Who we are:
For more than 70 years, NATO’s mission has been to preserve peace and security in the Alliance for nearly one billion citizens. The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency) and its predecessors have worked tirelessly in providing the means that enable the connectedness and togetherness that keep our Alliance strong. We are the NCI Agency, a team of 3000 civilian and military staff in 29 locations throughout Europe, North America and Asia.
Our technology and cyber experts allow NATO to conduct critical operations, protect NATO’s airspace, make data-driven decisions, defend against cyber-attacks, secure NATO networks and maintain superiority in space. This is all possible because of our greatest force, our people. In order to keep this edge we aim to hire, train and retain the very best staff.
Our staff members represent both the diversity and unity of our Alliance. When you join the NCI Agency, you will be part of an organization where you can contribute authentically to the mission and purpose of NATO and help us keep our technological edge.
About the job:
Based in Brussels or The Hague you will join the Agency as we embark on a journey to transform our IT services to support NATO’s Digital Endeavour. You will join Chief Quality Office (CQO), which is responsible for acting as the Agency’s Quality Assurance and Quality Control Authority, providing Agency-wide policies, processes and tools, and supporting independent verification, validation, interoperability assurance and user acceptance of products and services.
We are looking for a driven and enthusiastic Senior Assurance Engineer who will take on the following roles and responsibilities:
Ensure systems, services and products meet required quality, safety and reliability standards throughout their lifecycle.
Plan, organise and conduct formal reviews, assessments, assurance activities and acceptance testing across complex projects, products and services.
Identify non-compliance, risks, root causes and improvement opportunities, and report findings with recommended corrective actions.
Provide expert guidance on assurance processes, testing methods, tools, standards and best practices, including mentoring junior engineers.
Lead assurance planning and reporting, define assurance KPIs, maintain documentation and audit trails, and contribute to NATO and NCIA assurance strategy, policies and plans.
Collaborate with developers, system architects and stakeholders to analyse requirements, validate solutions and ensure alignment with operational and business needs.
For a full list of duties, please review the job description on the NCI Agency career site.
About you:
The valuable knowledge and experience that you bring to this role are:
Bachelor’s degree at a nationally recognised/certified university in a related discipline with 3 years post-related experience, or exceptionally at least 10 years extensive and progressive expertise in duties related to the function of the post.
At least 3 years recent experience in planning and executing test, verification and validation activities in large complex projects.
At least 3 years recent experience with functional, non-functional and interoperability testing of systems and products in Windows-based environments.
Proven experience managing external stakeholders and co-workers during large complex projects, as well as managing a team of testers, quality or development engineers.
Ability to understand hardware and software system architectures and technical concepts such as DNS, NTP, email, databases, application architectures and inter-application communication protocols.
Advanced certification in test, verification and validation, such as ISTQB or a similar certification at test manager level.
Desirable: prior experience working in an international military and civilian environment, and knowledge of NATO responsibilities and organisation, including ACO and ACT.
Fluency in English, both written and spoken
What we offer:
Genuinely meaningful work as part of the most successful alliance in history;
5 year contract with competitive tax-free salary €8,273.12 in Brussels, €9,155.23 in The Hague and household and children’s allowances;
Privileges for expatriate staff including expatriation and education allowances (where appropriate) and additional home leave;
Excellent private health insurance scheme;
Generous annual leave of 30 days plus official holidays;
NATO Pension Scheme;
Development programs such as professional training, wellbeing, and more.
To learn more about NCI Agency and our work, please visit our website.
The NCI Agency prides itself on being an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to fostering an inclusive environment of mutual respect and value uniqueness and differences in gender, gender identity, race, ethnic or cultural origin, age, religion, sexual orientation and physical or neurocognitive ability.
Additional details on the conditions of application can be found via the NCI Agency career site.