Staff Officer (Interoperability and Standardization)

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 Multi-Domain Force Development (MDFD) Directorate consists of eight HQ SACT-based Branches that, together with the Joint Warfare Centre (JWC), Joint Force Training Centre (JFTC), Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre (JALLC) and Joint Analysis Training and Education Centre (JATEC), have responsibility for NATO Force Development activities. The aim is to improve interoperability amongst NCS, NFS as well as interoperable Partners’ forces allocated to NATO, and enhance capabilities, to undertake the full spectrum of Alliance missions.

ACOS MDFD manages, coordinates and quality assures the outputs of the 8 branches within the MDFD directorate in order to achieve the tasks and fulfil the responsibilities as laid out in the Statement of Function for DCOS MDFD.

Partnerships Branch supports current and future NATO operations through the development and strengthening of partnerships with Partner Nations and relevant Non-NATO Entities (NNE) to ensure effective collaboration and interoperability.

Within the Partnerships Branch the incumbent’s main responsibility is to support capability development and NATO partnership frameworks while coordinating military aspects of New NATO Members (NNM) Accession and Integration (A&I), managing stakeholder collaboration, facilitating meetings, and enhancing interoperability between NATO and Partner nations.

Principal Duties:

• Supporting NATO’s partnerships initiatives, fostering relationships with Partner Nations and relevant Non-NATO Entities (NNE), coordinating collaborative projects and activities, enhancing interoperability and cooperation between NATO and its partners.
• Supporting Capability Development Division (CAPDEV) on interoperability and innovation domains in terms of partnerships.
• Providing HQ SACT inputs to NATO different partnership tools (ITPP, PARP, ANP).
• Proving support and coordinating the practical military aspects of the A&I of NNMs.
• Coordinating meetings and events related to the A&I of NNMs.
• Establishing, maintaining and managing an A&I Community of Interest to better harmonize efforts and workload between ACT, ACO and other key stakeholders.
• Analyzing and coordinating support requests regarding Partners at risk projects to enhance operability between NATO and Partner nations.
• Serving as the Partnerships Branch Knowledge Management Officer/Administrator for existing partnership information sharing tools/portals (i.e. ePRIME, PCM, etc.) as well as the newly developed tools.
• Representing MDFD and Partnerships Branch in relevant meetings.
• Any other tasks as directed by Branch Head.

Essential Qualifications / Experience:

• University Degree  in instructional design, educational technology 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.
  Three to five years’ experience as part of cross-functional teams.
• Three to five years’ experience in preparing and delivering briefings to higher and/or lower ranked personnel in one-on-one and in group setting.
• Proven ability to drive policy development and implementation related to interoperability.
• Knowledge of stakeholder engagement and collaboration within standardization bodies.
• Proven ability to work independently towards the completion of an assigned task or project.
• Demonstrated proficiency in the use of the Microsoft Office Tool suite and collaborative software.

Language:

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

Desirable Qualifications / Experience:

• Demonstrated experience working in multi-national teams.
• Familiarity with NATO and the NATO Command Structure (NCS) and NATO Force Structure (NFS).
• Familiarity with politico-military, technical and capability related topics affecting Alliance interests.
• Practical experience working with NATO committee structures.
• Experience working within a NATO military operational command or NATO headquarters at operational or strategic level.
• Current knowledge of NATO partnership frameworks.

Attributes/Competencies:

Personal Attributes:

• The incumbent must be able to negotiate diplomatically with a range of stakeholders including senior staff from across NATO entities, Host Nations, other institutions and external agencies as well as contractors.  Must display tact, diplomacy, collaborative working and the ability to make persuasive arguments. Must have excellent presentational skills and the ability to communicate complex concepts to wide-ranging audiences (up to FO/GO and Senior NATO/National Governmental civilians) with clarity. Must work effectively both as part of a team and independently. They will need to demonstrate management skills and the ability to delegate and track tasks. Must possess the capacity and flexibility to work on various tasks concurrently. Must have the flexibility to work outside normal office hours when required and be able to travel internationally (a necessity in this post).

Professional Contacts:

• The incumbent will develop contacts at all professional levels, inside and outside the organization in the course of their duties and tasking. The incumbent will seek and give advice on future NATO partnership related topics and will be required to use his/her initiative to overcome technical/process obstacles to facilitate change and reach consensus as necessary.

Contribution To Objectives:

• The incumbent will contribute to working groups, Command Group briefings and partnership events in support of NATO’s partnership process.

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 G15 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 17 March 2026 @ 18:59hrs (EDT)/11:59hrs (CET).