Challenge Programmes Assistant

Job title: Challenge Programmes Assistant

Company: NATO

Job description:

• OVERVIEW OF DIANA

The Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) is NATO’s newest body. From across the Alliance, DIANA will bring together innovators and operational end users to foster a transatlantic ecosystem supporting dual-use ground-breaking innovation in deep technologies.
DIANA is an independent NATO body comprised of an Allied Board of Directors and a management team – the DIANA Executive (DX). Operating out of regional offices in Europe and in North America, the DX will carry out DIANA’s mission: accelerating deep tech, dual-use solutions to critical transatlantic challenges in defence and security. The DX will use Challenge Programmes in line with a strategic direction as the primary vehicle to accomplish this mission.2. OVERVIEW OF THE ROLEDIANA’s Challenge Programmes will combine the vision and inspiration of the Challenge Manager with the external insights and engagement from across the Alliance’s innovation ecosystems and the NATO Enterprise. DIANA will maintain a close working relationship with various Allied and NATO bodies, especially the Science and Technology Organisation (STO), Allied Command Transformation (ACT), the Conference of National Armaments Directors (CNAD), and others. Moreover, it will seek to establish industrial, academic, and international partnerships for the development and commercialization of technology.
The Challenge Programme Assistant should join as a junior professional from academic labs, government R&D, or the corporate sector and be ready to immediately leverage their skills to support the creation and execution of Challenge Programmes.
Reporting to the CTO/Chief Scientist, the Challenge ProgrammesAssistant works closely with Challenge Managers and Project Managers and helps to foster companies to help them meet future operational challenges.
Duties of this role include:

• Assist the Project Managers and Challenge Managers with the planning, implementation and monitoring of Challenge Programmes and other related projects.
• Support the Chief Scientist and Chief Technology Officer and coordinate resource-related outputs.
• Coordinate with internal and external stakeholders for all requests for data, information, meetings, and delivery of products.
• Support strategic communications and stakeholder engagement related to Challenge Programmes.
• Assist the Challenge Team in establishing the required tools, processes, and best practices to ensure that DIANA can run projects while meeting the key performance indicators of being on time, on budget, within the desired scope, and at a high level of quality.
• Assist in the establishment of an enterprise risk management capability that aids DIANA leadership in the identification, classification, and management of risks. Once the risk management capability is in place, assist in using it for the management of risks.
• Maintain data, documents and databases related to Challenge Programmes and other related projects.
• Support the development and implementation of policy, doctrine and supplementary project documents for Challenge Programmes.
• Provide administrative support to the Challenge Team, including booking conference rooms and organizing IT/VTC support, and organizing events.
• Provide training and mentoring to other DIANA staff on project management techniques, tools, and best practices; and
• Perform any other related duties as may be required.

*Reserve candidates may be considered for similar posts in Estonia or Canada, if appropriate. *3. ROLE REQUIREMENTS, QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCEESSENTIAL
The incumbent must have:

• Possess a university degree from an institute of recognised standing or equivalent qualification with 3 years post-related experience.
• Experience in supporting project planning, cost estimation, and quality management.
• Experience with digital project management platforms.
• Experience in drafting standard project documents such as project mandates, project plans, highlight reports, lessons learned reports, etc.
• Exceptional presentation skills with experience in creating and delivering compelling presentations to a wide variety of stakeholders.
• Possess the following minimum levels of NATO’s official languages (English/French): V (“Advanced”) in one; I (“Beginner”) in the other.

NOTE: Most of the DIANA’s internal work is conducted in the English language.DESIRABLEThe following would be considered an advantage:

• Degree in STEM-related discipline.
• PRINCE II Foundation/Practitioner qualification or similar certification.
• Experience in risk management and analysis and costing risk.
• Experience in or with innovation accelerators, start-up incubators, or innovative environments.
• Experience working and negotiating with experts from other fields, including across functions and/or with military operational experts.
• Experience working in a multilateral environment or an environment with a variety of stakeholders from multi-cultural backgrounds.
• Proven networking and multi-stakeholder management skills
• Knowledge of NATO institutional framework, policies and procedures.

Language Proficiency:
A thorough knowledge of one of the two NATO languages, both written and spoken, is essential and some knowledge of the other is desirable.4. WHAT WE OFER

• Genuinely meaningful work as part of the newest unit within the most successful alliance in history.
• Tax-free salary.
• Household and children’s allowances and privileges for expatriate staff including expatriation and educational allowances (where applicable) and additional home leave.
• Excellent private health insurance scheme.
• NATO pension scheme.
• Generous annual leave of 30 days plus official holidays.
• Flexible working conditions and a smoke-free office in London.
• Opportunities for learning and development.

In accordance with the NATO Civilian Personnel Regulations, the successful candidate will receive a definite duration contract of three years, which may be followed by an extension.
If the successful applicant is seconded from the national administration of one of NATO’s member States, a 3-year definite duration contract will be offered, which may be renewed for a further period of up to 3 years subject to the agreement of the national authority concerned. The maximum period of service in the post as a seconded staff member is six years.
NOTE: Irrespective of previous qualifications and experience, candidates for twin-graded posts will be appointed at the lower grade. Advancement to the higher grade is not automatic and will not normally take place during the first three years of service in the post.
Under specific circumstances, serving staff members may be appointed directly to the higher grade, and a period of three years might be reduced by up to twenty four months for external candidates. These circumstances are described in the DX directive on twin-graded posts.
Appointment will be subject to receipt of a security clearance (provided by the national Authorities of the selected candidate) and approval of the candidate’s medical file by the NATO Medical Adviser.
Applicants who are not successful in this competition may be offered an appointment to another post of a similar nature, albeit at the same or a lower grade, provided they meet the necessary requirements.For more information on DIANA, please visit our .

Expected salary:

Location: London

Job date: Sun, 09 Jun 2024 05:53:08 GMT

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