Data warehousing and Dashboard Expert Support

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 Background

The NATO Information and Communication Agency (NCI Agency) located in The Hague, The Netherlands, is the Interoperability Assurance Authority for NATO. In the light of this responsibility, the Interoperability branch of the Chief Quality Office is looking for a service contract which can provide us with Data Warehousing and Dashboarding Experts. The needs identified are to define, design and implement the necessary data warehouse components and design and implement interoperability dashboards in our existing .NET based IO Dashboard application as well as contributing to the implementation of an interoperability issue tracking tool as part of the Interoperability (IO) Toolset. The latter is strongly correlated to the dashboarding as it will provide key performance indicators.

More specifically, the work will be to support the stakeholder analysis, develop the Dashboards and KPI’s, and provide requirements to enhance the existing data warehouse. Furthermore, the work will design and develop multi-dimensional databases, OLAP Cubes and support the development of the end-user-facing applications to visualize the dashboards and the tracking of interoperability issues, that can integrate with the set of tools that are part of the IO Toolset and fulfil the requirements specified in the scope of work.

Role Duties and Responsibilities

• Under the direction of the NCI Agency Chief Quality Office, the Interoperability Branch need to deliver various interoperability dashboards in order to complete their work.
• The contractor (which can consist of multiple persons) will be part of a team (technical lead, Service Delivery manager, interoperability engineers and software engineers) and will work using monthly cycles. Each cycle is planned and reviewed monthly. The content and scope of each cycle will be agreed with the Services Delivery Manager and the technical lead during the planning meetings.
• The 1 st cycle will be used for the contractor to understand the business requirements and problem domain, existing dashboards and KPI’s and review of the existing solution and provide recommendations and an enhanced system architecture and high-level design documentation if needed.
• Subsequent cycles will be used to enhance existing dashboards and design and implement new dashboards, data warehouse changes and contributing to the development of the IO Issue Tracker.

Activities and Expected Deliverables

• Analyze stakeholder requirements and design relevant KPI’s and dashboards in collaboration with our current domain experts inside our team;
  • Expected Deliverables: Stakeholder Analysis Report, KPI Design.
• Model, design and implement the required dashboards and integrate objective testing data and IO issue tracking, with multi- dimensional databases and any necessary data warehouse changes to support the alignment to business requirements and comprehensive insights of relevant KPIs;
  • Expected Deliverables: Data warehouse and multi-dimensional data models, Dashboard Models, Dashboard Designs, Implementation of Dashboards, Testing Data integration, and Interoperability issue tracking.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of an IO Issue Tracker to monitor and track interoperability issues and gaps.
  • Expected Deliverables: IO Issue Tracker

Deliverable compatibility.

• All deliverables must be compatible with our current solution, which is build using:
  • A data warehouse based on Microsoft SQL Server;
  • Multi-dimensional databases using Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services;
  • A web-based application written in C#, .NET Core, Blazor and using DevExpress BI Dashboard components;
  • Any solution must be able to be run on premise and has minimal licensing cost.

Out of scope elements and collaboration requirements.

• The development of the actual ETL/ELT process, which extract data from the source systems, are considered to be outside of the scope of this contract.
• The contractor must work closely with the technical experts in charge of developing the combined data set.
• The picture below illustrates our current assumption on the division of the scope between this contract and the rest of the team.

Essential Skills and Experience

The consultancy support for this work requires Data Warehousing Experts and Dashboard Experts with combined the following qualifications:

• 3 plus years experience with analyzing stakeholder requirements and translating these to KPI’s, their targets and their visualization in Dashboards based on objective evidences.
• 3 plus years strong working knowledge of data warehousing and dash boarding:
  • Data Modelling
  • Data Warehouse design
  • Multi-Dimensional Database Design and Implementation
  • Dashboards
• 3 plus years experience with data warehouse modelling, design and
• implementations
• 3 plus years strong working knowledge of SQL Server and SQL Server Analysis
• Services
• 3 plus years strong working knowledge of Transact SQL
• 3 plus years strong working knowledge of ETL/ELT Processes
• Ability to develop and maintain clear and concise technical documentation, including procedures
• Demonstrable ability to work autonomously and proactively and to follow internal processes
• Experience with C#, .NET Core Blazor as a programming language

Desirable Skills and Experience

• Experience with DevExpress BI Dashboard for .NET

Relevant Soft Skills:

• Ability to communicate with clarity, coherence, conciseness and engagement in both oral and written communication.
• Team player, always willing to help others and to share knowledge.
• Good collaboration skills, with the ability to work in a multinational and diverse team

Language Proficiency

• Business English

Working Location

• The Hague, Netherlands

Working Policy

• Hybrid (3 Days per week On-site)

Travel

• Some travel to other NATO sites may be required

Security Clearance

• Valid National or NATO Secret personal security clearance