Staff Officer (Concept Development Analysis & Digital Enablement Lead)

Post Context

ACT contributes to preserving the peace, security and territorial integrity of Alliance member states by leading, at Strategic Command level, Warfare Development required to enhance NATO’s posture, military structures, forces, capabilities and doctrines.

The Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate (SPP) acts on behalf of SACT to formulate policies, strategies, engagements, ACT contributions to NDPP, and analytical practices that enable the Commander to provide strategic foresight, planning, strategy and policy advice, concepts, and strategic engagement to NATO’s political and military leadership. Principal outputs include, but are not limited to: long term strategic foresight, strategic level concepts, situational awareness/strategic anticipation, Minimum Capability Requirements, Draft Capability Targets, Suitability Assessment of Allies and NATO Defence Plans, and regional and functional to security related environments.

The Concept Development Branch is ACT’s lead for the development of ACT, Bi-SC and NMA concepts. It provides guidance, advice, and coherence on conceptual development. It develops strategic and operational concepts applying NATO’s CD&E process.

The Concept Engagement Lead is responsible for planning, coordinating and executing the Concept Development Engagement Strategy, in line with the CD&E Policy. The Concept Engagement Lead will develop tailored engagement plans for MDO concepts under development, track and shape strategic engagement between key leaders related to conceptual development, and ensure coherent and consistent engagement with the wider concept development community of interest.

Principal Duties:

• Liaises with MDO implementation teams and consequent MDO related concept development project teams to identify their engagement requirements, turn these into a comprehensive engagement plans, and support the implementation of the engagement plan with specialized communication capabilities and resources:
• Support the identification, building and sustaining of communities of interest.
• Identify key engagement targets and requirements, and support the fulfilment of these targets through development of appropriate material and communication aids.
• Identify key leaders within the communities of interest, plan and ensure appropriate engagement to support concept acceptance and approval.
• Develop post-concept approval communication campaigns to ensure appropriate awareness amongst NATO stakeholders.
• Conducts stakeholder analysis in relation to SPP Concept Development strategic requirements. Develops analyses and plans engagement in line with CNDV Branch objectives, including supporting or delivering the ICDE Conference, CD&E Training, CD policy, plans and guidance dissemination.
• Plans and coordinates key CNDV Engagement events including:
•  ICD&E Conference.
•  CD WG.
•  CD Training programme.
• With support from concept development staff, drafts lines to take, speaking notes, and supporting material for delivery by ACT Key Leaders at speaking engagements.
• Support effective NATO information management systems when related to Concept Development, including both internal and external IM clients.
• Develop and sustain CD best practice and Lessons dissemination networks.
•  ICD&E Conference.
•  CD WG.
•  CD Training programme.

Essential Qualifications / Experience:

• University Degree  and 2 years function related experience, or Higher Secondary education and completed advanced vocational training  leading to a professional qualification or professional accreditation with 4 years post related experience.
• Four years‘ experience leading the communication of transformational ideas in a significant enterprise or international government organization environment.
• Practical experience of developing engagement campaigns with senior stakeholders, ensuring coherence and consistency of strategic messaging.
• Expertise in applying analytical methods to the development of engagement plans and strategies, ensuring accurate prioritization of scarce resources and availability.
• Experience of planning and running prestige conference events.
• Experience of working with senior staff and military to ensure they are adequately prepared to engage with counterparts on relevant transformational issues.
• Experience of managing information and knowledge distribution networks, using available technical solutions to communicate with communities of interest.
• Exceptional ability to communicate effectively orally and in writing with good briefing skills.

Language:

English – SLP 3333 - (Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing)

Desirable Qualifications / Experience:

• Experience of working within a Military or National Headquarters
• Experience of working in a multinational environment.
• Experience of working in technology or innovation related industries.
• Recognition by relevant professional bodies.
• Project management: Basic knowledge.

Attributes/Competencies:

Personal Attributes:

• To be capable of working effectively with NATO, the correct applicant should demonstrate integrity, conscientiousness, an innovate approach to problem solving, good professional judgement, adaptability and tact.
• The incumbent must have the ability to identify, understand and prioritise according to a large and diverse stakeholder group.
• Must have the ability to design and execute engagement plans to ensure effective communication and coordination is effected.
• Must have the ability to digest research from a variety of sources, including NATO policy, NATO nations’ policy, academia and think tanks.
• Should be capable of communicating complex ideas in an appropriate format to a variety of high-level audiences, including FOGOs, NATO representatives, and national policy makers
• Must be comfortable designing and delivering training to practitioner audiences where apprioriate.
• Must be comfortable working in environments with uncertainty and divergent/changing priorities.
• There may be occasional requirements to work outside normal office hours, and the requirement to travel as part of the appointment.

Managerial Responsibilities:

• He/she will be responsible for daily work load priorities with broad direction and guidance from Branch Head.

Professional Contacts:

• Have professional contacts with others inside and outside the organisation/ provide advice and may negotiate. Could commit the organisation to a COA.

Contribution To Objectives:

• Work will contribute or may involve a complete task requiring deep subject matter expertise. Products may have Enterprise wide impacts.

Security Clearance

The successful applicant will be required to apply for and receive a NATO SECRET Security Clearance prior to final confirmation of contract and commencement of employment.

Contract

• This position is linked to a specific NATO project and is for a limited duration of 3 (three) years only.
• Serving NATO International Civilian staff will be offered a contract in accordance with the NATO Civilian Personnel Regulations.  Newly recruited staff will be offered a three year definite duration contract.

Notes For Candidates

The HQ SACT web site gives full details on the eligibility criteria and application processes to be adopted by all candidates.  However, candidates should particularly note:

Please answer each of the pre-screening questions completely in English. Expressions such as: “please see attached CV, please see annex, please see enclosed document, etc” are not acceptable; this is a cause of immediate rejection of the application.

Particular attention should be given to Education and Experience section of your application form, which should be populated with details of your career to date and educational achievements and certifications as they relate to your application.

The candidature of NATO redundant staff at grade G15 will be considered with priority.

NATO will not accept any phase of the recruitment and selection prepared, 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. NATO 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 applications may be rejected without further consideration at NATO’s sole discretion, and NATO reserves the right to take further steps in such cases as appropriate.

NATO is committed to diversity and inclusion, and strives to provide equal access to employment, advancement and retention, independent of gender, age, nationality, ethnic origin, religion or belief, cultural background, sexual orientation, and disability. NATO welcomes applications of nationals from all member Nations, and strongly encourages women to apply.

This vacancy will close on 13 October 2025 @ 17:59hrs (EDT)/11:59hrs (CEST).