Director, Armaments and Major Capability Programmes
🔍 Belgium
- 📅
- 250434 Requisition #
1. SUMMARY
The Defence Investment (DI) Division is responsible for facilitating the development and adoption of cutting-edge, innovative and interoperable capabilities, critical to ensuring the Alliance’s ability to undertake the full spectrum of missions and operations. Key lines of effort include:
- developing and implementing policies and programs to ensure the Alliance can rely on a capable and competitive transatlantic defense industrial base;
- facilitating and promoting multinational cooperation through a series of specific initiatives tackling critical capability requirements;
- leading the development and implementation of projects and major capability programmes in the land, maritime, air and space domains and in doing so addressing all policy, political-military, technical and practical aspects;
- leading NATO’s policy and engagements in the aviation domain;
- pursuing interoperability through standardization and developing with Allies new approaches to operational challenges, supported, among others, by operational experimentation and innovation;
- maintaining the Alliance’s technological edge through exploring and driving adoption of emerging and disruptive technologies, with a particular focus on autonomous systems;
- informing and responding to the Alliance’s evolving capability needs through the NATO Defence Planning Process (NDPP) implementation;
- working with a range of key stakeholders within NATO including the Strategic Commands and externally with NATO Partners and relevant international and regional organisations including the EU, as well as with industry and academia.
The Armaments and Major Capability Programmes Directorate leads, advises and provides support as appropriate for the programmatic development and governance of major capability programmes as well as individual projects in land, maritime, air and space domains. The Directorate is responsible for policy development, capability development support and oversight in the areas of Integrated Air and Missile Defence (IAMD), Aviation and Joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance. It works with a large variety of stakeholders to ensure that the Alliance has the capabilities it needs – both within NATO and externally. This involves leading and supporting expert level working groups addressing armaments and programmatic related topics and capability development. In particular, the Directorate engages with the many bodies of the Conference of National Armaments Directors (CNAD).
Major capability programmes – covering the land, air maritime and space domains – currently include:
- Initial Alliance Future Surveillance and Control (iAFSC)
- Alliance Future Surveillance and Control (AFSC)
- Ballistic Missile Defence
- NATO ISR Force development
In addition, key activities pursued by the Directorate include Digital Ocean Initiative and implementation of the forthcoming NATO Commercial Space Strategy.
Within general guidance, the incumbent is required to:
- lead the development and implementation of major capability programmes, such as the current programmes listed above, future programmes, and other armaments related initiatives and projects;
- chair the Aviation Committee (AVC) and perform duties as NATO’s Airworthiness Executive;
- lead the Division’s work on IAMD and chair the Integrated Air and Missile Defence Policy Committee, when required;
- oversee and provide guidance to Major Armaments Groups working under the CNAD;
- liaise with stakeholder communities inside and outside NATO, in particular EU institutions and international aviation organisations and defence industry;
- direct the activities of teams of professionals in the armaments and major capability programmes portfolios.
In addition to completing the application form, including the pre-screening questions, candidates are asked to summarise their views on the key challenges by answering the question below:
- What do you consider to be one of the key challenges you will confront in the next three years and how would you address it if selected for the position?
Candidates are asked, as part of this application, to attach one MS Word document, summarising their views on the key challenge and how they would address it if selected for the position. This essay, which should be no more than 1 A4 page long, will be evaluated as part of the longlisting assessment.
2. QUALIFICATIONS
ESSENTIAL
The incumbent must:
- hold an advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in a relevant field from an institute of recognised standing;
- have at least 15 years’ relevant professional experience in the fields of strategic planning and capability development;
- have at least 5 years’ experience leading a staff of expert professionals;
- have strong understanding of systems engineering, development and production of defence equipment;
- be conversant and have an up-to-date knowledge of current techniques and advances in the fields of capability development for which the Directorate is responsible;
- have documented experience in presenting and explaining complex and sensitive issues to non-technical/political audiences;
- possess strong strategic thinking and decision-making skills;
- demonstrate a track record of successfully developing, implementing and managing major armaments programmes;
- possess the following minimum levels of NATO’s official languages (English/French): V (“Advanced”) in one; II (“Elementary”) in the other;
- be able to travel and work outside office hours.
DESIRABLE
The following would be considered an advantage:
- familiarity with the NDPP;
- extensive experience or advanced qualifications in Programme Management.
People Management
Manage the Directorate with clear accountability and transparency on goals. Ensure that all staff under their responsibility have clear objectives. Coach Section Heads to improve and develop managerial skills. Manage the staff, aiming at maintaining motivation and job satisfaction in an environment where long hours must be worked to achieve overall objectives and taking into account contract duration. Set objectives and adjust priorities, take corrective action. Provide regular and fair feedback on performance, informally as appropriate and through the HQ Performance Review and Development (PRD) system. Identify possible development and mobility opportunities for team members.
Stakeholder Management
Support consultation and decision making in the CNAD, the Aviation Committee, the IAMD Policy Committee and other NATO committees as appropriate. Ensure NATO’s relations with international aviation organisations by developing pragmatic working relations with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the European Commission (EC), the European Aviation Safety Agency, Eurocontrol and other relevant international and regional organisations. Within the Directorate’s portfolio, promote staff coordination within the International Staff, International Military Staff, the Strategic Commands and Agencies. Support and chair Integrated Project Teams and Task Forces as required.
Expertise Development
Keep abreast of relevant political, military and financial developments in Alliance and partner nations. Provide advice to Assistant Secretary General for DI, and NATO senior management on the development of capabilities and propose valid alternatives for doing business. Employ a thorough understanding of technical and political equities and tradeoffs in the area of armaments and aerospace issues, striving to achieve, and carry out, agreed upon solutions.
Policy Development
Support the drafting of policy papers and reports related to capability development. Take a leading role on capability development in the land, air and maritime domain. Promote a total system approach to aviation. Support the development of NATO’s air and missile defence capability and of an enduring JISR for the Alliance.
Knowledge Management
Oversee the creation of reports on ballistic missile defence, JISR, aviation, land, maritime and aerospace capabilities and other capability development subjects as required.
Financial Management
Develop the annual budget for the Directorate and oversee budget allocations. Ensure priorities are established and followed, and take corrective action as necessary.
Organisational Efficiencies
Keep the Directorate’s organisation fit for purpose, promote cross-organisational synergies within the Directorate’s work strands. Allocate resources efficiently and effectively. Provide organisational oversight over the Munitions Safety Information Analysis Centre (MSIAC) and Naval Force Sensor and weapon Accuracy Check Sites (FORACS) programmes.
Representation of the Organization
Represent NATO within the international aviation community. Serve as the Secretary General’s Liaison Officer (SGLO) to the NATO Airborne Early Warning & Control (NAEW&C). Take part in public events to project Alliance policies.
Vision and Direction
Ensure that the objectives of the Directorate are consistent with the strategic objectives of the Alliance and the DI Division. Make decisions, set priorities or develop objectives considering long term outcomes for capability development in the armaments and aerospace domain.
Perform any other related duty as assigned.
4. INTERRELATIONSHIPS
The incumbent reports to the Assistant Secretary General, Defence Investment (ASG/DI). The incumbent is responsible for the management of the Armaments and Major Capability Programmes Directorate and develops close working relationships with all relevant civil and military, national and international stakeholders.
Direct reports: 6
Indirect reports: 35
5. COMPETENCIES
The incumbent must demonstrate:
- Achievement: Sets and works to meet challenging goals;
- Change Leadership: Champions change;
- Conceptual Thinking: Creates new concepts;
- Developing Others: Provides in-depth mentoring, coaching and training;
- Impact and Influence: Uses complex influence strategies;
- Initiative: Plans and acts for the long-term;
- Leadership: Communicates a compelling vision;
- Organisational Awareness: Understands underlying issues;
- Self-Control: Stays composed and positive even under extreme pressure.
7. USEFUL INFORMATION REGARDING APPLICATION AND RECRUITMENT PROCESS
Please note that we can only accept applications from nationals of NATO member countries. Applications must be submitted using e-recruitment system, as applicable:
For NATO civilian staff members only: please apply via the internal recruitment portal (link);
For all other applications: www.nato.int/recruitment
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Please note that the competition for this post is provisionally scheduled as follows:
Pre-selection testing on May 2025;
Final selection on June 2025, in Brussels, Belgium.
More information about the recruitment process and conditions of employment, can be found at our website (http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/recruit-hq-e.htm)
Appointment will be subject to receipt of a security clearance (provided by the national Authorities of the selected candidate), approval of the candidate’s medical file by the NATO Medical Adviser, verification of your study(ies) and work experience, and the successful completion of the accreditation and notification process by the relevant authorities.
NATO will not accept any phase of the recruitment and selection prepared, in whole or in part, by means of generative artificial-intelligence (AI) tools, including and without limitation to chatbots, such as Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (Chat GPT), or other language generating tools. NATO reserves the right to screen applications to identify the use of such tools. All applications prepared, in whole or in part, by means of such generative or creative AI applications may be rejected without further consideration at NATO’s sole discretion, and NATO reserves the right to take further steps in such cases as appropriate.
8. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION