Staff Assistant - United States of America-Norfolk

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 Capa ...

Job description

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 Requirements Division executes requirements management for NATO capabilities. It develops capability requirements, provides traceability and quality assurance of capability requirements, performs gap analysis and supports interoperability and implementation options across the DOTMLPFI spectrum.

The Requirements Traceability and Quality Assurance Branch supports Requirements Management Teams and Capabilities Programme Directors to maintain the quality of the capabilities requirements and traceability throughout the lifecycle of the capability. The Branch produces and ensures bi-directional traceability among all requirements, from the Operational Requirements, Capability Requirements, and other high-level requirements down through the technical requirements and specifications. Branch members may be assigned to lead Requirements Management Teams.

The incumbent is a Staff Assistant in the Requirements Traceability and Quality Assurance Branch who manages and administers the requirements management data and tools. The incumbent also provides training and support to Requirements Division staff and Capability Programme Directors.

Principal Duties:

• In support of Requirements Management Teams, provide requirements management system and application technical expertise relating to the design, maintenance, configuration and management of the organization's requirements and workflow management toolsets (Currently IBM Jazz Collaboration Platform including the Rational and Engineering Lifecycle Management suite of applications).
• Perform all system administration activities including, but not limited to, managing user roles and permissions, monitoring, patching and upgrades.
  Ensure the availability, integrity, security and confidentiality of systems, applications and data.
  Maintain software configuration and version baselines.
• Develop and implement operational and preventative maintenance processes, procedures associated with system security and disaster recovery planning, and backup scheduling for database, restoration and recovery.
• Work closely with the Network Enterprise Service Providers regarding Resource Allocation & Contention (CPU, Memory, Storage, etc.), Data Backups, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity.
  Monitor and manage the service support contract, license and token usage, file system and database growth.
• Review system/application logs and action system error messages, raising incidents with service providers and vendors as required.
• Test application and database systems upgrades, as required tracking, logging and resolving all identified problems, prior to implementation to production environment
• Provide specialist tier 1 and 2 support to resolve user incidents and service requests.
• Provide expert application support to business analysts (including traceability analysts, quality assurance analysts, requirements managers and programme directors) to ensure the tools continue to enable the organisation's evolving capability development activities.
• Provide technical support to Analysts, Requirements Management Teams and Capability Programme Directors relating to the management of data in the requirements repository.
• Importing, exporting, migrating, linking, merging data, and designing/implementing SQL and JQL query/scripting and complex queries and automation across different toolsets for through life management of requirements related information.
• Designing, implementing and maintaining complex visual and tabular reports based on the data contained in business toolsets, and dedicated user front-ends to facilitate data capture.
  Support ongoing efforts to improve NATO's Requirements Management processes and resolving requirements management issues.
• Assist with the development and delivery of user training.

Essential Qualifications / Experience:

• Higher Secondary education and completed higher vocational training  in information technology, economics, statistics, operations research or related discipline  leading to a formal technical or professional certification with 3 years function related experience, or Secondary education and completed advanced vocational training  in that discipline leading to a professional qualification or professional accreditation with 5 years post related experience.
• 3+ years of experience administering or supporting enterprise workflow or requirements management tools (e.g., IBM Jazz/ELM, DOORS Next, Jama, Jira, ServiceNow, or similar).
• Specific experience in:
  • Managing user roles, permissions, configurations, and maintaining system availability and data integrity.
  • Using SQL or equivalent query languages to perform data extraction, transformation, and troubleshooting.
  • Designing or maintaining workflows, dashboards, and reports that improve process visibility and data traceability.
  • Providing Tier 1 and Tier 2 technical support, including liaising with vendors or service providers for issue resolution.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with proven ability to interpret data and translate it into actionable insights.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills to work with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Language:

• English - SLP Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing)

Desirable Qualifications / Experience:

• Experience with IBM Rational/Engineering Lifecycle Management (Jazz Platform) or equivalent toolsets.
• Understanding of application lifecycle management (ALM) practices including upgrades, patching, and configuration control.
• Familiarity with workflow automation or scripting languages (e.g., Jython, JavaScript, PowerShell, or Python).
• Experience designing or maintaining data visualizations or user interfaces for reporting and decision support.
• Knowledge of system security, backup, and disaster recovery processes.
• Experience supporting or improving requirements management processes or repositories in a complex technical
• Completion of formal coursework or equivalent training in three or more of the following domains:
  • Systems Administration / IT Operations – e.g., Microsoft, Linux, VMware, or equivalent enterprise environment training.
  • Database Fundamentals – e.g., SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, or Azure/AWS/Oracle data fundamentals.
  • Cybersecurity / Information Assurance – e.g., Security+, NIST/ISO cyber hygiene, or equivalent secure system management training.
  • Requirements Engineering or Systems Thinking – e.g., IREB, INCOSE, BCS, or university-level requirements analysis and systems engineering courses.
  • Service Management and Process Discipline – e.g., ITIL, ISO 20000, or equivalent internal service operations training.
  • Collaboration and Workflow Tools – e.g., Atlassian (Jira), IBM Jazz/ELM, ServiceNow, or equivalent lifecycle management platforms.
  • Data Integration and Analytics – e.g., Power BI, Tableau, or Azure Data Fundamentals (DP-900).
  • Automation and Scripting – e.g., Power Automate, Python, JavaScript, or DevOps process automation.
  • System Architecture and Governance – e.g., TOGAF, DAMA, or Enterprise Architecture methodologies.
  • Requirements Lifecycle Management – e.g., IBM ELM/DOORS Next advanced training, or similar.
• English - SLP Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing)

Attributes/Competencies:

Personal Attributes:

• Be passionate about teaching and learning, support organizational process improvement and enjoy working in a highly collaborative environment.
• Be generally self-sufficient and able to perform with limited assistance from peers, product documentation or vendor support services.
• Be highly motivated, flexible, organized and detail oriented.

Professional Contacts:

• He/she should be able to liaise effectively both within and outside the HQ with military and civilian personnel. Outside contacts may include officials in NATO HQ, NATO agencies and research centres, and national government agencies and industry.

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

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 G12 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 March 2026 @ 17\:59hrs (EST)/11\:59hrs (CET).