Senior Operations Research Analyst

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

Allied Command Transformation (ACT) is NATO’s leading agent for change: driving, facilitating, and advocating the continuous improvement of Alliance capabilities to maintain and enhance the military relevance and effectiveness of the Alliance. The main objectives of ACT are: providing appropriate support to NATO missions and operations; leading NATO military transformation; and improving relationships, interaction and practical cooperation with partners, nations and international organisations. ACT therefore leads Alliance concept development, capability development, training and lessons-learned initiatives and provides unfettered military support to policy development within NATO.

The program 

Capability Development & Management Support (CDMS)

  DCOS Capability Development (CAPDEV) acts as the Supreme Allied Commander Transformation's Director for guidance, direction and coordination of the activities and resources of the Capability Development Directorate.

The Requirements Division will execute all tasks and activities needed to support requirements management for NATO capabilities

The Capability Requirements (CR) Branch will develop the Capability Requirements Brief and recommended courses of action to resolve issues through the life cycle management of requirements using matrixed, cross-functional project-specific Requirements Management teams.

The Requirements Forward Branch (Mons) is responsible for conducting requirements development and management representation and engagement-related functions in Europe.

The Capability Division coordinates the development of capabilities from capability planning through acceptance and then disposal with management entities, NATO Headquarters staff and the NATO Governance Structure

The Capability Forward Branch (Mons) coordinates with ACO, NCIA, NSPA, NATO HQ, territorial Host Nations, and NATO Centres of Excellence (COEs) to support the development of capabilities.

Strategic Plans and Policy (SPP) supports Allied Command Transformation in formalizing military advice to shape future military strategy, political guidance, and other policy documents supporting NATO’s strategic objectives.

Role ID: ACT-CDMS-27-01-A-LC11

Role and Duties

The Operational Analysis Branch provides analysts to capability development programme teams to drive and support evidence-based decision making in requirements derivation and programmatic planning. In this SOW, “Operational Analysis” (predominantly military term) is used interchangeably with “Operations Research” (US term) and “Operational Research” (UK Term).

Course of Action (COA) analysis supports capability development programme teams to determine appropriate DOTMLPFI methods and capability architectures for meeting the military user’s operational requirements and defining programmatic structures.

Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) involves the comparative assessment of options in terms of costs, risks, schedules and operational effectiveness. The AoA tests the commercial marketplace and NATO’s ability to re-use capabilities that are in service in member Nations militaries. It establishes whether NATO should procure a managed service, adopt National capability solutions, acquire products from industry, or must develop bespoke solutions. For complex programmes, the AoA can inform programmatic structures by showing how value for money is most likely to be achieved.

NATO capability development decisions concern complex socio-technical systems, including computer information systems supporting NATO command and control, federated governance arrangements, capability integration activities and multinational delivery models. Analysts must be capable of combining quantitative and qualitative evidence and facilitating stakeholder engagement to support defensible decision-making. COA analysis and AoA typically involves engaging with the programme team to understand programmatic areas of uncertainty, designing and facilitating workshops to gather stakeholder views (including within the military NATO Command Structure, delivery Agencies and Centres of Excellence and / or the NATO Force Structure, gathering or generating (if appropriate) cost, risk schedule and effectiveness evidence, and comparative options assessment. This may include the development or elicitation of Measures of Performance (MoPs) and Measures of Effectiveness (MoEs); assessment of absolute and comparative risks; elicitation of schedule estimates; and review of cost estimates for appropriateness to support this assessment.

Operations Research methods can be applied at any stage of the capability development programme, including, but not limited to: decision science (e.g. multi-criteria decision analysis), optimization (e.g. linear programming), modelling & simulation, behavioural operations research, data science (e.g. advanced analytics and machine learning) and wargaming.

Taskings:

• Contribute to Course of Action analysis using Operations Research and Analysis methods in support of Capability Development within ACT in order to mature NATO capability requirements and set programmatic direction.
• Plan and conduct research to study and establish qualitative and quantitative assessments of operational effectiveness, undertake cost-effectiveness and risk-benefit studies and analyses.
• Where necessary and appropriate, interact with NATO and National research entities and industries to establish the impact of alternatives on operational effectiveness.
• Where necessary and appropriate, attend engagements or workshops with NATO, National organizations, and / or industry to ensure cost estimation activities are likely to provide outputs of appropriate quality to support analysis.
• Support the creation of Requests for Information and surveys to NATO Nations, Non Governmental Organizations, and industry.
• Analyse the potential impact of identified individual and aggregated risks, and propose possible risk management approaches.
• Elicit, and / or review and assess schedule estimates, to ensure appropriate quality and supporting evidence for decisions being supported by analysis.
• Review and assess cost estimates provided by others, to ensure appropriate quality and supporting evidence for decisions being supported by analysis.
• Analyse and document comparative assessments of cost, risk, schedule and operational effectiveness to inform programmatic decision-making.
• Produce decision briefs / presentations describing the underlying rationale / justification for analytical outcomes. If appropriate, brief decision-makers on the context, process and outcomes.
• Produce written reports of analysis conducted as part of the Capability Programme plan evidence package, for review with the International Military Staff and International Staff in NATO Headquarters.
• Produce summary briefs of lessons identified / lessons learned to support continuous improvement of NATO capability development and OA branch skills and competencies.
• May be required to travel to meetings and conferences both within and outside NATO boundaries for up to 60 days per year.
• Perform additional tasks as required by the COTR related to the LABOR category.

Essential Qualifications

• A Bachelor’s degree in Operations Research, Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics, Engineering or equivalent quantitative degree. Alternatively, 5+ years of Operations Research/ Operational Analysis experience conducting and leading analytical studies in relevant military, strategic, political or international environment.NATO UNCLASSIFIED
• Minimum two examples in the last 10 years (at least 3 years combined duration) in the field of military Operations Research / Operational Analysis / Data Science, supporting policy development, capability development or acquisition. With a relevant Bachelor’s degree (listed above), only 2 years in the last 5 must be in the fields / areas /listed above.
• Experience designing, leading, and facilitating structured stakeholder engagements to elicit objectives, assumptions, measures, risks, preferences and expert judgement in support of defence capability decisions involving technical and non-technical stakeholders across multiple levels of seniority.
• Experience, within last 5 years of determining Operations Research / Operational Analysis requirements, scoping problems for study, developing analysis plans, and delivering highquality outputs that influence senior decision makers.
• Experience of developing data collection and analysis plans or assessment frameworks that include measures of effectiveness and measures of performance.
• Experience in gathering evidence and scoring effectiveness through use of operations research and analysis methods to defence domain issues.
• Experience identifying, eliciting, assessing, analysing and communicating uncertainty and risk associated with capability / acquisition, project, programme, or portfolio decisions.
• Experience of producing or working with cost and schedule estimates, including estimating methodologies, methods and processes
• Experience working in a strategic or operational military command or multinational organization.
• Experience supporting project, programme, and / or portfolio decisions through analytical assessment in the past 10 years, within complex and dynamic programme environments.

Desirable Qualifications

• Experience using AI to support OA.

  Language Proficiency

Demonstrated proficiency in English as defined in STANAG 6001 (Standardized Linguistic Profile (SLP) 3333 - Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing) or equivalent.

Working Location

• Norfolk, VA

Working Policy

• On-Site

Contract Duration

• January 2027 - December 2031

Security Clearance

• Valid National or NATO Secret personal security clearance