Confidentiality Labelling Solutions Consultant

Spektrum supports apex purchasers (NATO, UN, EU, and National Government and Defence) and their Tier 1 supplier ecosystem with a wide range of specialist services. We provide our clients with professional services, specialised aerospace and defence sales, delivery, and operational subject matter expertise. We are looking for personnel to join our team and support key client projects.

Who we are supporting 

The NATO Communication and Information Agency (NCIA) is responsible for providing secure and effective communications and information technology (IT) services to NATO's member countries and its partners. The agency was established in 2012 and is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.

The NCIA provides a wide range of services, including:

• Cyber Security: The NCIA provides advanced cybersecurity solutions to protect NATO's communication networks and information systems against cyber threats.
• Command and Control Systems: The NCIA develops and maintains the systems used by NATO's military commanders to plan and execute operations.
• Satellite Communications: The NCIA provides satellite communications services to enable secure and reliable communications between NATO forces.
• Electronic Warfare: The NCIA provides electronic warfare services to support NATO's mission to detect, deny, and defeat threats to its communication networks.
• Information Management: The NCIA manages NATO's information technology infrastructure, including its databases, applications, and servers.

Overall, the NCIA plays a critical role in ensuring the security and effectiveness of NATO's communication and information technology capabilities.

The program

Assistance and Advisory Service (AAS)

The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency) is NATO’s principal C3 capability deliverer and CIS service provider. It provides, maintains and defends the NATO enterprise-wide information technology infrastructure to enable Allies to consult together under Article IV, and, when required, stand together in the face of attack under Article V.

To provide these critical services, in the modern evolving dynamic environment the NCI Agency needs to build and maintain high performance-engaged workforce. The NCI Agency workforce strategically consists of three major categorise's: NATO International Civilians (NIC)'s, Military (Mil), and Interim Workforce Consultants (IWC)'s. The IWCs are a critical part of the overall NCI Agency workforce and make up approximately 15 percent of the total workforce.

Role ID – 2025-0041

Role Background

The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) provides technical support to the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) of NATO, as the Enterprise requirements owner, to develop and maintain data & information exchange solutions underpinning the consultation and command & control (C3) functions of the Alliance. This includes the exchange of information that is labelled with Confidentiality Labels in line with the current NATO Labelling standards ADatP-4774, ADatP-4778 & ADatP- 5636. NCIA requires an evidence based feasibility study to assess the suitability of Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) solutions for use within NATO covering the most common generic formats for NATO information, namely informal email exchange based upon Microsoft Office and documents packaged using Office Open XML (OOXML – ISO/IEC 29500), such as Microsoft Office Word, Excel and Powerpoint. The feasibility will look at both the technical compliance of the solution with the STANAGs and associated STANAG Related Documents (SRDs), as well as the non- functional aspects of the solution (primarily usability and maintainability). In addition, a report will be generated looking at the long-term suitability for the solution’s use for both on-premise and Cloud-based solutions through integration with SharePoint and Office 365.

Role Duties and Responsibilities

Deliverables

• D001 - COTS Solution with Temporary Licensing Package - Short-term (3– 6 month) evaluation license keys, activation instructions, and vendor support entitlements covering the full product suite being assessed.
• D002 - Comprehensive Technical Documentation Installation and configuration guides, architecture diagrams, administrator and user manuals, and maintenance procedures sufficient for NATO staff to reproduce, operate, and sustain the solution.
• D003 - System Integration Testing (SIT) and User Acceptance Testing (UAT) Support – Provision of test plans, scripts, data sets, defect-tracking records, and on-site or remote assistance to ensure successful completion of SIT and UAT cycles, covering a fully configured, instance of the product, documented by installation logs and a deployment validation checklist.
• D004 - Final Report and Integration Roadmap – A final feasibility report including a forward-looking plan that identifies recommended enhancements, future interoperability milestones, resource estimates, and dependencies for continued evolution of the solution within NATO environments.

Optional Deliverables

• O005 - Pre-configured integration packages for SharePoint 2019
• O006 - Pre-configured integration packages for Microsoft 365 (Office 365).
• O007 - Design and implementation of granular, element-level document- labelling capabilities aligned with ADatP-4774 and ADatP-4778.

Essential Skills and Experience

• Compliance with the STANAGs and associated Binding Profiles in ADatP-4778.2 for:
  • OOXML formats including (but not limited to) Word, Excel and Powerpoint in the most recent on-premise version of Microsoft Office;
  • Informal Email; and,
  • Cryptographic Artefacts.
• Compliance with ADatP-4774 enhanced features for succession handling and alternative confidentiality labelling;
• Simplified day-to-day labelling through the use of confidentiality label catalogs, whilst providing Security Policy Information Files (SPIF)-driven features necessary for creating more complex confidentiality labels on an ad-hoc basis;
• Administrative features to support NATO Labelling standards and their use within NATO to facilitate evolving towards Data Centric Security (DCS) Maturity Level 1, i.e. SPIF management, Confidentiality Label Catalog management, equivalent policy handling, permissible remediation actions, marking handling.
• Detailed knowledge of Industry and NATO standards in the area of labelling, binding and marking;
• Expert knowledge of NATO Confidentiality Label Syntax specifications, profiles and emerging standards;
• Expert knowledge of NATO Metadata Binding Mechanism specifications, profiles and emerging standards;
• Expert knowledge of NATO Core Metadata Specification, profiles and emerging standards.

Working Location

• Remote

Working Policy

• Off-Site

Travel

• Some travel to other NATO sites may be required

Security Clearance

• Valid National or NATO Secret personal security clearance