IKM Engineer

Spektrum have a wide range of exciting opportunities in several global locations.

We are always looking to add great new talent to our team and look forward to hearing from you.

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 Background

Within the NATO Digital Workplace Centre (NDWC), the Content Platforms Services (CPS) Group provides a range of content centric services enabling secure collaboration. Core functionalities include creating, sharing, managing, organizing and preserving digital content to deliver enterprise-wide content lifecycle management, information access and governance. Common services available include document and records management, content publishing, business process management, data capture and indexing, categorization, content search, version control, analytics and artificial intelligence applied to content collaboration. Content Platform Services also provides Subject Matter Expertise for advice, guidance, business analysis, design, configuration, development and implementation of new and existing Content Platform Solutions and for a broad range of Content Management activities.

Through various projects new capabilities are released in the form of SharePoint customizations (farm solutions, add-ins and client side solutions on versions 2013, 2019 through to online). After release we often find that improvements are required to make those customizations fully fit-for-purpose. This can relate to code quality, code vulnerabilities, feature stability, feature usage and documentation.

These capabilities include EDMS, PITT, NIP ,TT+ (collectively referred to as IKM tools), additionally the RECCEN and include customizations to SharePoint which follow common development practices combining page elements, lists and SharePoint services (such as metadata, search and profile services)

Role Duties and Responsibilities

• Provisioning of technical assessment and guidance on the creation of a backlog of user stories and their respective acceptance criteria which will address the gap between the current and desired state of the mentioned capabilities.
• Refactoring of code, and thus functionality, of existing SharePoint customizations following quality, vulnerability, stability, usability and security testing of currently deployed capabilities.
• Creation of test cases against new introduced or improved features
• Updated documentation related to newly introduced or improved features
• The improvement and bug fixing work of the CPS team is done in Agile Scrum sprints of three weeks. They shall ensure participation in a total of 15 sprint cycles annually for the duration of the contract, considering proration for partial calendar years.
• As part of the sprint cycle, preparation of, and participation in sprint planning and refinement, sprint reviews and sprint retrospectives with the wider team is expected. They are expected to reflect work done on respective Kanban Boards and within respective Agile Scrum templates in support of the respective Product Goals and Agile approach. It is assumed that these duties are fulfilled within 16 hours per sprint cycle.
• Each planning session they are expected to contribute, prioritize and refine user stories, with respective acceptance criteria, within the respective backlogs of the mentioned capabilities.
• Every sprint cycle the contactor should be a part of the Sprint team and contribute to the completion of the effort of 30 story points, according the Fibonacci scoring.
• They should maintain the IKM Tools and RECCEN instances and troubleshoot issues of the IKM Tools and RECCEN instances as Level 2 support incumbent, across the NATO networks on regularly basis and showcase if required the work achieved. It is expected that they will be an active part of the L2 support, with the goal of rectifying issues, documenting guidelines, or improving the service with the amount of 20 improvements, or incident / change request resolution monthly within the ITSM ticketing system.
• They will be a part of migration and on setting up of the demanded IKM Tools and RECCEN applications. It is expected that they are creating PowerShell scripts autonomously and on demand.
• As part of the team they will be allocated for designing medium and large enterprise SharePoint environments, in conjunction of the related Operating System and SQL databases to accommodate the IKM Tools and RECCEN instances within training, or production networks.
• For tracking and tracing purposes they are requested to create technical and user guides and documentations and doing Quality assurance with the related staff.
• For troubleshooting purposes they should have knowledge to support Active Directory Federation Services and Claims provider, related to the IKM Tools and RECCEN.
• It is expected to receive technical support in the replication activities of the IKM Tools.
  • They should be a part in improving and supporting the search engine of the IKM Tools by providing technical guidance.
  • It is expected that they participate in meetings to present technical solutions to the Section Head, Service Delivery Manager and Group head of the CPS section.
  • The incumbent should assist the Section Head/Service Delivery Managers/Group head to prepare presentations and demonstrations, related to the CPS sections tasks if demanded.
  • They should assist the Change Coordinator during the Approved Service Interruptions process on IKM Tools related interruptions.

Deliverables:

• In collaboration with the Sprint team be involved on the backlog of at least 30 story points
• In collaboration with the Support Team of the IKM Tools should rectify issues, document and create guidelines, or improve the service with the amount of 20 improvements, or incident / change request resolution monthly within the ITSM ticketing system
• They should test new updates with the Application tester monthly, in order to ensure validity and integrity of the IKM Tools and underneath Operating System/SQL instances and SharePoint releases of at least 1 update each month.
• They should Track ITSM reports and present it to the Section Head and Service Delivery Manager monthly.
• Attend periodical performance review meeting

Essential Skills and Experience

• Microsoft SharePoint 2013, SharePoint 2016, SharePoint 2019, SharePoint SE deep experience
• Excellent Troubleshooting skills in SharePoint applications and SQL
• Azure DevOps experiences for Agile methodologies
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to document and communicate across the teams.
• Ability to work in a team and share knowledge
• Ability to work effectively under pressure.
• Knowledge in SQL servers and Network technologies
• Basic knowledge on Virtual machines technologies.
• Knowledge in ADFS Domain and SharePoint wise.

Education

• A higher secondary education and completed higher vocational training leading to a formal or professional certification with a three-year function related experience, or a secondary education and completed advanced vocational training leading to a professional qualification or professional accreditation with five years of post-related experience.

Language Proficiency

• Business English

Working Location

• Braine l’Alleud, Belgium

Working Policy

• On-Site

Travel

• Some travel to other NATO sites may be required

Security Clearance

• Valid National or NATO Secret personal security clearance

We never know what new opportunities might be just over the horizon. If this opportunity isn't for you please feel free to send us your resume anyway and be the first to know if something suitable for your skills and experience comes up.