General Information

Vacancy number
1385/2026
Recruitment type
External recruitment (international)
Type of contract
Fixed-term appointment
Posted date
23-Jun-2026
Deadline to apply
15-Jul-2026
Duty station
Strasbourg
Grade
A1/A2
Entity
Directorate General of Administration (DGA)

Description & Requirements

Your Team

The Innovation team is part of the Directorate of Information Technology (DIT). It currently consists of four specialists with complementary expertise (analytics, data science, engineering, AI) and is being further strengthened. This team plays a central role in exploring emerging technologies and transforming innovative ideas into concrete, validated use cases. The objective is to support IT decision-making and create value for the Organisation.

Joining this team means being at the heart of the Organisation’s digital transformation, making a real impact on its strategic directions through the mastery and enhancement of data and artificial intelligence.

Your Role

As Innovation Manager, you will guide, alongside this dynamic team, the implementation of the innovation strategy within the DIT. Your mission will revolve around business-oriented experimentation: you will co-ordinate the ideation, evaluation, and validation of innovative solutions, assessing their value, feasibility, and alignment with strategic priorities before any major commitment. This role also involves close collaboration with business and technical stakeholders to ensure that each project benefits from leading-edge expertise, strong governance, and fits within a long-term vision.

You will in particular:

  • refine data and AI strategy aligned with business objectives; identify value opportunities, and solutions;
  • lead and develop the Innovation team (analysts, data scientists/engineers): enhance the operating model and standards;
  • co-ordinate ideation, track technology developments, Proofs of Concept and scaling: frame problems, investment cases, and action plans;
  • partner with business stakeholders and data/application colleagues to translate needs into problem statements, user stories, and data requirements;
  • establish data product model (ownership, SLAs, lifecycle) for sustainable AI/analytics delivery;
  • build business cases, define success metrics, performance indicators, and track value realisation via regular reporting;
  • collaborate on data governance and readiness: profile sources, set quality rules, prepare datasets for experiments;
  • design/evaluate AI experiments with team; create monitoring assets (dashboards, KPIs) for product adoption;
  • drive responsible AI: model risk, bias/privacy assessments, compliance; co-ordinate cross-functional dependencies;
  • manage use case portfolio/roadmap, external partners, budget; champion experimentation culture and change management; ensure cross-functional execution.
Requirements to apply

You must have:

  • a higher education degree or qualification equivalent to a master’s degree () in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Business Analytics, or related area;
  • proven experience in leadership of Innovation/Data Science teams and in defining data/AI strategies;
  • excellent knowledge of one of the Council of Europe’s official languages (English or French) and good knowledge of the other (French or English).

You must also:

  • be a citizen of one of the member states of the Council of Europe and fulfil the conditions for appointment to the civil service of that state;
  • have discharged any obligation concerning national service (military, civil or comparable);
  • not be the parent, child, stepchild or grandchild of a serving staff member of the Council of Europe;
  • be under the age of 65 years. 

Your application must demonstrate to what extent you have the competencies listed below. To help you doing so, feel free to consult our .

Key competencies
  • Managerial - Management of teams
  • Operational - Analysis and problem solving
  • Operational - Creativity and innovation
  • Operational - Results orientation
  • Interpersonal - Communication
  • Professional and technical expertise:
    • ability to translate business needs into technical roadmaps;
    • strong expertise in defining, tracking, and interpreting business performance indicators, applying AI/machine learning to business challenges;
    • excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to translate business needs into technical solutions;
    • ability to communicate complex concepts clearly to technical and business audiences.
Desirable competencies
  • Operational - Concern for quality
  • Interpersonal - Relationship building
  • Interpersonal - Initiative
  • Professional and technical expertise:
    • experience managing external AI vendors and cross-functional change management;
    • experience in Agile project delivery or iterative development;
    • proven proficiency in BI/visualisation platforms (PowerBI, Tableau, etc.) and SQL;
    • deep knowledge of MLOps and AI experiment design/evaluation;
    • aptitude for scientific communication and stakeholder engagement;
    • the ability to use specialised software relevant to the field.
What we offer

This job vacancy is for an international external recruitment. You can consult the conditions of employment (salaries, allowances, pension scheme, social insurance, etc.) on the webpage .

Applications and selection procedure

For more information on how we recruit, you can consult the page . This recruitment is carried out in accordance with Article 490 of the Council of Europe Staff Rules. The deadline for applications is indicated in the General information section of this vacancy notice (see above) and is fixed at 23:59:59 (CET/CEST). When applying, make sure your motivation shows how your competencies make your profile the best for the role.

Important information

As an equal opportunity employer, the Council of Europe welcomes applications from all suitably qualified people, irrespective of sex, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic or social origin, disability, religion or belief. Under its equal opportunity policy, the Council of Europe is aiming to achieve gender parity in staff employed in each category and grade. At the time of appointment, preference between suitable people shall be given to the person of the gender which is under-represented in the relevant grades within the category to which the vacancy belongs.

Applicants with specific needs are encouraged to request reasonable accommodations at any stage during the recruitment process. Please contact us at , we will ensure that your request is handled.

The information published on the CoE’s careers website regarding working conditions is correct at the time of publication of the vacancy notice. Any changes to these conditions during the recruitment process will be updated on our Portal and will apply at the time of the job offer. Our career's website is not intended to be exhaustive and may not address all questions you would have. Should you have remaining questions, please contact us at .

At Impactpool we do our best to provide you the most accurate info, but closing dates may be wrong on our site. Please check on the recruiting organization's page for the exact info. Candidates are responsible for complying with deadlines and are encouraged to submit applications well ahead.
Before applying, please make sure that you have read the requirements for the position and that you qualify. Applications from non-qualifying applicants will most likely be discarded by the recruiting manager.