Senior Engineer - Atlassian Products Support

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.

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.

Role ID - C005303   

Role Background

The aim of this SOW is to support NCSC with technical expertise specifically related to the administration of JIRA and Confluence instances, and integration with other capabilities. For the provision of consistent support and the execution of the task, NCIA will get subject matter expertise from the industry in the delivery of requested capability. 

Role Duties and Responsibilities  

• Deploy, install, and configure Atlassian Jira Software Datacenter, Confluence Datacenter and any other Atlassian products or plugins supporting these capabilities according to best practices and following NATO security policy and directives. 
• Implement necessary plugins, add-ons, and integrations to enhance functionality and meet business requirements.
• Oversee confidentiality and integrity of data.
• Perform routine, pro-active maintenance and system administration tasks including user management, access control, and permissions configuration, using NCSC processes and NCSC IT Service Management Tool.
• Raise, closely track, push for and implement the change requests when required (new product release, new security patch, new user feature requests ready for production,…).
• Interface with Atlassian support portal for entering, tracking and bug reports and feature requests.
• Monitor system performance, troubleshoot issues, and optimize configurations to ensure security, reliability, efficiency and resiliency.
• With the assistance of the backup team, conduct regular backups, implement, test and report on disaster recovery procedures to safeguard critical data.
• Implement security measures and protocols to protect sensitive data and ensure compliance with NATO security policy and directives.
• Champion the overall security of the ecosystem, notably by promptly applying security patches, upgrades, auditing mechanism to ensure the need-to-know principles are followed etc
• Provide technical support and troubleshooting assistance to users, resolving issues promptly to minimize disruptions.
• Collaborate with customers to best match their needs using available platform.
• Participate in data migration from/to external systems.
• Develop and maintain documentation, and resources to educate users on best practices, tips, and tricks for utilizing Atlassian tools effectively. Performs other duties as may be required.
• Collaborate with other teams and stakeholders to integrate Atlassian tools with existing systems and workflows, notably with Microsoft suite of products, including Sharepoint.
• Customize workflows, forms, and dashboards to align with specific project requirements and team preferences.
• Stay informed about the latest features, updates, and trends in Atlassian products and related technologies.
• Evaluate and recommend new tools, plugins, or configurations to enhance productivity, collaboration, and innovation within the organization. 

Essential Skills, Experience and Certifications  

At least 5 years practical experience in:

• Atlassian Jira Datacenter and/or Confluence Datacenter as an administrator.
• System Administration in Linux environments
• Scripting languages (e.g., Bash, Python) for automation and customization tasks.
• Excellent knowledge of Java, Groovy and Scriptrunner.
• Strong understanding of networking, security principles, and best practices.
• Experience in system migrations from and/or to Atlassian stack.
• Experience in interfacing with IT Service Management. 

Skills:

• Taking ownership of tasks and wish to accomplish them to theend. 
• Excellent Information Management skills.
• Very good communication and analytical skills with the ability to convey technical information clearly and concisely.
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to work independently as well as part of a team.
• Language proficiency in English: meet or exceed the NATO STANAG 6001 Level 3 "Professional Proficiency". 

Desirable Training/certifications:  

• Certification on Atlassian Products 

Desirable Experience:

• Experience in working for or supporting a military or governmental organization. 
• Software development background.
• Experience in using Ansible. 

Education:  

• A minimum requirement of a Bachelor's degree at a nationally recognised/certified University in a related discipline and 3 years post-related experience; 
• Or exceptionally, the lack of a university degree may be compensated by the demonstration of a candidate's particular abilities or experience that is/are of interest to NCIA, that is, at least 10 years extensive and progressive expertise in duties related to those in this Statement of Work. 

Working Location  

• Mons, Belgium 

Working Policy

• On site 100% 
• Normal office environment.
• NCIA IT equipment will be provided for the processing of restricted information.
• If working from a remote location, the contractor shall provide IT equipment for the processing of public and unclassified information in support of their duties, including the capability to participate in video meetings using Microsoft based collaboration tools.
• The contractor may be permitted to perform work remotely, from a different NATO nation than the duty location, for up to a maximum of twenty percent (20%) of their total working time, subject to prior approval by their NCIA designated Resource Manager. 

Travel  

• The contractor may be required to travel to other NCIA locations for in-person or department meetings. In such cases the contractor will be reimbursed for travel costs according to NATO regulations for traveling on NATO duty.
• Each travel will be a maximum of 2 days lengths and happening no more than twice per month.
• Contractors traveling for work purposes shall initiate travel requests from their designated duty station only. 

Security Clearance  

• Valid NATO Cosmic Top Secret personal security clearance