2024-0234 Support System Engineering for Service delivery (NS) - MON 4 Nov

Deadline Date: Monday 4 November 2024

Requirement: Support System Engineering for Service Delivery Joint Intelligence and Reconnaissance Services Support Centre

Location: Mons, BE

Full Time On-Site: Yes

Time On-Site: 100%

Period of Performance: BASE period: 2nd January 2025 – 31st December 2025 with the possibility to exercise following options:

2026 OPTION period: 1st January 2026 until 31st December 2026

2027 OPTION period: 1st January 2027 until 31st December 2027

Required Security Clearance: NATO SECRET

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency) located in Mons, Belgium, is currently involved in the development of new capabilities for NATO as well as in the support of existing capabilities. In the light of these activities, the JISR Centre is looking for a system engineer with experience in JISR System Engineering and Cloud Activities.

1.2 The System Engineer will provide the technical JISR expert subject matter expertise solutions and communication of high-level structures to enable and guide the design and development of integrated solutions that meet current and future business needs.

1.3 Changes to service, process, organisation, operating model and other aspects may be required in addition to technology components, and solutions must demonstrate how agreed requirements (such as automation of business processes) are met, any requirements which are not fully met or, and any options or considerations which require a business decision.

2. OBJECTIVES

2.1 The main objective of this statement of work is the maintenance of existing and future NATO JISR services, provide the service delivery and solution engineering solutions to NATO JISR Systems

2.2 The JSSC needs a dedicate Level2/Level3 support specialist to cover all ISR applications including initially CSD IPL/IWS, ICMT, AOSS, NAMIS, Intel-FS, CoreGIS, ANB, Release Server, HMART, NABIS, REACT.

2.3 The JISR Centre is looking for ONE System Engineer in support of the JSSC.

2.4 Starting 2023, the JSSC was requested to support up to 13 exercises (up from the 3 major ones in previous years) including on-site deployments, reach-back support, on-call support and extended hours support as well as Subject Matter Expertise. Also, in preparation for the major changes to Steadfast Cobalt (STCO) architecture and scale, the team needs to be augmented. In addition, during times in which NATO exercises are not being prepared or executed, the engineer will also have to maintain and monitor the applications during standby and also participate in the day to day Operational Support for the Centralized Service Level Agreement (CSLA) activities.

3. SCOPE OF WORK

3.1 The contractor will be part of a team and will work using an Agile and iterative approach using multiple sprints. Each sprint is planned for an approximate duration of 4 weeks with an average 38 hours per week. The content and scope of each sprint will be agreed with the service delivery manager during the sprint-planning meeting, in writing.

3.2 The scope of the assignment will be limited to providing Level 2 and Level 3 service support according to the submitted Incidents, Service Requests, Change Requests, Task, Requests for Information or Internal activities, traceable through the NCIA ITSM and/or Azure DevOPS NATO Software Factory ticketing system.

3.3 The work shall be carried out in sprints whereby each sprint is independent. The engineer will be required to respond, document, categorize and solve all the assigned tickets according to the internal processes and procedures. The work will be executed mainly onsite, but some sprints might require offsite at other NATO locations. Generally, remote work cannot be performed offsite since the nature and classification of the work requires the incumbent to be present in the office with access to classified networks. Nevertheless, incidental requests will be reviewed on a case by case basis.

3.4 The Engineer will participate in the daily reporting and planning activities (daily stand-ups) as well as the required participation in workshops, events and conferences related to the supported services, as requested by the Service Delivery Manager(s).

The Engineer will have to resolve tickets covering a wide range of Level 2 and Level 3 activities, for example:

• Install, maintain, monitor and support the JSSC services (Intel-FS, ANB, Release Server, CoreGIS, HMART, CSD IPL/IWS, ICMT, AOSS, NAMIS, NABIS, REACT) mainly in support of Operations, Missions and NATO exercises.
• Provide timely response and resolution to all support tickets (incidents, service requests, changes, internal activities) following the internal processes
• Escalate issues to level 3 support team as appropriate, support in the troubleshooting and debugging of found issues (document and escalate trouble tickets from ITSM into Azure DevOps work items, as well as support in their resolution and testing)
• Offer Subject Matter Expertise for the JSSC applications to the user community and to COIs (supporting the Requests For Information)
• Get involved in User Acceptance Testing for new software releases in both organizing and test execution (supporting the Change Requests)
• Apply patches and install ISR software updates, coordinate outages (according to agreed Approved Service Interruptions, Security Audit Findings, regular software updates)
• Participate in NRF/ARF/Enterprise CABs as needed to support new software releases in the validation and verification process (support to Change Requests)
• Provide support in maintaining the NATO Software Factory infrastructure, user and rights management, software updates and internal activities
• Interface between JSSC applications and inter-operable FASes from other Business Areas
• Participates in on-call support. He/she also adheres to flexible 8 hrs/5 days a week shifts, which may be scheduled on-demand based on operational needs. This scheduling flexibility ensures that the duty activities can start earlier or later in a day, providing consistent and adaptable support in alignment with the organization’s requirements;

4. PAYMENT MILESTONES AND DELIVERABLES

The following deliverables are expected from this statement of work:

1) Complete the activities/tasks agreed in each spring meeting as per sections 2 and 3 above.

2) Produce sprint completion reports (format: e-mail update), which include details of activities performed. Specifically, the resolved number of tickets will be broken down into number of Incidents, Service Requests (work orders), Change Requests, Tasks, Requests for Information or Internal Activities, traceable through ITSM and/or Azure DevOPS NATO Software Factory ticketing systems.

3) The Engineer will participate in the daily reporting and planning activities (daily stand- ups) as well as the required participation in workshops, events and conferences related to the supported services, as requested by the Service Delivery Manager.

Payment Schedule will be at the end of each sprint of four working weeks, following the acceptance of the sprint report.

The NCIA team reserves the possibility to exercise a number of options, based on the same scrum deliverable timeframe, at a later time, depending on the project priorities and requirements.

The payment shall be dependent upon successful acceptance of the sprint report and the Delivery Acceptance Sheet (DAS) – (Annex B) including the EBA Receipt number. Invoices shall be accompanied with a Delivery Acceptance Sheet (Annex B) signed by the Contractor and the NCIA POC

4.1 2025 BASE: 01/01/2025 – 31/12/2025

Deliverable 01: Sprint(s) for the resolution of 50 to 80 Level 2 and Level 3 ITSM/DevOps tickets

Quantity: 10

Payment Milestones: After each sprint completion

4.2 2026 OPTION: 01 January 2026 to 31 December 2026

Deliverable:  Up to 10 sprints

Payment Milestones: Upon completion of each sprint and at the end of the work.

4.3 2027 OPTION: 01 January 2027 to 31 December 2027

Deliverable:  Up to 10 sprints

Payment Milestones: Upon completion of each sprint and at the end of the work.

5. COORDINATION AND REPORTING

5.1 The Contractor shall deliver services on-site in SHAPE, Mons, Belgium.

5.2 The contractor shall report to the JISR Centre ISR Application Services Branch Head.

5.3 The Contractor shall participate in monthly status update meetings and other meetings, physically in the office, or in person via electronic means using Conference Call capabilities, according to service delivery manager’s instructions.

5.4 For each sprint to be considered as complete and payable, the contractor must report the outcome of his/her work during the sprint, first verbally during the retrospective meeting and then in writing, within five (5) working days after the sprint’s end date. A report in the format of a short email shall be sent to NCI Agency POC briefly mentioning the work held and the achievements during the sprint.

6. SCHEDULE

This task order will be active immediately after signing of the contract by both parties.

6.1 The BASE period of performance is 01st January 2025 and will end no later than 31st December 2025.

6.2 If the 2026 onwards option is exercised, the period of performance is 01st January 2026 to 31st December 2026.

6.3 If the 2027 onwards option is exercised, the period of performance is 01st January 2027 to 31st December 2027.

7. SECURITY

7.1 Performance of the services described in this SOW require a valid NATO SECRET security clearance prior to the start of the engagement.

8. CONSTRAINTS

8.1 All the documentation provided under this statement of work will be based on NCI Agency templates or agreed with project point of contact.

8.2 All scripts, documentation and required code will be stored under configuration management and/or in the provided NCI Agency tools.

9. PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS

9.1 This is a deliverables-based contract.

9.2 The contractor shall provide services On-site in SHAPE, Mons, Belgium. Exceptional off-site activities to support service delivery can also be arranged with the line manager’s and IASB Branch Head’s coordination and approval.

9.3 There may be requirements to travel to other sites within NATO for completing these tasks.

9.4 Travel costs are out of scope and will be borne by the NCI Agency separately in accordance to the provisions of the AAS+ Framework Contract.

9.5 The work depicted in this SOW is expected to be carried by a single contractor.

10. QUALIFICATIONS

[See Requirements]

Requirements

7. SECURITY

• 7.1 Performance of the services described in this SOW require a valid NATO SECRET security clearance prior to the start of the engagement.

10. QUALIFICATIONS

The consultancy support for this work requires a systems engineer with the following qualifications:

10.1 Technical Qualifications

10.1.1Essential

• Experienced system engineer with proven level 2/level 3 support roles in a multinational and/or military organisation of minimum 5 years in various roles (Windows Server Administration, Windows Client Administration, Active Directory Administration, Network Administrator, Virtualization, IIS web hosting, Linux hosting, Linux Administration, Ansible, Containerization)
• Microsoft SQL Server Administration knowledge (installation, configuration, maintenance, backup policies)
• Remote server administration
• Knowledge of DNS, DHCP, WSUS, GPOs
• MS SQL scripting knowledge, data consistency and data clean-up based on consultation with the user community and development team
• Azure Devops experience
• Hardware and software configuration of Server hosting platforms, custom disk configurations with specific storage controllers, RAID configuration, redundancy and safety approach in all levels of designing in implementing of the solutions
• Very good virtualization skills, preferably on vmWare with System Center integration
• Good knowledge of Powershell scripting and/or Python
• xml file manipulation, xsds validation and maintenance and automation done through Powershell/scripting

10.1.2 Desirable

• Desirable skills: previous knowledge of NATO FASes constitute and advantage
• Desirable experience in various areas of Software Engineering including: Software design, implementation and testing; Programming languages, techniques and methodologies associated with the duties described above; Very good knowledge of commonly used standards and best practices for software engineering, including design patterns;
• Desirable knowledge/Exposure to technologies like WSO2, Kafka, Apache Camel, Redis, PostGres, Neo4J, Angular, Elastic Search, XSLT, OData, Java development, Agile software development methodologies
• Desirable: knowledge and experience in: Application server technologies; Multi-tiered, distributed systems; Service-Oriented Architectures; Relational data base management systems; Web authoring, design and administration tools
• Desirable: knowledge and experience in: C#, HTML5 and modern JavaScript/TypeScript frameworks, Web Services
• Desirable: previous experience in NATO, FAS support, software lifecycle support, knowledge of NATO policies and process

10.2 Professional Qualifications

• Must have excellent spoken and written English communication and presentation skills, as demonstrated by recent experience (within the past 5 years);
• Must have proficiency in the office Suite, Reporting tools;
• Must have excellent understanding and experience of network communication protocols TCP/IP, OSI layers, Firewalls and Security principles
• Must demonstrate the ability and self-motivation to work on his/her own but must also work well within groups as part of a team;
• Must demonstrate an ability and keen sense for problem-solving.
• Motivated, good communication skills, team player.
• Able to work independently with minimal supervision.
• Knowledge of NATO responsibilities and organization.