Test 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 ID – 2025-0335

Role Background

The NCIA has been established with a view to meeting to the best advantage the collective requirements of NATO nations in the fields of capability delivery and service provision related to Consultation, Command & Control as well as Communications, Information and Cyber Defence functions, thereby also facilitating the integration of Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, Target Acquisition functions and their associated information exchange.

The AirC2 Centre delivers planning, development, procurement, implementation and In-Service Support of NATO authorised AirC2 capabilities across the Alliance and bilaterally in the European Nations of the Alliance, satisfying the operational requirements, assuring the coherence, integrity and interoperability of the involved NATO and national systems and sub-systems. In doing so, the AirC2 Centre contributes to NATO's Integrated Air and Missile Defence operations and continuously evolves NATO authorised systems and services to empower seamless, resilient and adaptable NATO operations in a multi domain environment.

The Business Assurance Functional Group ensures that the AirC2 centre delivers high- quality products and services to its customers and stakeholders. The Functional Group is responsible for the direction, management and execution of the activities related to the Verification, Integration, Operational Validation and Acceptance of the Systems and capabilities delivered by the AirC2 centre. In addition the Functional Group defines, establishes and maintains a mission assurance framework, in line with the NCI Agency's policy and directives, in order to provide quality and safety assurance.The Business Assurance Functional Group has requirements for subject matter experts to plan and execute verification and validation activities on behalf of the NCIA in support of the Air and Missile Defence programmes by delivering the followings described in the next paragraph.

Role Duties and Responsibilities        

• System Test Plan
• Support development of test plans for NATO AirC2 systems and on-going Rollout test activities for product in the maintenance phase;
• Development of scenarios and database in cooperation with peers and operational crew from existing AirC2 sites;
• Maintain test milestones, system test plans and other test artefacts in the agency provided TestRail system;
• Perform related activity within this scope as deemed appropriate and required to establish the deliverable.
• Test Case / Procedure
• Support development of Test Cases / Procedures / checklists, cheat sheets and aides to support test execution;
• Keep this library up to date including the Regression test catalogue, load and cycle and interface tests;
• Adapt and update files used during development and operational testing, at the NAMF and on-site as required;
• Dry run and validate test procedures / cases in the NAMF;
• Support continuous development of a library of Master Event List/Master Incident List scenarios and any other ad hoc test scenarios in cooperation with peers and operational crew from AIRC2 sites and keep this library up to date;
• Dry run and validate candidate AirC2 test scenarios;
• Perform related activity within this scope as deemed appropriate and required to establish the deliverable.
• Test Run /Logs
• Dry-run test procedure / case or exploratory testing;
• Execute them or observe the execution;
• Record results in TestRail or in an ITL (Independent Test Log) / Master Test Log (MTL)) execution;
• Record, develop and execute the test charter in the case of exploratory testing;
• Perform related activity within this scope as deemed appropriate and required to establish the deliverable.
• System Test Report
• Contribute to the drafting of test reports;
• Evaluate the validation status of all requirements within their assigned operational or technical area of expertise;
• Report all defects and deficiencies related to their assigned requirement set observed during test activities, cover them in the report paragraph on their assigned area of expertise, and have them added to the relevant backlog;
• Follow up on the resolution of these observations and assist in the validation;
• Prepare the Test Summary needed for the various site rollout test activities
• Evaluate the validation status of all requirements within their assigned operational or technical area of expertise including PTR coverage matrix or VCRI ;
• Perform related activity within this scope as deemed appropriate and required to establish the deliverable.
• Problem/Observation Reports
• Report and document all defects and deficiencies related to the assigned requirement set observed during test activities;
• Address them in the report as it relates to their assigned area of expertise,
• Ensure insertion into the relevant backlog;
• Follow up on the resolution of these observations and assist in the validation;
• Perform related activity within this scope as deemed appropriate and required to establish the deliverable.
• D006 Test script workbooks (mission card catalogue)
• Support development of a library of Mission/Test Cards, checklists, cheat sheets and aides to support test execution;
• Keep this library up to date;
• Adapt files used during development and operational testing during in factory SW development and testing and site roll-out;
• Dry run and validate test scripts and mission cards in the existing Maintenance Facility and required NATO and/or national sites;
• Perform related activity within this scope as deemed appropriate and required to establish the deliverable.
• Technical Reports
• Produce technical reports, within its area of expertise, related to any Air and Missile Defence system;
• Participate in project milestones, briefings and any related stakeholder support activity required to complete the report;
• Perform related activity within this scope as deemed appropriate and required to establish the deliverable.
• Support development of test plans for NATO AirC2 systems and on-going Rollout test activities for product in the maintenance phase;
• Development of scenarios and database in cooperation with peers and operational crew from existing AirC2 sites;
• Maintain test milestones, system test plans and other test artefacts in the agency provided TestRail system;
• Perform related activity within this scope as deemed appropriate and required to establish the deliverable.
• Support development of Test Cases / Procedures / checklists, cheat sheets and aides to support test execution;
• Keep this library up to date including the Regression test catalogue, load and cycle and interface tests;
• Adapt and update files used during development and operational testing, at the NAMF and on-site as required;
• Dry run and validate test procedures / cases in the NAMF;
• Support continuous development of a library of Master Event List/Master Incident List scenarios and any other ad hoc test scenarios in cooperation with peers and operational crew from AIRC2 sites and keep this library up to date;
• Dry run and validate candidate AirC2 test scenarios;
• Perform related activity within this scope as deemed appropriate and required to establish the deliverable.
• Dry-run test procedure / case or exploratory testing;
• Execute them or observe the execution;
• Record results in TestRail or in an ITL (Independent Test Log) / Master Test Log (MTL)) execution;
• Record, develop and execute the test charter in the case of exploratory testing;
• Perform related activity within this scope as deemed appropriate and required to establish the deliverable.
• Contribute to the drafting of test reports;
• Evaluate the validation status of all requirements within their assigned operational or technical area of expertise;
• Report all defects and deficiencies related to their assigned requirement set observed during test activities, cover them in the report paragraph on their assigned area of expertise, and have them added to the relevant backlog;
• Follow up on the resolution of these observations and assist in the validation;
• Prepare the Test Summary needed for the various site rollout test activities
• Evaluate the validation status of all requirements within their assigned operational or technical area of expertise including PTR coverage matrix or VCRI ;
• Perform related activity within this scope as deemed appropriate and required to establish the deliverable.
• Report and document all defects and deficiencies related to the assigned requirement set observed during test activities;
• Address them in the report as it relates to their assigned area of expertise,
• Ensure insertion into the relevant backlog;
• Follow up on the resolution of these observations and assist in the validation;
• Perform related activity within this scope as deemed appropriate and required to establish the deliverable.
• Support development of a library of Mission/Test Cards, checklists, cheat sheets and aides to support test execution;
• Keep this library up to date;
• Adapt files used during development and operational testing during in factory SW development and testing and site roll-out;
• Dry run and validate test scripts and mission cards in the existing Maintenance Facility and required NATO and/or national sites;
• Perform related activity within this scope as deemed appropriate and required to establish the deliverable.
• Produce technical reports, within its area of expertise, related to any Air and Missile Defence system;
• Participate in project milestones, briefings and any related stakeholder support activity required to complete the report;
• Perform related activity within this scope as deemed appropriate and required to establish the deliverable.

Essential Skills, Experience and Certifications

• 6 years extensive and progressive expertise in the duties related to this contract;
• Proven knowledge of, and practical experience in, modern test engineering and test management methods and paradigms;
• Proven knowledge of, and practical experience in, the operational or technical use of Air C2 systems supported by NCIA for areas such as system administration, C2 Resource Management, Force Management, Airspace Management, Air Mission Control or Surveillance;
• 6 years extensive and progressive expertise in the duties related to this contract;
• Proven knowledge of, and practical experience in, modern test engineering and test management methods and paradigms;
• Hands on experience in automation and Git (Terraform, Ansible, Jenkins).
• Hands on experience with Kubernetes (AKS, OpenStack), Unix and/or Linux system administration (RedHat) and good understanding of networking protocols.
• 3 years of scripting (bash, Python) or/or programming experience;
• Experience interpreting and/or capturing business and user requirements through use cases and developing test cases accordingly;
• Recent experience in planning and execution of validation activities within large- scale C2 exercises;
• Knowledge of NATO Tactical Data Links and other military or civilian interoperability standards for messaging and data exchange related to air traffic;
• General up-to-date knowledge of computer system architectures, systems security, client/server, LAN/WAN and network concepts, test techniques, Database Management Systems (DBMS) and data management concepts;
• Instructor background;
• Validated ICC, CSI, MASE or other related product experience with C2 nodes within the NATO Area of Responsibility (AOR);
• Recent experience in planning and execution of validation activities within large- scale C2 exercises.

Working Location

• The Hague, Netherlands

Working Policy

• Onsite

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.