IT Specialist (Product and Platform Management) - 1 year contract

The European Defence Agency (EDA) was established on 12 July 2004, and is governed by Council Decision (CFSP) 2015/1835 defining the statute, seat and operational rules of the European Defence Agency. The Agency has its headquarters in Brussels.

The main task of EDA is to support the Council and the Member States in their effort to improve the Union's defence capabilities in the field of crisis management and to sustain the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) as it currently stands and as it develops in the future.

The Agency is structured into four directorates. The Corporate Services Directorate (CSD) and three operational directorates: Industry, Synergies and Enablers (ISE); Capability, Armament & Planning (CAP); Research, Technology and Innovation (RTI).

The Agency is an “outward-facing” organisation, constantly interacting with its shareholders, the participating Member States, as well as with a wide range of stakeholders. It works in an integrated way, with multi-disciplinary teams representing all of the Agency’s functional areas, to realise its objectives. Its business processes are flexible and oriented towards achieving results. Staff at all levels need to demonstrate the corresponding qualities of commitment, flexibility, innovation, and team-working; to work effectively with shareholders and stakeholder groups, formal and informal; and to operate without the need for detailed direction.

We are seeking an experienced and versatile IT Product and Platform Manager to join our growing team, who contributes to the Agency’s data strategy to position EDA as a data-driven and AI-ready organisation, enhancing transparency and efficiency through a unified, strategic approach to data with a single pane of glass.

In this role, you will collaborate with project officers and business partners to understand and anticipate their needs, and translate them into product requirements; define the product vision; create a product roadmap; oversee all stages of product creation; manage the product backlog and prioritize based on changing requirements; and use data to monitor and evaluate product progress at each stage of the process.

In your close collaboration with business stakeholders, strategic partners, solution architects, and other product owners, you will strengthen the client centric service delivery based on agile and lean principles, a cloud-first approach (SaaS and PaaS), and an IT business partner model.

We are looking for an individual who will bring a sense of client and product obsession to the team and who will ensure that our solutions meet or exceeds expectations and deliver tangible business value.

Under the supervision of the Head of the IT, and the Strategic Platform Lead, you will contribute to the following activities:

• engage with business stakeholders to fully understand their needs and challenges and translate them into viable product requirements and features;
  
• create product vision, product roadmap and maintain and prioritize product backlog and user stories based on the requirements;
  
• manage relationships with stakeholders and ensure alignment on product direction;
  
• drive efficiencies through automation and adoption of strategic platforms with built-in AI capabilities;
  
• foster business alignment and innovation through the Agency's IT governance (i.e. ITCC) by identifying, preparing and presenting the roadmap and strategic topics with key business stakeholders;
  
• identify enabling EU framework contracts and/or prepare specifications in view of realising agreed projects (e.g. for Agile runway services, feasibility studies, proof of concepts, minimum viable products, product scale out);
  
• overlook or manage project implementations, assess impact to end users including organizational change management to ascertain effective user adoption and that project outputs are well integrated in a sustainable manner;
  
• plan and execute updates and future releases through a data driven and agile approach;
  
• deliver regular status updates to clients, identify and address risks, and reflect changes in requirements and priorities;
• assist with day-to-day operations such as user request fulfilment (ticket triaging with a “shift left” approach), knowledge management (drafting of articles for first level service desk agents), evaluation of vendor performance (uptime, quality of feature delivery), technology scouting, procurement planning, contract management etc.;
  
• prepare, plan and manage externalization projects and services (e.g. managed services, QTM, T&M), including but not limited to defining service level agreements, coordinating all activities together with external counterparts, monitoring, auditing and reporting of the externalized services to ensure that the service level agreements are fulfilled;
  
• take on additional tasks as required in the interest of the service.

Duties may evolve according to the development of EDA’s structure and activities, and the decisions of EDA management.

To be considered eligible to take part in this selection procedure, on the closing date for the submission of applications candidates must satisfy all the eligibility criteria as specified below:

• be a national of a Member State participating in the Agency;
• be entitled to their full rights as citizens;
• have fulfilled any obligations imposed on their by the laws concerning military service;
• produce the appropriate character references as to their suitability for the performance of their duties (extract from the “judicial record” or certificate of good conduct will be requested prior to recruitment);
• be physically fit to perform their duties;
• have a thorough knowledge (minimum level C1 oral and written) of one of the languages of the participating Member States and a satisfactory knowledge (minimum level B2 oral and written) of another of these languages to the extent necessary to discharge their duties;
• have no personal interest (financial, family relationship, or other) which could be in conflict with disinterested discharge of their duties within the Agency;
• hold, or be in a position to obtain, a valid Personnel Security Clearance Certificate (national or EU PSC at SECRET UE/EU SECRET level). Personnel Security Clearance Certificate (PSCC) means a certificate issued by a competent authority establishing that an individual is security cleared and holds a valid national or EU PSC, and which shows the level of EUCI to which that individual may be granted access (SECRET UE/EU SECRET), the date of validity of the relevant PSC and the date of expiry of the certificate itself. Note that the necessary procedure for obtaining a PSCC can be initiated on request of the employer only, and not by the individual candidate;
• have a level of education which corresponds to completed university studies of at least three years attested by a diploma or be a graduate of a national or international Defence College.

Only diplomas that have been awarded in EU Member States or that are the subject of equivalence certificates issued by the authorities in the said Member States shall be taken into consideration. In the latter case, the authority authorised to conclude contracts of employment reserves the right to request proof of such equivalence.

For diplomas awarded in non-EU countries, a NARIC recognition is required: https://www.enic-naric.net/

Qualifications/diplomas awarded until 31/12/2020 in the United Kingdom are accepted without further recognition. For diplomas awarded after this date (from 01/01/2021), a NARIC recognition is required.

It should be noted that due to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union on 31/01/2020, candidates from the United Kingdom who do not hold the nationality of another participating EU Member State, are not eligible.

For native English speakers, your ability to communicate in another EU language will be tested during the selection process. To assess your foreign language levels, see: https://europa.eu/europass/en/common-european-framework-reference-language-skills

A. Essential

Only applications meeting all essential selection criteria will be assessed.

(1) Professional

Candidates will be required to demonstrate the following qualifications:

• at least 1 year of relevant professional experience (acquired after the award of the academic qualification required as a condition of eligibility);
• a University degree (or equivalent academic degree) in ICT, Finance, Business, Engineering or another relevant field;
• proven work experience with business analysis and creation of user stories;
• strong presentation and collaboration skills with proven record of leading meetings and influencing stakeholders in multicultural environments;
• professional experience in day-to-day IT service management operations, such as incident, problem & change management, cloud-based endpoint management, and capacity planning;
• proven experience working with external service providers in a multisource environment;
• proven experience with the management of cloud platforms (e.g. Azure, Intune, M365 E5, MS Dynamics, MS Power Platform);
• a very good command of written and spoken English.

(2) Personal

All staff must be able to fit into the Agency's way of working (see para. 2). Other attributes important for this post include:

• ability to work in a team and independently in their area of responsibility;
  
• ability to work effectively in a multinational environment;
  
• reliability and capacity to work under pressure with little supervision;
  
• good communication and organisational skills;
  
• strong analytical and problem-solving skills;
  
• excellent interpersonal and negotiation skills;
  
• results-orientation and strong motivation;
  
• flexibility and innovativeness;
  
• genuine commitment to the Agency's objectives.

B. Desirable

The following will be considered an advantage:

• hands-on experience in building solutions with MS Power Platform and/or Dynamics;
  
• hands-on experience in managing M365 E5, Intune and MS 365 Copilot deployments;
  
• recognised project management and IT Service Management certifications (ITIL);
  
• recognised process optimization certifications (Lean Six Sigma or similar);
  
• recognised agile delivery certifications (SAFe or similar).

Selected candidates will be required to make a declaration of commitment to act independently in the Agency’s interest and to make a declaration in relation to interests that might be considered prejudicial to their independence.

The IT Specialist (Product and Platform Management) will be appointed by the Chief Executive.

Recruitment will be as a member of the contractual staff of the Agency for a one-year period. Contract renewal is possible within the limits set out in the EDA Staff Regulations and subject to budget availability. The successful candidate will be recruited as Contract Agent, Function Group IV.

The pay for this position consists of a basic salary of 4.319,72€ supplemented with various allowances including, as applicable, expatriation or family allowances. Successful candidates are graded on entry into service according to the length of their professional experience. Salaries are exempted from national tax, instead an Agency tax at source is paid. For further information on working conditions please refer to: https://eda.europa.eu/jobs/what-we-offer

Failure to obtain the requisite security clearance certificate before the expiration of the probationary period may be cause for termination of the contract.

Candidates are advised that part of the recruitment process includes medical analyses and physical check-up with the Agency’s Medical Adviser.

Applications are invited with a view to establish a reserve list for the post of IT Specialist (Product and Platform Management) at EDA. This list will be valid until 31/12/2026, and may be extended by decision of the Chief Executive. During the validity of the reserve list, successful candidates may be offered a post in EDA according to their competences in relation to the specific requirements of the vacant post. Inclusion on the reserve list does not imply any entitlement of employment in the Agency.

EDA is an equal opportunities employer and accepts applications without distinction on the grounds of age, race, political, philosophical or religious conviction, sex or sexual orientation and regardless of disabilities, marital status or family situation.

Candidates must submit their application electronically solely via the EDA website. Applications by any other means (hard copy or ordinary e-mail) will not be accepted. Applications must be submitted no later than midnight. Candidates are reminded that the on-line application system will not accept applications after midnight (Brussels time, GMT 1) on the date of the deadline.

When applying, candidates from Ministries of Defence or other governmental entities are encouraged to inform their national administration.

A selection panel will be appointed. Please note that the selection panel's internal proceedings are strictly confidential and that any contact with its members is forbidden.

Each application will be screened based on the requirements of the job profile stated in the vacancy notice. The most suitable applicants will be called for an interview and a written test. Candidates may also be requested to take part in an assessment centre, participating in a number of individual and group activities related to the competences required for the post.

If recruited, you will be requested to supply documentary evidence in support of the statements that you make for this application. Do not send any supporting or supplementary information until you have been asked to do so by the Agency.

Please note that once you have created your EDA profile, any correspondence regarding your application must be sent or received via your EDA profile. For any prior enquiry, please refer to the FAQ (Frequently asked questions) section, or send an e-mail to recruitment@eda.europa.eu.

EDA will not accept any phase of the selection & recruitment process prepared or assisted, 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.

EDA 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 tools may be rejected without further consideration at EDA’s sole discretion, and EDA reserves the right to take further steps in such cases as appropriate.

Please note that EDA will not return applications to candidates. The personal information EDA requests from candidates will be processed in line with Regulation (EU) N° 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Regulation (EC) 45/2001 and Decision No. 1247/2002/EC.

The purpose of processing personal data which candidates submit is to manage applications in view of possible pre-selection and recruitment at EDA. More information on personal data protection in relation to selection and recruitment can be found on the EDA website: http://www.eda.europa.eu/jobs/dataprotection