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.

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.

Role ID – C005199

Role Duties and Responsibilities

Operational Database Administration

• Install, configure, maintain and upgrade standalone and clustered database instances, including:
• PostgreSQL 12+
• MySQL 8.0+
• Perform routine database maintenance, including:
• Schema housekeeping
• Index maintenance
• Statistics updates
• Data-retention support
• Manage users, roles, privileges and authentication methods according to least-privilege principles.
• Monitor storage growth and conduct capacity forecasting based on disk usage, table-growth trends and anticipated workloads.
• Provide recommendations concerning database partitioning, archiving and capacity requirements.
• Troubleshoot complex production issues, including:
• Data corruption
• Replication failures
• Performance degradation
• Maintain consistency across development, UAT and production environments, where applicable.
• Perform root-cause analysis for critical incidents.
• Coordinate database activities with application and infrastructure teams.

Monitoring and Performance Tuning

• Monitor and analyse database health and performance metrics, including:
• Lock contention
• Deadlocks
• Wait events
• Replication lag
• CPU, memory and I/O utilisation
• Analyse and optimise database queries using:
• PostgreSQL EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS)
• MySQL query optimisation and execution plans
• InnoDB performance tuning
• Design, implement and maintain effective indexing strategies.
• Identify and resolve locking, contention and deadlock issues.
• Conduct capacity planning and forecast workload growth.

Backup and Recovery

• Implement and manage PostgreSQL backup and recovery strategies, including:
• Physical backups using pg_basebackup
• Logical backups using pg_dump and pg_dumpall
• WAL archiving
• Point-in-Time Recovery
• Implement and manage MySQL backup and recovery strategies, including:
• Logical and physical backups using mysqldump, MySQL Shell, Percona and XtraBackup
• Binlog-based Point-in-Time Recovery
• Implement, validate and maintain backup strategies across both database platforms.
• Conduct periodic backup and recovery testing.

High Availability and Disaster Recovery

• Design and operate High Availability and Disaster Recovery solutions.
• Configure and manage PostgreSQL:
• Physical and logical streaming replication
• Synchronous and asynchronous replication
• Configure and manage MySQL:
• Asynchronous and semi-synchronous replication
• InnoDB Cluster and Group Replication architectures
• Support automated failover and switchover across both platforms.
• Produce and maintain Disaster Recovery documentation and operational runbooks.

Database Security

• Enforce database-security best practices.
• Implement role-based access control and privilege management.
• Enforce authentication and password policies.
• Configure TLS/SSL encryption.
• Support audit logging and compliance requirements.
• Perform security hardening and vulnerability remediation.

Maintenance and Lifecycle Management

• Manage database patching and minor-version upgrades.
• Plan and execute major-version upgrades.
• Review schema changes and support their deployment.
• Conduct end-of-life planning and provide platform recommendations.

Essential Skills, Experience and Certifications

• 5+ years hands-on experience in at least one of the above database technologies (MySQL or PostgreSQL) and 2+ years of experience in the second database technology (MySQL or PostgreSQL)
• MySQL:
  • Strong knowledge of MySQL architecture, storage engines (InnoDB)
  • Hands-on experience with backup tools like mysqldump, MySQL shell, Percona, XtraBackup
• PostgreSQL:
  • Deep understanding of PostgreSQL internals
  • Experience managing large datasets, storage growth,autovacuum and index maintenance
  • Experience with WAL and archiving
  • Experience managing PostgreSQL extensions
• Experience with SQL optimization, indexing, and query execution plans.
• Strong Linux administration skills (system resources, I/O, file systems, network basics) relevant to database performance.
• Knowledge of security best practices (TLS, privilege management, audit/logging, secure configuration).
• Automation mindset: experienced with scripting (Bash/Python/Perl).

Desirable Skills, Experience and Certifications

• MySQL:
  • Experience with cloud-managed MySQL platforms (AWS RDS/Aurora, GCP Cloud SQL, Azure Database for MySQL)
  • Familiarity with MySQL Shell, Orachestrator, ProxySQL or HAProxy
• PostgreSQL:
  • Practical experience with pgvector
  • Knowledge of HNSW and IVFFlat indexes and their tuning parameters
  • Experience with containerized or Kubernetes-based database deployments
  • Understanding of pgvector upgrades and compatibility with PostgreSQL versions

Working Location

• Brussels, Belgium 

Working Policy

• Full time On-site

Travel

• No travel

Security Clearance

• Valid National or NATO Secret personal security clearance