Systems Support Engineer

Spektrum supports apex purchasers (NATO, UN, EU, and National Government and Defence) and their Tier 1 supplier ecosystem with a wide range of specialist services. We provide our clients with professional services, specialised aerospace and defence sales, delivery, and operational subject matter expertise. We are looking for personnel to join our team and support key client projects.

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Who we are supporting 

The NATO Communication and Information Agency (NCIA) is responsible for providing secure and effective communications and information technology (IT) services to NATO's member countries and its partners. The agency was established in 2012 and is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.

The NCIA provides a wide range of services, including:

• Cyber Security: The NCIA provides advanced cybersecurity solutions to protect NATO's communication networks and information systems against cyber threats.
• Command and Control Systems: The NCIA develops and maintains the systems used by NATO's military commanders to plan and execute operations.
• Satellite Communications: The NCIA provides satellite communications services to enable secure and reliable communications between NATO forces.
• Electronic Warfare: The NCIA provides electronic warfare services to support NATO's mission to detect, deny, and defeat threats to its communication networks.
• Information Management: The NCIA manages NATO's information technology infrastructure, including its databases, applications, and servers.

Overall, the NCIA plays a critical role in ensuring the security and effectiveness of NATO's communication and information technology capabilities.

The program

Assistance and Advisory Service (AAS)

The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency) is NATO’s principal C3 capability deliverer and CIS service provider. It provides, maintains and defends the NATO enterprise-wide information technology infrastructure to enable Allies to consult together under Article IV, and, when required, stand together in the face of attack under Article V.

To provide these critical services, in the modern evolving dynamic environment the NCI Agency needs to build and maintain high performance-engaged workforce. The NCI Agency workforce strategically consists of three major categorise's: NATO International Civilians (NIC)'s, Military (Mil), and Interim Workforce Consultants (IWC)'s. The IWCs are a critical part of the overall NCI Agency workforce and make up approximately 15 percent of the total workforce.

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Role ID – C004983

Role Duties and Responsibilities

• The scope of the assignment will be limited to providing Level2 and Service Management Support according to the submitted Incidents, Service Requests, Change Requests, Task, Requests for Information or Internal activities, traceable through the relevant ticketing toolset and/or Azure DevOPS ticketing system.
• The Chief Technician will be required to respond, document, categorize and solve all the assigned tickets according to the internal processes and procedures. The work will be executed mainly onsite, but some activities might require offsite presence at other NATO locations. Generally, remote work cannot be performed offsite since the nature and classification of the work requires the incumbent to be present in the office with access to classified networks. Nevertheless, incidental requests will be reviewed on a case by case basis.
• The Chief Technician will participate in the daily reporting and planning activities (daily meetings) as well as the required participation in workshops, events and conferences related to the supported services, as requested by the Service Delivery Manager(s).
• The Chief Technician will have to resolve tickets covering a wide range of Level2 activities, for example:
• Install, maintain, monitor and support the SIGINT COINS components, including support of Operations, Missions and NATO exercises.
• Provide timely response and resolution to all support tickets (incidents, service requests, changes, internal activities) following the internal processes
• Escalate issues to Level3 support team as appropriate, support in the troubleshooting and debugging of found issues (for instance document and escalate trouble tickets)
• Offer Subject Matter Expertise for the JSSC applications to the user community and to COIs (supporting the Requests For Information)
• Apply patches and install software updates, coordinate outages (according to agreed Approved Service Interruptions, Security Audit Findings, regular software updates)
• Participate in SIGINT Change Advisory Board (CAB) as needed to support new software releases in the validation and verification process (support to Change Requests)
• Participates in on-call support. He/she also adheres to flexible 8 hrs/5 days a week shifts, which may be scheduled on-demand based on operational needs. This scheduling flexibility ensures that the duty activities can start earlier or later in a day, providing consistent and adaptable support in alignment with the organization's requirements.

Essential Skills, Experience and Certifications

• Must have experience within the profile of computer science or information technology
• Ability to analyse unusual maintenance complex problems
• Advanced theoretical and practical knowledge of the following related topics:
  • 2-Tier Leaf-and-Spine Data Center Architecture
  • Hyper converged infrastructure and virtualization technologies
  • Cloud services to include Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solutions
  • TCP/IP addressing and subnetting covering both Local and Wide Area Networking
  • Link encryption devices for IP-based computer networks
  • Data at rest encryption solutions for classified and sensitive data protection
  • Switching and Routing protocols and techniques including Voice over IP technology and Open Network Install Environment (ONIE) for bare metal network switches
  • Information Assurance techniques including firewalls, antivirus protection, data loss prevention, intrusion detection prevention systems solutions
  • Sound experience of administering Microsoft Servers including Active Directory, Distributed File System, Windows deployment techniques, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), administration automation with PowerShell scripting, Exchange Mail Server
  • Deployment of NATO Functional Area Services including Geospatial services
  • Microsoft SQL Server Administration knowledge (installation, configuration, maintenance, backup policies)
  • Knowledge of networking, infrastructure, and security services, including DNS, DHCP, WSUS, GPOs, networking fundamentals, load balancing, PKI/certificates, and authentication concepts such as ADFS.
  • Hardware and software configuration of Server hosting platforms, custom disk configurations with specific storage controllers, RAID configuration, redundancy and safety approach in all levels of designing in implementing of the solutions.
• Must have excellent spoken and written English communication and presentation skills, as demonstrated by recent experience (within the past 5 years).
• Must have proficiency in the office Suite, Reporting tools.
• Must have excellent understanding and experience of network communication protocols TCP/IP, OSI layers, Firewalls and Security principles.
• Must demonstrate the ability and self-motivation to work on his/her own but must also work well within groups as part of a team.
• Must demonstrate an ability and keen sense for problem-solving.
• Motivated, good communication skills, team player.
• Able to work independently with minimal supervision.
• Knowledge of NATO responsibilities and organization.

Desirable Skills, Experience and Certifications

• Relevant certification in IT Service Management such as ITIL 4 Foundation, ITIL 4 Specialist (i.e. Create, Deliver and Support or/and Drive Stakeholder Value)
• CCNA or CCNP certification
• Microsoft certification
• Trellix practical skills and experience
• Have a detailed understanding of cybersecurity issues within NATO or a national environment, including the Security and Defence Policies rationales
• Demonstrate an analytical and systematic approach to problem solving.
• Good understanding of networking, network analysis and measurement techniques.
• Background in CIS support and/or maintenance with a good understanding of CIS systems
• Valid national driving license for car and light vehicles, equivalent to European type B
• Previous knowledge of NATO FASs constitutes and advantage, NATO software lifecycle support, knowledge of NATO policies and process.

Working Location

• Brunssum, Netherlands

Working Policy

• Onsite

Travel

• Some travel to other NATO sites may be required

Security Clearance

• Valid National or NATO Secret personal security clearance