About this job

Sapienza Consulting is recruiting an NCOP Mentoring Services 2022 to join NATO – NCIA in The Hague, South Holland, Netherlands.

NCOP (NATO Common Operational Picture) is the next generation system providing the COP (Common Operational Picture) for NATO and delivered across the NCS (NATO Command Structure) and training sites for modern situational awareness with several interfaces to build a most-complete COP. Technologies involved crossing all Microsoft technologies on server and client sides (SharePoint, SQL, BizTalk, Web client including Silverlight, WCF web services, Windows with IIS web server).

Responsibilities

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this document is to define requirements for delivering Support, Training and Mentoring services for NCOP to NATO commands as part of the overall support provided by the NCIA NCOP team. The contractor(s) assigned shall formally report to the Situational Awareness (SA) Service Area Owner (as Task Order officer) and work in coordination with the NCOP Service Delivery Manager.

DUTIES

At duty Location and on-site at NATO military sites, the Support, Training and Mentoring for NCOP contractor(s) will deliver the following services:

• Train military staff in operational environment on NATO Functional Systems and in particular NCOP system
• Mentor military staff in operational environment on NATO Functional Systems and in particular NCOP system
• Produce training materials for NCOP (e.g. PowerPoint, student manuals and training dataset) using MS Office Products and functional systems
• Carry out in-depth system troubleshooting, fault finding and analysis of system malfunctions as directed by technical support staff
• Support operational sites (remotely or on-site) to operate, monitor and maintain assigned systems, sub-systems or assets
• Monitor system performance to ensure that systems remain operational and keep the stakeholders appropriately informed on status and availability
• Document appropriate actions to enable system administration and troubleshooting
• Report deficiencies and change requests to the software baselines in the NCI Agency tracking systems (ITSM, Microsoft Azure)
• Perform software testing or other relevant Quality Assurance activities for new baselines
• Report performed support and test activities through formalized reports and/or informal emails
• Produce or review system documentation and technical standard procedures
• Provide knowledge transfer to other team members
• Perform other duties as may be required in the area of support, training and mentoring

The following mentoring sessions represent the current planning and are provided for evaluation purposes, quantities will be confirmed via purchase order (see current RFQ table below providing detailed scope for quotation):

• 12 visits to 6 NATO commands in Europe (3 man days each, on average)
• 3 exercises in Europe (one to two weeks, including weekend, 50% extended hours days)
• 4 (2022) and 8 (2023) battlestaff trainings (BST) in Europe (one week each, on average)

Working hours are defined in accordance with duty location working hours (typically 08.00-17.00 including one-hour break). In exceptional cases, the hours for providing services will be adjusted to match the operational demand up to 12 hours per day. Additional working time is included for specific type of session below.

Each session is provided by a maximum of 1 consultant.

Companies are invited to include all costs within proposed rates (including travel costs, accommodation, etc.)

Expected specific periods of work shall be agreed with Task Order officer.

Indicative location (country) and duration of work for bidding (2022 and 2023 as option).

Profile

The proposed Support, Training and Mentoring services contractor(s) will demonstrate, as a minimum, 24 months (within the last 3 years) relevant experience in a functional system training/mentoring and support post; with a background in System engineering and demonstrable experience in:

• Training military staff in operational environment on NATO Functional Systems
• Mentoring military staff in operational environment on NATO Functional Systems
• Creating and reviewing NATO Functional Systems training materials
• System and Web-based applications troubleshooting and fault analysis
• Service Oriented Architecture and associated tools (e.g. SOAP UI, Fiddler)
• Creating and reviewing system documentation and status reports
• Software testing and other Quality Assurance activities in the software engineering domain

It is also be considered highly desirable that the proposed candidate(s) has(ve):

• Experience supporting NATO FASes especially NCOP and iGeoSIT (MCCIS, LC2IS, AirC2IS, ICC or NIRIS is secondary)
• Knowledge on Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards
• Experience in Network communications and protocols including Windows, TCP/IP and DNS

Competencies required

• Ability to work independently and manage multiple tasks simultaneously
• Good interpersonal and communication skills, proactivity and strong sense of team work
• Working as part of a software engineering and testing team,
• Ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing:
  • Work both oral and written in the post and in the Agency as a whole is conducted in English
  • Fluency in English: 3333 (Listening, speaking, reading and writing)
• Is a certified “NATO CIS Instructor” (ref. NATO course ID 970), or national equivalent
• Has received Instructor certification for (at least) one NATO Functional System