Senior Network Engineer

Title: Senior Network Engineer Location: Brunssum, Netherlands

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 – C005491

Role Duties and Responsibilities

• Planning, design, implementation, integration, validation, and deployment of Core Services solutions across CIS environments. Services shall be delivered in a structured and controlled manner, ensuring alignment with project objectives, technical requirements, implementation schedules, and stakeholder expectations.

• Development of technical designs, installation and configuration of Core Services components, system integration, execution of testing and acceptance activities, support to deployment and migration efforts, and the production of all required technical documentation.

• Contribute to technical coordination, risk identification and mitigation, quality assurance, and project governance activities to ensure the successful delivery of CIS capabilities.

• Work closely with project teams, architects, security stakeholders, and operational authorities to ensure that

• delivered solutions are fit for purpose, interoperable, secure, and capable of supporting current and future operational requirements.

• Regular service reports detailing the status and progress of assigned CIS and DCIS project activities.

• Reports shall provide visibility of project execution, technical achievements, risks, issues, and planned activities to support effective project governance and decision-making.

• The service reports shall include, as a minimum:

• Progress against agreed project plans, milestones, and deliverables.

• Status of design, integration, configuration, testing, deployment, and migration activities.

• Achievement of key project objectives and technical deliverables.

• Identification of project risks, issues, dependencies, and proposed mitigation actions.

• Summary of completed activities during the reporting period.

• Planned activities and milestones for the upcoming reporting period.

• Status of technical documentation, design artefacts, and acceptance deliverables.

• Quality assurance activities performed and any identified non-conformities.

• Resource utilisation and effort expended against assigned tasks, where required.

• Escalations, decisions, or support required from NCIA stakeholders.

• Reports shall be delivered in accordance with NCIA reporting requirements and shall provide sufficient detail to enable effective monitoring of project performance, delivery progress, schedule adherence, and quality objectives.

Essential Skills, Experience and Certifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Technology, Network Engineering, Engineering or a related discipline or an equivalent combination of education & professional experience.

• 5 years' experience designing, implementing, operating, maintaining, troubleshooting enterprise & deployable network infrastructures.

• Experience supporting on-premises CIS environments, including data centres, server rooms, command & control facilities & deployable communications systems.

• Experience supporting Deployable CIS, including the deployment, configuration, operation, sustainment & recovery of network infrastructure in operational & expeditionary environments.

• Experience integrating, testing & supporting fixed & deployable network architectures

• Experience conducting network installations, upgrades, migrations & modernization activities for mission-critical systems.

• Experience developing & maintaining network documentation, architecture diagrams, implementation plans, operating procedures & configuration baselines.

• Experience performing fault isolation, root-cause analysis & performance optimization in complex operational environments.

• Experience working within military, defence, government or other mission-critical operational environments is desirable.

Technical Skills and Knowledge

The Contractor shall possess proven expertise/experience in several of the following areas:

• Network Infrastructure

• Advanced knowledge of TCP/IP, IPv4/IPv6, DNS, DHCP, NAT, VPN & related network services.

• Strong knowledge of Layer 2 and Layer 3 networking technologies.

• Experience with routing protocols including OSPF, BGP & EIGRP.

• Experience designing & implementing VLANs, network segmentation, QoS & traffic management solutions.

• Experience configuring & supporting enterprise-grade routing & switching platforms.

• Deployable CIS

• Experience deploying, configuring, operating & maintaining communications infrastructure in deployable & expeditionary environments.

• Knowledge of deployable network architectures, mobile communications platforms & field-deployable networking solutions.

• Experience supporting tactical, operational or mission-critical communications systems.

• Familiarity with deployable command-and-control communications environments & associated networking requirements.

• Experience supporting communications resilience, redundancy & continuity of operations in deployed environments.

• Network Security

• Experience implementing & maintaining secure network architectures.

• Knowledge of firewalls, intrusion detection & prevention systems (IDS/IPS), network access control (NAC), secure remote access solutions and encryption technologies.

• Experience applying cybersecurity principles & security controls to operational & deployable CIS environments.

• Familiarity with applicable security frameworks, standards & best practices for enterprise & deployable networks.

• Network Operations & Support

• Experience monitoring, maintaining & troubleshooting complex network environments.

• Ability to perform network diagnostics, fault isolation, root-cause analysis & corrective actions.

• Experience using network monitoring, performance management & troubleshooting tools.

• Experience supporting high-availability & mission-critical network services.

• Network Design & Engineering

• Experience designing, implementing & documenting network architectures and solutions.

• Ability to assess operational requirements & translate them into technical network designs.

• Experience planning & executing network upgrades, technology refreshes & infrastructure modernization activities.

• Knowledge of network resiliency, redundancy & disaster recovery.

• Vendor Technologies

• Experience configuring & supporting network equipment from vendors such as Cisco, Juniper, Palo Alto & Fortinet or equivalent enterprise networking platforms.

• Certifications: CCNP Enterprise & JNCIP-Enterprise

Working Location

• Brunssum, Netherlands

Working Policy

• On-site

Travel

• Some travel to other NATO sites may be required

Security Clearance

• Valid National or NATO Secret personal security clearance