Ontology Engineer

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.

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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.

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Role ID – CDT-0012

Role Duties and Responsibilities

Cyber Digital Transformation Division (CDT) drives the end-to-end transformation of NATO’s Military and Non-Military Instruments of Power, enabled by digital technologies, to enhance the Alliance’s ability to execute its core tasks in a Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) environment. In particular, increase Alliance Digital Interoperability, support the modernisation of NATO’s Standardization processes, and enable the adoption of data exploitation capabilities and AI.

The contractor shall support NATO’s digital transformation by developing and advancing communications and networking standards that enable persistent, secure, and policy- compliant consultation, command, and control networks in support of Multi-Domain Operations (MDO).

We are looking for a well-rounded professional with excellent technical and communication skills as well as experience in the military domain. NATO knowledge would constitute and asset.

Essential Skills, Experience and Certifications

• The contractor shall design, develop, integrate, and maintain ontologies supporting NATO operational and technical use cases. This includes ensuring compliance with agreed standards, enabling interoperability across systems, and managing ontology artefacts through controlled lifecycle processes, including versioning, validation, and updates.
• The contractor shall develop and maintain semantic artefacts, including taxonomies, thesauri, dictionaries, and code lists, to ensure consistency of terminology and structured data usage across NATO systems and initiatives. These artefacts shall align with NATO terminology directive and applicable standardization policies.
• The contractor shall contribute to the development, review, and harmonization of NATO data standards, ensuring alignment with ISO standards and NATO standardization artefacts. This includes supporting the modernization of standardization processes and improving interoperability across military and non-military domains.
• The contractor shall define and implement governance processes for ontology lifecycle management, including roles, responsibilities, workflows, and quality assurance mechanisms. The contractor shall ensure that ontology and data artefacts are aligned with the NATO Enterprise Architecture Framework (NAF v4.1) and model-driven development practices.
• The contractor shall support the integration of ontologies into knowledge graphs and operational systems, enabling advanced data exploitation and supporting artificial intelligence and machine learning use cases. This includes ensuring compatibility with secure cloud environments and supporting DataOps and MLOps practices, where applicable.
• The contractor shall prepare and deliver briefings, presentations, and reports to NATO committees, capability panels, and working groups, and shall coordinate activities across stakeholders to ensure alignment, transparency, and effective progress of all assigned tasks.
• The contractor shall provide support to unforeseen or ad hoc requirements within the scope of ontology engineering, data standardization, and interoperability, as requested and prioritised by CDT. Such support shall be subject to mutual agreement on scope, effort, and priority.

Working Location

• Brussels, Belgium

Working Policy

• Onsite

Travel

• Some travel to other NATO sites may be required

Security Clearance

• Valid National or NATO Secret personal security clearance