Jobid=bcf01901a211 (0.099)
Deadline Date: Thursday 26 February 2026
Requirement: Specialized Contractors for NATO Infrastructure Services Centre (NISC) on Core Services (CS)
Location: Off-Site
Not to Exceed: 340,200 EUR
Period of Performance: 2026 BASE period: 01 April 2026
2026 OPTION
2027 OPTION
Required Security Clearance: NATO SECRET
Please do NOT apply for any NATO contract positions unless you meet ALL the following criteria:
- Current National or NATO SECRET clearance
- Nationality of one of the NATO member countries
- Current work visa for the specific location if applying for an in-country position
Any applications that do NOT meet all the above – and do not CLEARLY show these on the CV – will be deleted.
Scope:
- The NATO Infrastructure Services Centre (NISC) at the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency) has a requirement for Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to be embedded with a team of NCI Agency staff, the NCIA CS Team, in support of its Core Services (CS) Programme of Work (POW) for 2026. The part of the 2026 NCIA CS POW to be covered within this RFQ will be focused on CS and Data Centric Security (DCS).
- The required SMEs, composing the Contractor Team, will supplement the current level of expertise within the NCIA CS Team. The Contractors requested in this RFQ must be ready to quickly integrate with the current NCIA CS Team, taking up duties and responsibilities. The work required will be based on Intended Business Outputs and Outcomes, and defined Deliverables, as described in the following Sections.
Intended Buisness Outputs and Outcomes:
- The Scope of this RFQ has several intended business Outputs and Outcomes, which are identified to provide technical support for the 2026 NCIA CS POW. Outputs and Outcomes will contribute to different Deliverables.
- The Contractor Team is requested to participate and provide expert support to the NCIA CS Team. The Skills provided by the Contractor Team should support the intended business Outputs and Outcomes, extending and complementing the NCIA CS Team.
Contribute to NATO DCS Implementation Plan (DCS IP) Activities:
- Coordinate activities with other DCS stakeholders, validate technical feasibility and ensure consistency with related tasks (e.g. Federated Mission Networking – FMN).
- Contribute to and provide technical presentations for DCS implementation efforts and updates, including SME participation in NATO Data Centric and Core Services
Capability Team (DC2S CaT). - Contribute to DCS Architecture development efforts.
- Analyse, identify and engage dependencies and requirements to support implementation of DCS IP Milestones.
- Define processes, models and workflows for data labelling, including legacy data.
- Assess, validate and integrate DCS and Zero Trust approaches into NATO Enterprise and FMN Architectures.
- Facilitate adoption and deployment of DCS toward its end-state via coherence activities across NATO Enterprise.
- Develop business and technical architectures that support the implementation of DCS, particularly for DCS Maturity Levels 1-3 (ML1-ML3).
- Contribute to the implementation of DCS concepts, such as a Proof-of-Concept Prototype for DCS ML3.
- Facilitate the effective adoption and deployment of DCS towards its end-state via
execution of coherence activities across the NATO Enterprise.
Contribute to the development of NATO Enterprise CS Requirements:
- Develop and validate NATO Enterprise CS requirements, architectural products and technical specifications to support NATO Lines of Development (DOTMLPFI) for inclusion in future NATO CS Capabilities.
- Provide close CS technical support to NCI Agency across CS Resources and Lines of Effort.
- Deliver technical expertise through workshops, capability audits, CS architecture development and NATO Enterprise ICT Service Strategy update.
- Ensure consistent, accurate and accessible documentation of CS Requirements and technical guidance
- Facilitate identification and mitigation of CS Capability gaps to support Next Generation Core Services (NGCS).
- Maintain traceability and alignment between operational activities, audits and capability development to reinforce CS interoperability and readiness.
Contribute to capturing NATO Federated CS requirements through interoperability testing:
- Inform and support the capture of Federated CS Requirements.
- Develop and support Alliance and Coalition Federation information sharing concepts, services and specifications.
- Performing interoperability testing activities in NATO Exercises and Events (e.g. CWIX, DIVE, FMN), producing lessons learned and inputs on CS contributions to their Final Reports.
- Provide expert CS contributions to NATO exercises, conferences and working groups.
- Validate and refine requirements through structured testing and interoperability assessments.
- Support development of future CS capabilities by integrating outcomes into FMN Addenda and NATO policy.
- Ensure traceability and alignment between testing, lessons learned and capability planning.
- Assess, validate and integrate DCS approaches into NATO Enterprise and FMN architectures.
Deliverables, Acceptance Criteria and Travel Requirements:
Applicable to all Deliverables (DXX):
- The activities and tasks to be performed to deliver each Deliverable and the associated travel/s (when applicable) will be agreed between the Purchaser (NCI Agency) and the Contractor (Bid Winner) at the beginning of each Quarter. In the case of Travels, always before any meeting, conference, event, etc. happens at the latest.
- Activities performed by the Contractor on its own initiative and/or coordinated with another entity different of the Purchaser, and not agreed in advance with the Purchaser, will be not taken into account into the deliverable and will never be used to claim any potential compensation for them against the Purchaser.
- Failing to achieve the Acceptance Criteria (e.g. absence of evidences of work performed
and results achieved) will automatically mean the Deliverable will be not accepted by
the Purchaser.
Security Clearance:
- The duties of the Contractors require a valid NATO SECRET Security Clearance. The expected classification level of the Deliverables is NATO UNCLASSIFIED. However, in some particular circumstances, it might be decided that a part of the Deliverables will be classified as NATO RESTRICTED. The execution of duties may require the Contractors to access information, as well as CIS systems, classified up to NATO SECRE .
Qualification
The expertise and knowledge listed below are needed within the Contractor Team to deliver the work and Deliverables requested in this RFQ.
ESSENTIAL experience and knowledge:
- 5 or more years of experience in NATO Core Services (CS), Data Centric Security (DCS) and Zero Trust vision and strategy, including technical knowledge of enablers, such as the NATO Metadata Binding Service and the NATO End Point Labelling.
- 3 or more years developing a DCS Reference Systems (DCS RS).
- 5 or more years of experience in Industry and/or NATO with standards in the area of labelling, binding and marking.
5 or more years of experience in NATO Confidentiality Label Syntax specifications, profiles and emerging standards. - 5 or more years of experience in commercial security labelling products and object level
protection solutions. - 5 or more years of experience in NATO Metadata Binding Mechanism specifications, profiles and emerging standards.
- 5 or more years of experience in NATO Core Metadata Specification, profiles and emerging
standards. - 3 or more years of experience in NATO's STANAG processes.
- 3 or more years of experience in FMN concepts and/or evolutionary strategy.
- 3 or more years of experience or knowledge in federated Identity and Access Management(IdAM) policies, standards and industry trends.
- Ability to independently produce and edit technical documentation and reports in English.
- Excellent communications skills in English.
DESIRABLE experience and knowledge:
- 5 or more years of experience in NATO Core Data Framework (NCDF) and related profiles and emerging standards.
- Detailed knowledge in Web Service-specific security standards and products including Security Policy Information File (SPIF), OIDC, SAML 1.x and 2.0, XACML, WS-Security, WS-Trust, Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), and competing products in this space.
- Detailed knowledge and experience with Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) implementation concepts including Web Services, SOAP, REST, Publish-Subscribe, JSON, XML, WSDL and UDDI, as well as Web Services specifications.
- Detailed knowledge and experience with specific security areas including PKI, X.509, and products including Microsoft Certificate Services and Entrust Certificate Authority. Knowledge of the Enterprise NPKI would be beneficial.
- Knowledge of NATO organisational and political structures and relationships with NATO and Partner nations.
- Good understanding of cryptography.
- Good understanding of the project management methodologies, including PRINCE2 and Agile / Scrum.
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