Data Engineer

Job Posting Organization:
The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency) has been operational for over 70 years, dedicated to preserving peace and security" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted #007bff !important;">security within the NATO Alliance, which serves nearly one billion citizens. The NCI Agency employs around 3000 civilian and military staff across 29 locations in Europe, North America, and Asia. The agency focuses on providing the technological and cyber capabilities necessary for NATO to conduct critical operations, protect airspace, make data-driven decisions, defend against cyber threats, secure networks, and maintain superiority in space. The organization values its workforce as its greatest asset and aims to hire, train, and retain the best talent to maintain its technological edge.

Job Overview:
As a Data Engineer based in The Hague, Netherlands, you will be part of the Chief Technology Office (CTO) at the NCI Agency, which is pivotal in transforming NATO's IT services to support its Digital Endeavour. Your role will involve deploying, operating, and evolving the data infrastructure and tooling that enables NATO to process data efficiently, securely, and reliably across both cloud-connected and airgapped environments. This position is integral to the agency's mission to establish a robust technical vision and IT engineering strategy, as well as manage the research and development of emerging technologies. You will be expected to apply DataOps practices to automate and improve data pipelines, oversee industry partners, and advise on data architectural frameworks, contributing to the standardization and coherence of capabilities across the Alliance.

Duties and Responsibilities:
In this role, your responsibilities will include deploying, configuring, and maintaining data platform components such as orchestrators, catalogues, object stores, query engines, and lakehouse tooling on containerized infrastructure using GitOps practices. You will work across both cloud-connected and airgapped environments, including tactical edges. You will apply DataOps practices to automate, monitor, and continuously improve data pipelines, ensuring pipeline observability, data quality automation, and CI/CD for data and metadata management. Additionally, you will provide basic MLOps support to enable AI/ML workloads. You will oversee and coordinate with industry partners to ensure alignment with project objectives, timelines, and quality standards. Advising NATO Enterprise and Alliance partners on data architectural frameworks will also be part of your duties, as will taking ownership of platform and architectural challenges, proactively identifying opportunities for improvement, and driving initiatives with a high degree of autonomy.

Required Qualifications:
To qualify for this position, you must possess a Bachelor’s degree from a nationally recognized or certified university in a related discipline such as Computer Science or Data Science and Engineering, along with at least 2 years of relevant experience. In exceptional cases, the absence of a university degree may be compensated by demonstrating at least 6 years of extensive and progressive expertise in duties related to the function of the post. Strong proficiency in Python for building and integrating data engineering components is essential, as is a solid understanding of data engineering concepts, including data warehousing, ETL/ELT processes, and data governance. Experience in planning and maintaining data lakes and pipelines, as well as a solid understanding of DataOps principles, is also required. Hands-on experience with deploying and operating data platform tooling in cloud and/or airgapped environments is necessary, along with knowledge of containerization and orchestration technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes.

Educational Background:
The educational background required for this position includes a Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field such as Computer Science, Data Science, or Engineering from a recognized institution. This educational foundation is crucial for understanding the complex data engineering concepts and practices that will be applied in this role.

Experience:
The position requires at least 2 years of related experience in data engineering or a closely related field. However, candidates with extensive experience (at least 6 years) in relevant duties may be considered in lieu of a formal degree. This experience should include practical knowledge of data engineering practices, data platform tooling, and familiarity with cloud environments.

Languages:
A thorough knowledge of English, both written and spoken, is essential for this role. While English is the mandatory language, additional languages may be beneficial but are not explicitly required.

Additional Notes:
The position offers a five-year contract with a competitive tax-free salary, along with household and children’s allowances. Expatriate staff will receive privileges including expatriation and education allowances (where eligible), additional home leave, and other benefits. The role includes excellent private health insurance, generous annual leave of 30 days plus official holidays, and pension benefits under the NATO Pension Scheme. The NCI Agency is committed to fostering an inclusive environment and values diversity in its workforce.