Staff Officer

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.
The Centres of Excellence Branch coordinates support from NATO COEs to the NCS, in accordance with SACT's designated coordination authority. The Branch leads and coordinates the development and NATO accreditation of new NATO COEs, and conducts the periodic assessments of established COEs.  
Within the CPD Branch, the incumbent's main responsibility is to support the development, coordination and management of all NATO COE activities provided to NATO by providing direct support to the implementation of NATO COE governance within the Alliance in accordance with NATO policies and directives.

Principal Duties:

• Directly responsible for supporting the management and coordination of SACT's designated coordination authority of NATO COE activities within the following four pillars: Education, Training, Exercises and Evaluation; Analysis and Lessons Learned; Doctrine Development and Standardization; and Concept Development and Experimentation.
• Provide direct support to assist the NCS in developing guidance and enhanced capabilities through engagement with the NATO COEs by the overall coordination with ACT FOGOs, ACO and COE Subject Matter Experts. c. Provide direct support to the development, coordination and management of NCS requests to the NATO COEs across the aforementioned four pillars and COE clusters.
• In accordance with SACT's designated coordination authority of NATO COEs, provide direct support to COE Section Heads, ACT FOGOs and SMEs in the overall coordination of all COE clusters, and in the coordination and management of a COE cluster as required.
• Provide internal and external informational briefings, best practices, lessons learned and advice regarding NATO COE support to capability development across the four pillars.
• Provide support to the development and establishment of new NATO COEs and subsequent periodic assessments.
• Support the development, implementation and management of NATO COE events such as the annual COE Directors' Conference and other NATO COE related workshops and meetings including COE pillar coordination or cluster meetings, and ACT FOGO visits to COEs.
• Build teams when directed within the COE Branch area of responsibility managing and directing these teams and employing formal project management skills to manage the various projects.

Essential Qualifications / Experience:

• University Degree and 2 years function related experience, or Higher Secondary education and completed advanced vocational training leading to a professional qualification or professional accreditation with 4 years post related experience.
• A minimum of 4 to 6 years post related experience (depending on background/degree) in the coordination of international military cooperation in national or NATO positions.
• Experience in cross-staff coordination.
• Experience negotiating with senior national staff.
• Secondary NOC: 50418B - Programme management.

Language:

English – SLP Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing)

Desirable Qualifications / Experience:

• Background and experience in NATO or NATO COEs.
• NATO and/or National MOD staff experience.
• Joint military staff experience.

Attributes/Competencies:

Personal Attributes:

• Sound communication skills to brief and staff complex issues up to 3 star and occasionally higher flag officer and political levels.
• High diplomacy, persuasion and motivational skills together with a sound understanding of national sensitivities.
• The ability and knowledge to apply a process-based method for effective project and task management.
• The ability to analyse varying and complex problems in situations where no precedent exists but general policy and goals are defined. Quickly determining and executing a course of action using constructive thinking and judgement.
• The incumbent should have a background in staff work at a National Joint Military or NATO Strategic Command. The incumbent's knowledge of cross staff coordination and multi-national cooperation should be advanced.

Professional Contacts: 

• As part of the regular duties, the incumbent is required to negotiate with senior national representatives and occasionally higher flag officer and political levels during COE establishment, accreditation and periodic re-assessment phases. The incumbent also has constant contact with the Directors of Centres of Excellence as well as other senior officers responsible for COEs in their respective nations.

Contribution To Objectives: 

• The incumbent significantly impacts both directly and indirectly to the deliverables and objectives of HQ SACT and NATO. The incumbent, through his/her work coordinating COEs, is able to bring new and enhanced capabilities to NATO. Through the incumbent's work, Transformation and support to operations in NATO and Alliance Nations is also directly and indirectly impacted.

Problem Solving:

• Diversity and Range of Duties: The incumbent undertakes many different duties, each of which requires different skillsets. This includes an excellent working knowledge across the range of specialties, services and products thet te different 30 NATO-accredited COES (Potentially increasing within 3 years) provide to the Alliance. The incumbent will utilize this knowledge to enhance the management and coordination of SACT's designated coordination authority of the NATO COEs across the four pillars. The incumbent must be able to communicate and negotiate with Nations and COEs using high diplomacy, persuasion and motivational skills at all levels.
• Type of Problem/Degree of Challenge: The incumbent must be adaptive and creative when it comes to the problems and challenges of this post. The incumbent must be able to quickly determine and execute a course of action using constructive thinking and judgement coupled with an in-depth knowledge of NATO COE policy and procedures to the benefit of the Alliance.
• Degree of Guidance Available: Objectives will be broadly defined by the Branch Head and Section Head, but there are no formal Operating Procedures for the conduct of duties and the incumbent must be creative and able to supply their own constructive thinking and judgement. The incumbent will work with little or no direct supervision towards general goals with supervisory review of the results.
   

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 15 December 2025 @ 17:59hrs (EST)/11:59hrs (CET).