Requirement: Provision of Operational Acceptance Support to SHAPE
Location: Brussels, BELGIUM
Full Time On-Site: On-site
Not to Exceed Rate: :EUR 79
Total Scope of the request (hours): 1620 hrs
Period of Performance: Base Period: 1st January 2027 to 31st December 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
Scope of Work
- This Statement of Work (SoW) identifies the acceptance assessment services to be provided by the contractor supporting Allied Command Operations (ACO) with the software projects and services monitoring and reporting, User Acceptance (UA) and Operational Acceptance (OA) of new or modified systems and projects, services delivered by the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA).
- The goal of project monitoring, operational risk management and acceptance assessment is to ensure that the projects / services are delivered timely, meet the user and customer's operational requirements, operational acceptance criteria, and that the transition to service is performed in a planned and managed manner.
- CIS services are End-to-End (E2E) services consisting of systems delivered by NCIA projects and contractors, bundled with various NCIA service management and service operations processes that interact with operational processes.
Software projects and services analysis, monitoring and reporting includes the support project management milestones tracking, operational requirements traceability, scope, time, cost change analysis and impact. This will be done for prioritized projects, ACO CIS critical projects and comprises following tasks:
- Collect inputs from a variety of sources and prepare and coordinate deliverables.
- Conduct analysis and communicate findings to project team and decision makers.
- Interface with the NCIA PM and ACO SRO, Cy Service Operational Requirements managers.
- Work within a multi-stakeholder, technical, and matrixed organizational environment.
- Identify each critical dependency.
- Identify the commitments to address each critical dependency and document the commitments made by those responsible for providing the work product (NCIA PM) and those receiving the work product (ACO SRO).
- Prepare and maintain a Dependency Structure Matrix identifying project interdependency, interdependencies with other programmes, and critical commitments.
- Track critical dependencies and commitments and recommend corrective actions, as appropriate.
- Contribute to the establishment of a continuing capability to monitor and control the critical projects.
- Monitor and create situational awareness for the projects.
- Contribute for quarterly progress reviews of each portfolio of projects and develop reports and dashboards.
Essential (minimum requirement):
- A Master of Science (MSc) degree at a nationally recognised/certified University in a related discipline (Computer Science or Engineering), with 5 years post-related experience.
- Minimum 3 years of experience in CIS project and services analysis, monitoring and reporting.
- Minimum 3 years of experience in planning and execution of acceptance testing activities.
- Minimum 3 years of experience with ITIL v3.
- Minimum 3 years of experience in CIS projects within the domain of Core communications and IT infrastructure.
- Knowledge of NATO responsibilities and organization.
- Knowledge of software/system/service life cycle management and quality management preferably in a Prince 2 & ITIL environment.
- Working-level knowledge of MS-Office, Project, Visio and SharePoint.
- Working knowledge in JIRA.
- Ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing with good briefing skills. Desirable:
- PMP certificate, PRINCE 2 foundation/practitioner certificate, International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) certification at the foundation level.
- Experience in NATO CIS projects within the domain of Software applications for the Operational Digital Workplace.
- Prior experience of working in an international environment comprising both military and civilian elements.
- Knowledge of NATO responsibilities and organization including ACO and ACT.
