Project Officer for Experimentation

Under the supervision of the line-manager responsible for Defence Innovation, the Project Officer for 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 trials, including digital experimentation, modelling and simulation activities, field experimentation, demonstrations and operational experimentation campaigns;
• assist in the development of experimentation plans, test objectives, scenarios, metrics, data collection approaches and evidence requirements, ensuring traceability between operational challenges, test activities and assessment outputs;
• 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 Member States;
• 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 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;
• contribute to activities related to the drafting, coordination, and implementation of high-level documents – such as Letters of Intents, Steering Board documentation, and similar strategic or policy-level deliverables;
• represent the Agency during conferences and seminars;
• 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.

A. ESSENTIAL

(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, physics, science and technology, defence academy, operational research, systems engineering;
• at least six (6) years of professional experience relevant to the duties of the post,  acquired after the award of the minimum qualification required as a condition of eligibility (see eligibility criteria section above);
• a demonstrated track record in supporting defence capability development or procurement activities through experimentation, test and evaluation, demonstrations and operational trials;
• proven experience in the preparation of experimentation plans, test objectives, scenarios, data collection approaches, evidence requirements, trial documentation, risk registers, after-action reports or lessons-learned outputs;
• a track record of international cooperation in operational experimentation and/or trials, military exercises;
• 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 oral English.

(2) Personal

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

• ability to work in a team and independently in their area of responsibility;
• proactiveness to interact with other stakeholders, both internal and external;
• ability to work effectively in a multinational environment;
• reliability and capacity to work under pressure with little supervision;
• good communication and organisational skills;
• strong analytical and problem-solving skills;
• excellent interpersonal and negotiation skills;
• flexibility and innovativeness;
• results-orientation and strong motivation;
• a strong sense of duty and responsibility;
• genuine commitment to the Agency's objectives.

B. DESIRABLE

The following will be considered an advantage:

• experience in military, defence, security, civil protection, aerospace, cyber, space, robotics, autonomous systems or other technology-intensive experimentation environments;
• familiarity with military exercises, operational experimentation campaigns, field trials, test ranges, laboratories, digital sandboxes or modelling and simulation environments;
• experience with data collection, instrumentation, experiment design, scenario development, wargaming, simulation or analytical tools;
• a recognised project management certification and/or training in systems engineering, test and evaluation, operational analysis or modelling and simulation.