able to translate complex technical topics into information conveyable to non-domain experts. Can easily cooperate with other threat researchers by taking and giving feedback
- Knowledge of network and system fundamentals and experience in any of the following cybersecurity fields: network monitoring, threat hunting, incident response, red teaming, host/network forensics, or reverse engineering.
- Experience with programming in scripting languages such as Python.
