C072a - Project Officer Experimentation

DUTIES

Under the supervision of the Head of the Centre for European Defence Innovation, the Project Officer Experimentation will contribute to the following activities:

• support the preparation, coordination and implementation of EDA experimentation activities aimed at assessing innovative solutions against Member States’ operational needs and capability priorities;
• contribute to the planning and delivery of challenge-driven experimentation activities,  including digital experimentation, modelling and simulation activities, field trials, demonstrations and operational experimentation campaigns;
• assist in the development of experimentation plans, including test objectives, scenarios, assessment metrics, data collection approaches and evidence requirements, ensuring traceability between operational challenges, test activities and assessment outputs;
• support coordination with Member States’ test centres, ranges, operational units, digital sandboxes and other relevant experimentation environments;
• contribute to the preparation of technical and operational documentation for experimentation activities, including trial plans, participant guidance, evidence templates, risk registers, after-action reports and lessons learned;
• assist in the collection, structuring and analysis of experimentation results, ensuring that outputs are usable for military utility assessment, capability development, transition planning and procurement-related decision-making;
• support the coordination of participating companies, Member State representatives, technical experts, operational users and contractors involved in experimentation activities;
• contribute to the development and continuous improvement of EDA experimentation methodologies, playbooks, templates and common approaches, in order to increase comparability, reproducibility, and reusability of reusability of results across Member States;
• contribute to the preparation of briefings, reports, presentations and other deliverables for Member States, EDA management and external stakeholders on experimentation activities and results;
• support the organisation of workshops, planning meetings, demonstration events, visitor days and other activities linked to EDA experimentation campaigns;
• take on additional tasks as required in the interest of the service.

Duties may evolve according to the development of EDA’s structure and activities, and the decisions of EDA management.

SELECTION CRITERIA

A. Essential

Only applications meeting all essential selection criteria will be assessed.

(1) Professional

The candidate will be required to demonstrate that he/she has:

• a university degree (or equivalent academic degree) in a field relevant to the duties, such as engineering, science and technology, defence studies, operational research or systems engineering;
• at least three (3) years of relevant professional experience, acquired after the award of the qualification required as a condition of eligibility;
• proven experience in one or more of the following areas: defence experimentation, test and evaluation, operational trials, capability development, R&T projects, or defence innovation technical activities;
• proven experience in supporting the preparation and conduct of experimentation, trials or test activities, including test planning, data collection, risk management and post-activity reporting;
• proven experience in international or multinational cooperation in operational experimentation, trials and/or military exercises, supported by concrete examples of the role and contribution;
• a good understanding of the European defence cooperation environment and of EDA’s role in supporting Member States;
• a very good command of written and spoken English.

(2) Personal

All staff must be able to fit into the Agency's way of working (see para. 2). Other attributes important for this post include:

• ability to work in a team and independently in his/her area of responsibility;
• ability to work effectively in a multinational environment;
• reliability and capacity to work under pressure with limited supervision;
• good communication and organisational skills;
• strong analytical and problem-solving skills;
• excellent interpersonal and negotiation skills;
• results-orientation and strong motivation;
• flexibility and innovativeness;
• genuine commitment to the Agency's objectives.

B. Desirable

The following will be considered an advantage:

• hands-on experience with specialised experimentation tools or environments, such as digital sandboxes, modelling and simulation platforms, test ranges or technology demonstrators;
• knowledge of test and evaluation methodologies, military utility assessment, validation and verification, or operational analysis;
• familiarity with safety, cyber, security, classification, export-control or data-handling considerations in technical trials;
• recognised training in project management, systems engineering, test and evaluation, operational analysis or modelling and simulation.