EU Programme Coordinator

EDA is looking for an EU Programme Coordinator.

As a core element of the European Union’s Strategic Compass for Security and Defence, the Hub for EU Defence Innovation, known as HEDI, has been established within EDA to foster innovative solutions for military capabilities. This will be empowered by an increase in cooperation on defence innovation among Member States.

EDA Defence Ministers approved the establishment of HEDI within EDA on 17 May 2022 and the hub was officially launched at the first EDA Defence Innovation Day hosted by EDA on 31 May 2022 under the auspices of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

HEDI serves as a platform to stimulate and facilitate cooperation on defence innovation among Member States while ensuring synergies with related European Commission activities, notably the EU defence innovation scheme, coherence with NATO innovation initiatives, and other EU defence innovation organizations. The hub will strengthen the Agency’s existing innovation activities while also initiating new ones.

HEDI works with a portfolio of services for member states aimed at accelerating the adoption of innovative solutions addressing operational challenges in defence. Several of these initiatives such as EU-supported innovation programmes (e.g. BraveTech EU), involve the organisation of Testing–Evaluation–Experimentation Campaigns (TE²C) and awarding prizes to the most innovative approaches. In the operationalization of these initiatives HEDI sometimes relies also on external contractors to support in logistic and administrative tasks.

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Under the supervision of the HEDI coordinator, the jobholder will be responsible for the end-to-end management of one of these initiatives  and will lead the following activities:

Programme leadership, governance and oversight

• plan and run the operating cadence of the TE²C and provide oversight to the implementing contractor at each step;
• chair internal boards for intake, selection, and award decisions;
• coordinate with the relevant stakeholders all the steps;
• approve and govern standard operating procedures for planning, execution of the campaigns of the TE²C, ranking, and reporting;
• validate readiness of the teams for participation in the TE²C campaigns and acceptance of outcomes and draft rankings of the solutions;
• maintain risk register and implement corrective/preventive actions;
• deliver quarterly and annual reports (KPI dashboards, narrative, success stories) and audit-ready documentation.

Technical criteria, evaluation and strategic alignment

• lead definition/update of criteria and gates for the selection of the most promising solutions, ensure consistency within the portfolio of activities, and validate contractor draft rankings;
• ensure consistency with HEDI practices (e.g. maturity/TRL expectations, adoption pathways) and connect promising outcomes to other HEDI services;
• contribute to internal policy notes, and Member State communications, lessons-learned and continuous improvement and links with the other HEDI services and EDA work strands;
• act as the integration point between his/her/their area of responsibility and other HEDI services to avoid duplication, maximise adoption, and maintain one coherent HEDI operating model.

Contractor & stakeholder management

• day-to-day direction of the services contractor (planning, site booking, logistics, execution QA, evidence, draft rankings, reporting inputs);
• engage Member States’ end-users to ensure participation in the initiative, leveraging HEDI’s networks.

Procurement & finance interface

• provide the technical Terms of Reference (ToR) content, KPIs/SLA, acceptance for the relevant services procurement; support evaluation as technical expert;
• oversee prize decisions and finance execution, ensuring compliance with the relevant administrative frameworks.

Additional tasks may be assigned 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.