Head of IT Unit

We are looking for an experienced and dynamic ICT professional who will provide strategic direction and lead a diverse IT team providing services in the development, support, maintenance, and security of EDA ICT capabilities, products and platforms.

Reporting to the Director of Corporate Services, the Head of the IT Unit will have the following key tasks and areas of responsibility:

Strategic IT advice

• support the Agency’s mission by proposing priorities in partnership with senior and middle management and providing expert guidance in alignment with EDA’s corporate and evolving business needs;
• develop and promote state-of-the-art policies, procedures and processes in line with evolving business needs;
• manage the Agency’s ICT operations and related contractual vehicles, including the portfolio of EDA products and platforms;
• establish performance of ICT processes/systems to determine operating costs and budgets, service levels and upgrade requirements, benchmark, analyse, report on, and make recommendations and plans for the improvement of the ICT infrastructure and ICT processes/systems.

Management and oversight

• provide leadership and direction to the IT team, and develop, adjust and implement a strategy and focus on the creation of value-added business outputs while ensuring compliance with the relevant regulatory framework;
• manage the workload and human resources allocated to the IT Unit, including the development of competences and skills, and the evaluation of performance;
• lead the IT human resources by fostering team cohesion and sustained motivation;
• prepare and manage ICT budgets, ICT procurement plan, delivery plans, including ICT governance;
• ensure information assurance and resilience, including the ICT management of the Agency’s Classified Networks.

The jobholder may 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.

5. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

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 them 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 attested by a diploma when the normal period of university education is four years or more, or a level of education which corresponds to completed university studies attested by a diploma and appropriate professional experience of at least one year when the normal period of university education is at least three years or be a graduate of a national or international Defence College; or where justified in the interests of the service, professional training of an equivalent level.

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.

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

6. SELECTION CRITERIA

A. Essential

Only applications meeting all essential selection criteria will be assessed.

(1) Professional

Candidates will be required to demonstrate the following qualifications:

• a master’s degree (or equivalent academic degree) in ICT, engineering, economics or other relevant field;
• at least 10 years of ICT experience (acquired after the award of the minimum qualification required as a condition of eligibility) in positions relevant to the job description, in progressively senior levels;
• proven experience leading complex ICT organisations, preferably in the international public sector environment;
• demonstrated expertise in ICT project, contractor and ICT Infrastructure management, including cloud-based environments, agile delivery, secure networks, audio-visual systems, classified information exchange and disaster recovery;
• at least four (4) years of proven track record in successfully leading and managing diverse IT teams and establishing IT as business partner;
• strong experience with cloud-based environments and security deployments (M365 E5, Sentinel, Intune) and AI enabled data and business intelligence solutions (Dynamics 365, Fabric, Power Platform);
• a sound track record of delivering effective internal and external end-user support mechanisms to diverse stakeholders;
• a good understanding of IT security and cyber defence concepts and solutions, Infosec principles;
• demonstrated experience in IT Security and Risk Management, ideally coupled with related recognised certifications;
• very good command of written and oral 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:

• the ability to build strategic relations, communicate complex technical topics to senior stakeholders and to translate business needs into tangible, efficient proposals and solutions;
• very good leadership and management skills;
• results-orientation and strong intrinsic motivation, proactivity and a "can-do" attitude;
• flexibility and tact, combined with a strong sense of duty and responsibility;
• integrity, accuracy and dependability;
• excellent interpersonal and presentation skills at all levels;
• strong customer orientation;
• sharp analytical and critical thinking skills combined with sound judgment;
• strong organisational skills, receptiveness and resilience in a rapidly evolving work environment as well as the ability to motivate a technical team;
• ability to operate in an innovative manner within an environment with limited resources.

B. Desirable

The following will be considered an advantage:

• a recognised product or project management qualification;
• recognised ICT certifications;
• proven experience leading cultural change in adopting cloud-based data platforms (Dynamic 365, Power BI and Fabric), no-code and low-code platforms (Power Platform), and transitioning to Software-as-a-Service (to replace bespoke applications and on-premises infrastructure).

7. APPOINTMENT AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT FOR TEMPORARY AGENTS AT EDA

EDA, whose staff are governed by its own Staff Regulations, offers specific conditions of employment with regards to contract duration and pension arrangements.

CONTRACT DURATION

The Head of IT Unit will be appointed by the Chief Executive. Recruitment will be as a member of the temporary staff of the Agency for a 4-year period. Renewal is possible only once for an additional period of 4 years, within the limits set out in the EDA Staff Regulations. The successful candidate will be recruited as Temporary Agent, grade AD11. In line with EDA's Staff Regulations, the Agency does not offer inter-Agency mobility.

FINANCIAL ENTITLEMENTS

The pay for this position consists of a basic salary of 12.907,41€ 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 is deducted at source.

PENSION ARRANGEMENTS SPECIFIC TO EDA

Prospective staff members considering a career at the European Defence Agency (EDA) should be aware that EDA has its own pension provisions and is not part of the EU institutions' pension scheme (PSEUI).

In addition, EDA staff have several flexible options regarding their pension contributions at the end of their contract, under certain conditions, such as:

• transfer to a public pension scheme;
• transfer to a private pension scheme;
• direct payment as a severance grant.

For further information on working conditions please refer to: https://eda.europa.eu/jobs/what-we-offer