Vacancy Notice 1748
INTERPOL is the world’s largest international police organization, with 196 Member Countries. Created in 1923, it facilitates cross-border police co-operation, and supports and assists all organizations, authorities, and services whose mission is to prevent or combat international crime.
INTERPOL actively encourages applications from women and nationals of member countries that are currently unrepresented among our staff (please click on this link to access the list of countries). Candidates from these countries are particularly encouraged to apply.
INTERPOL’s recruitment process is merit-based hence all hiring decisions are made considering the applicant’s qualifications and the needs of the Organization.
Job Title: Head of DevOps / QA Competency Center
Reporting To: Chief Technology Officer
Location: Lyon
Type of contract: Fixed-term Contract
Duration (in months): 36.00 *
Grade: 3
Number of post: 1
Level of Security screening: Enhanced
Deadline for application: 26 April 2026
Conditions applying for all candidates
Only professional experience for which candidates can provide official proof of employment will be considered. Candidates could be requested to provide copies of such official documents prior to interviews/test.
* Subsequent extension to this post will be subject to the terms of the Organization’s Staff Manual, to satisfactory performance and to availability of funds.
Tests/interviews in connection to this selection procedure will take place approximately 2/3 weeks after the deadline for applications. Applicants are kindly requested to plan their availability during this period accordingly, in case they are short-listed.
Selected candidates will be expected to report for duty approximately two to three months after receiving an offer of employment at the latest.
This selection exercise may be used to generate a reserve list of suitable candidates that may be used to address Organization's similar staffing needs in the future.
SUMMARY OF THE ASSIGNED DUTIES, INCLUDING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE POST
As part of the General Secretariat of INTERPOL, the world’s largest international police Organization, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Executive Directorate delivers trusted, secure, and innovative digital platforms and services that form the technological backbone of the Organization. ICT enables global police cooperation and supports INTERPOL’s strategic and operational objectives, ensuring that law enforcement agencies across member countries can collaborate effectively and securely.
Under the supervision of the Chief Technology Officer, the Head of Development and Operations (DevOps) and Quality Assurance (QA) Competency Centre leads a cross-cutting capability that equips Agile product squads with DevOps engineering and quality assurance expertise. The post holder defines and enforces standard practices, toolchains, and metrics for Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), test automation, release & environment management, and observability. The Competency Centre ensures consistent, secure, and compliant delivery of ICT products, while developing the careers and skills of DevOps and QA professionals who are embedded within squads.
PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND ACTIVITIES
DUTY 1: Competency Leadership, Squad Integration and Technical Enablement
- Lead the DevOps and QA Competency Centre.
- Define role profiles, career paths, mentoring and training plans.
- Ensure adequate staffing of squads with DevOps engineers and QA specialists aligned to product priorities.
- Conduct performance management and foster a culture of technical excellence and continuous improvement.
- Embed DevOps and QA professionals in product squads; ensure they are enabled with common practices, templates, and tools.
- Facilitate knowledge sharing via chapters/communities of practice and provide hands-on coaching to squads.
- Manage rotation of staff across squads to spread knowledge, foster cross-product expertise, and ensure backup coverage for key resources.
DUTY 2: DevOps Strategy, Standards and Toolchains
- In collaboration with the engineering, define and maintain the DevOps strategy, standards, and reference toolchains (including source control, CI, CD, artifact management, infrastructure-as-code, configuration management, and observability).
- Ensure consistency, security, and cost-effectiveness across squads and environments.
DUTY 3: CI/CD and Environment Management
- Design, operate, and continuously improve reusable CI/CD pipelines, environments, and deployment patterns.
- Enable automated, traceable, and auditable builds, releases, and rollbacks across on-premises and cloud platforms, in collaboration with squads and operations teams.
DUTY 4: Quality Assurance Governance and Test Automation
- Define QA policies, test strategies, and quality gates (unit, integration, end-to-end, performance, accessibility, security scanning).
- Promote test automation frameworks and ensure defect prevention, traceability, and measurable product quality through standardized metrics (e.g., coverage, defect density, MTTR).
DUTY 5: DevSecOps and Compliance
- Integrate security-by-design into pipelines and testing (SAST, SCA, DAST, secrets and dependency checks).
- Ensure compliance with INTERPOL security, data protection, and audit requirements; coordinate with the ICT Security Office for risk assessments, vulnerability management, and remediation tracking.
DUTY 6: Release, Change and Incident Collaboration
- Own quality gates for releases and coordinate with Product Managers, Platform/Operations, and Change Advisory bodies.
- Contribute to incident and problem reviews with data from pipelines and observability, driving systemic improvements.
DUTY 7: Metrics, Transparency and Continuous Improvement
- Define and publish delivery and quality KPIs (lead time for change, deployment frequency, change failure rate, MTTR, test pass rates).
- Run technical audits and retrospectives to drive improvements in reliability, speed, and maintainability.
Perform any other duties as required by the hierarchy.
QUALIFICATIONS, COMPETENCIES AND SKILLS
EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATION REQUIRED:
- At least five years’ University education.
EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:
- Minimum of 8 years’ experience in the area in question and proven experience in management
- Proven experience in team management and technical leadership.
- Experience in planning, development and managing complex tasks with minimum supervision.
- Proven experience in DevOps, Software Engineering and Quality Assurance.
- Hands-on experience designing and operating CI/CD pipelines and test automation at scale.
- Sound background in Agile product delivery and collaboration within cross-functional squads.
LANGUAGES:
- Fluency in English is required and proficiency in another official language of the Organization (Arabic, French, Spanish) would be an asset.
SPECIAL ABILITIES:
- Proven experience in Agile environments.
- Ability to manage multidisciplinary teams and complex platforms.
- Proven knowledge of DevOps platforms (e.g., Git, CI servers, artifact registries), infrastructure-as-code, cloud and container orchestration, and automated testing frameworks
- Strong communication skills, both in written and oral form
- Experience in managing performance and supporting career development of team members.
SPECIAL APTITUDES :
- Personal and professional maturity;
- Ability to maintain objectivity and apply logical, specifically inductive, reasoning;
- Ability to work in teams as well as individually;
- Ability to work persistently and under pressure;
- Good social, specifically multicultural skills;
- Initiative, creativity (original and critical thinking) and curiosity;
- Looking forward and attentive to innovation
- Ability to develop and maintain good professional networks;
- Ability to synthesize;
- Very good organization skills;
- Very good listening skills.