Staff Officer (Principal Tech Coord)

Post Context

Headquarters Allied Joint Force Command Norfolk (JFCNF) provides a resilient, static Joint headquarters to plan, prepare and conduct operations across all domains in peacetime, crisis and conflict, in order to support NATO’s three core tasks, at the Joint Operational level, as directed by SACEUR.

The Support Directorate is responsible for planning, directing, monitoring, assessing and coordinating Support staff functions. It assists and provides advises on policy matters and in the execution of all support activities, including provision of regional focus. Directs and oversees all J1, J4, J6 activities.

The J6 Cyberspace Division is responsible for developments of plans, directives  and procedures for Information and Communication Technology (ICT )support of JFCNF. Provide advice on, plan, coordinate, integrate and implement ICT support to operational activities and exercises.
 

Principal Duties: 

• Provides technical guidance on the implementation of services in support of the HQ.
• Acts as the focal point for technical coordination and provides technical guidance to Community of Interest Service and Information Managers.
• Maintains high level HQ Cyberspace requirements and staffs to ACO for implementation.
• Contributes to ACO and ACT in working groups as the HQ main representative for all ICT matter.  
• Represents the HQ within project implementation groups and coordinates involvement of other staff elements.
• Acts as HQ expert on Federated Mission Networking.
• Interacts at the most senior levels with technical experts from other NATO CIS Stakeholders including NCIA.
• Attends senior working groups and committee meetings on key technical issues regarding HQ budgets or projects, including briefing the NATO HQ Working Group of Technical Experts.
• Maintains a technical overview of all CIS capabilities and contributes to HQ awareness of capabilities development status.
• Contributes to policy, directives, and procedures for Cyberspace Capability management and Cyberspace related programme and project management.
• Maintains a high-level overview of the performance of the service providers, including NCIA and NCISG, as well as national service providers in case of operational deployments.
• Provides technical expertise for cyberspace operation and security risk management.
• Provides technical support to operational planners and advice on federated networking framework and specifications.

Essential Qualifications / Experience:

• University Degree  in Information technology, computer science, computer networking and communications. or related discipline  and 4 years post related experience, or Higher Secondary education and completed advanced vocational training  in that discipline leading to a professional qualification or professional accreditation with 5 years post related and 2 years function related experience.
• High level technical certifications in network or software technologies.
• Requirements management, capture or modelling.
• Certified Information Systems Security Professional.
• Management of Successful Projects, Practitioner Level: PRINCE II (OGC) or equivalent.

Language:

English - SLP 3333 - (Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing)

Desirable Qualifications / Experience:

• Knowledge of NATO and/or national operational CIS requirements.
• Detailed knowledge and experience of NATO political and military command structure, committee and working groups of national technical experts.
• Demonstrable evidence of maintaining knowledge of advances in CIS technology.

Attributes/Competencies:

Personal Attributes:

• The incumbent works autonomously within the constraints of applicable policies, directives and guidance provided by ACOS J6. The incumbent must demonstrate strong integrity skills, with Project Management and budget coupled with good interpersonal and communication skill.  Maturity, firmness and persuasion characterize the successful incumbent when advising and counselling ACOS J6. In addition to integrity, flexibility, and discretion, must possess planning, organizational, and critical thinking skills, and commitment. Must be able to set priorities and recommend changes aimed at improving procedures within J6. Frequently works under pressure, works long/irregular hours carrying high workload. Must be in good heath and able to travel frequently on temporary duty.

Professional Contacts:

• The incumbent is required to interact with staff, division’s heads, supported entities, commercial CIS service providers, and other NATO bodies regarding all CIS matters.   Maintains professional contacts with ACO HQ, NCIA HQ, NATO CIS Cyber stakeholders, J8, and NOR staff. When requested, represent JFC Norfolk in meetings or boards concerning all CIS Cyber matters.

Contribution To Objectives:

• Enables the provision and sustainment of reliable and effective CoI Services in support of the JF HQ mission. Contributes to the timely and efficient execution of CIS projects in furtherance of JF HQ mission.

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.

The incumbent may be required to undertake deployments in support of military operations and exercises, and/or TDY assignments, both within and without NATO boundaries. Such operational deployment may exceed 30 days duration up to 183 days in any period of 547 days and may be on short notice. For NATO International Civilian staff, acceptance of an employment contract linked to this post constitutes agreement to deploy in excess of 30 days if required.

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 JFC Norfolk Website 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 A3/G17 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 13 April 2026 @ 17:59hrs (EDT)/11:59hrs (CEST).