Job Description

Purpose of the post The Capabilities Department comprises the responsibility for Information Management and Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Some 100 staff in 3 of 6 units is responsible for developing, delivering and maintaining information management and communication technology capabilities that ensure enhanced criminal information exchange between Member States. In order to support the business requirements the IT Solution Engineering Unit deals with a diverse range of approaches that involve development on Microsoft and Java technologies, as well as integration of COTS packages. The main purpose of the post is to transform business-level requirements and architecture guidance into detailed solution designs and implementation plans that can guide the work of external and internal solution developers in their technical tasks. In addition, the selected candidate will be responsible for actively supporting project managers in both planning and estimating activities, and in driving the execution of solution development projects, by technical progress monitoring, quality control, identifying, resolving and escalating issues as appropriate. The selected candidate will work closely with the Head of Unit in the area of planning, governance and reporting on programme execution.


Tasks and responsibilities

The main objective of the selected candidate is to transform business requirements and architecture guidance into solution designs and implementation plans, and then accompany with technical input and direction the solution implementation tasks executed within the Unit.
The main responsibilities include:

• Act as the principal liaison with the ICT Architecture and Processes Unit;
  
• Analyze the impact of changes on existing systems and produce detailed solutions designs that guide implementation in accordance with the business requirements and the architecture guidance;
  
• Identify the work breakdown structure of technical tasks required for the implementation of the solution (both within the IT Solutions Engineering Unit and for external entities);
  
• Define technical specifications and technical execution requirements in the context of tenders, for the procurement of IT components, solutions, or professional services, and participate to the evaluation of offers;
  
• Identify dependencies, internal and external stakeholders, and liaise with them to drive planning and execution;
  
• Support project managers in the detailed planning and estimation process;
  
• Support project managers in supervising execution and tracking issues with focus on technical design issues;
  
• Perform Technical Product Management of selected systems and platforms;
  
• Any other tasks in the area of competence as assigned by the Head of Unit.

Requirements

Requirements

Eligibility criteria:
a. Candidates must

• Be a national of one of the Member States of the European Union and enjoy full rights as a citizen;
  
• Have fulfilled any obligations imposed by the applicable laws on military service;
  
• Produce appropriate character references as to the suitability for the performance of the duties;
  
• Be physically fit to perform the duties pertaining to the position;
  
• Produce evidence of a thorough knowledge of one of the languages of the Communities and a satisfactory knowledge of another language of the Communities to the extent necessary for the performance of the duties;
  

b. Candidates must have

• A level of education which corresponds to completed university studies, preferably in the area of Computer Science attested by a diploma when the normal period of university education is 4 years or more;
  

OR
A level of education which corresponds to completed university studies, preferably in the area of Computer Science attested by a diploma and appropriate professional experience of at least 1 year when the normal period of university education is at least 3 years;
OR
Professional training of an equivalent level in a relevant area (e.g. Police Officer’s School) and after having completed the training, at least the number of years of relevant professional experience indicated in the table below:

Duration of professional training Professional experience
More than 6 months and up to 1 year 4 years
More than 1 year and up to 2 years 3 years
More than 2 years and up to 3 years 2 years
More than 3 years 1 year

• In addition to the above at least 9 years of relevant professional work experience gained in the area of IT after the award of the diploma.
  

Selection criteria:
a. Professional experience and knowledge:

The ideal candidate has gained experience in large organizations, preferably multinational, possesses a strong background in technical architecture design and implementation in technologically diverse contexts, and is familiar with the challenges posed by complex integration of custom development and customized COTS.

Essential:

The ideal candidate must have relevant knowledge in the concepts, methods, techniques, and experience with products in the following domain areas:

• Application server platforms, with emphasis on J2EE and/or Microsoft .NET;
  
• Service Oriented Architectures (e.g. web services, enterprise service bus, orchestration, relevant middleware);
  
• Web architectures, including portal and web-based collaboration technologies;
  
• Batch and online architecture concepts and design patterns;
  
• Integration architecture concepts and patterns (e.g. synchronous, asynchronous, message queuing, ideally with knowledge of related middleware products);
  
• Relational database management systems;
  
• Directory technologies.
  

Desirable:
Knowledge and experience in the following domains will be regarded as an asset:

• Virtualization technologies and products;
  
• MS SQL Server and MySQL databases;
  
• Microsoft Active Directory;
  
• Document and content management technologies ;
  
• Performance optimization techniques and tools;
  
• Software lifecycle supporting tools;
  
• IBM WebSphere Product Suite;
  
• Microsoft Biztalk;
  
• Microsoft SharePoint;
  
• Identity and Access Management technologies;
  
• Sizing and capacity planning;
  
• High-availability concepts and techniques.
  

b. Technical skills and competencies:
Essential:

• Solution Architecture Modeling skills including the ability to appropriately use different representations and abstraction levels in order to clearly and effectively communicate to different audiences / stakeholders (e.g. architecture team, implementation team) while keeping message consistency.
  
• Execution-focused approach with strong project management skills and familiarity with project management terminology, methodology;
  
• MS Office productivity suite including modeling tools such as MS Visio and MS Project;
  
• Ability to often switch contexts and quickly familiarize with new ones, promptly identifying key issues;
  
• Excellent communication skills in English, both orally and in writing;
  
• Excellent organizational skills with the ability to organise, plan and implement assignments for own and other’s work, manage competing demands and work under pressure.
  

c. Social skills and competencies:
Essential:

• Strong can-do attitude including the natural inclination to proactively detect issues even in areas out of direct responsibility and to take ownership to drive resolution;
  
• Ability to direct work of others including the ability to motivate staff, effectively plan and monitor work execution and provide guidance;
  
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to establish and maintain effective working relations with co-workers in an international and multi-disciplinary work environment.

Company offers

Salary

Scale: AD8
The basic monthly salary is EUR 6 181, 38 (step 1).
In addition, if applicable, allowances such as expatriation allowance, household allowance, dependent child allowance and education may be granted.
Europol offers a comprehensive welfare package comprising additional benefits such as medical insurance, unemployment and invalidity allowance as well as a pension scheme.
Salaries are subject to a community tax but exempt from national taxation.

Terms and conditions

Probation period

Engagement for this position is subject to the successful completion of a probationary period of 6 months. Within this period the successful candidate will have to undergo a post-related security screening.
Europol reserves the right to terminate the contract of employment during or at the end of the probation period in accordance with Article 14 of CEOS.

Security screening and certificate of good conduct
In order to ensure that all candidates who have successfully passed a selection procedure comply with the security standards and do not have a criminal record we request all successful candidates to apply for a national “certificate of good conduct” at the time an offer of employment is made.
The certificate of good conduct provides evidence that the candidate is suitable to be employed by Europol. However, the national certificate of good conduct does not substitute a full security clearance that must be carried out for all Europol staff in accordance with the clearance level determined for the position.

Contract of employment
The successful candidate will be recruited as Temporary Agent AD 8 pursuant to Article 2 (a) of CEOS, for a period of 5 years. The contract may be renewed.
The place of employment will be The Hague, The Netherlands.
For further information on terms and conditions please consult the EC Staff Regulations which are available on Europol’s website.

Additional information

Main dates:
Deadline for application: 25 June 2010
Recruitment procedure: July 2010
Starting date of employment: to be determined
The selection procedure will be carried out in accordance with the EUROPOL RECRUITMENT GUIDELINES available on Europol’s website www.europol.europa.eu.
Contact Details:
For further details on the application process please call +31 (0) 70 353 1628 or +31 (0) 70 302 5298.


APPLY ONLINE

offer id 8756
reference id Europol/2010/TA/AD8/028