Senior Operations Research Analyst

Spektrum•Norfolk, VA

5d•Onsite

About The Position

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. Allied Command Transformation (ACT) is NATO’s leading agent for change: driving, facilitating, and advocating the continuous improvement of Alliance capabilities to maintain and enhance the military relevance and effectiveness of the Alliance. The main objectives of ACT are: providing appropriate support to NATO missions and operations; leading NATO military transformation; and improving relationships, interaction and practical cooperation with partners, nations and international organisations. ACT therefore leads Alliance concept development, capability development, training and lessons-learned initiatives and provides unfettered military support to policy development within NATO. The Capability Development & Management Support (CDMS) program supports the DCOS Capability Development (CAPDEV) in guiding, directing, and coordinating the activities and resources of the Capability Development Directorate. The Requirements Division executes tasks for requirements management for NATO capabilities. The Capability Requirements (CR) Branch develops the Capability Requirements Brief and recommended courses of action for life cycle management of requirements. The Requirements Forward Branch (Mons) handles requirements development and management representation in Europe. The Capability Division coordinates capability development from planning through acceptance and disposal. The Capability Forward Branch (Mons) coordinates with various NATO entities and Host Nations to support capability development. Strategic Plans and Policy (SPP) supports ACT in formalizing military advice for future military strategy, political guidance, and policy documents. The Operational Analysis Branch provides analysts to capability development programme teams to support evidence-based decision making in requirements derivation and programmatic planning. "Operational Analysis" is used interchangeably with "Operations Research" and "Operational Research". Course of Action (COA) analysis supports capability development teams in determining appropriate DOTMLPFI methods and capability architectures. Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) involves comparative assessment of options based on costs, risks, schedules, and operational effectiveness, testing the commercial marketplace and NATO's ability to reuse capabilities. Analysts must combine quantitative and qualitative evidence and facilitate stakeholder engagement for defensible decision-making. This includes developing Measures of Performance (MoPs) and Measures of Effectiveness (MoEs), assessing risks, eliciting schedule estimates, and reviewing cost estimates. Operations Research methods can be applied at various stages, including decision science, optimization, modeling & simulation, behavioral operations research, data science, and wargaming.

Requirements

A Bachelor’s degree in Operations Research, Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics, Engineering or equivalent quantitative degree. Alternatively, 5+ years of Operations Research/ Operational Analysis experience conducting and leading analytical studies in relevant military, strategic, political or international environment.
Minimum two examples in the last 10 years (at least 3 years combined duration) in the field of military Operations Research / Operational Analysis / Data Science, supporting policy development, capability development or acquisition. With a relevant Bachelor’s degree (listed above), only 2 years in the last 5 must be in the fields / areas /listed above.
Experience designing, leading, and facilitating structured stakeholder engagements to elicit objectives, assumptions, measures, risks, preferences and expert judgement in support of defence capability decisions involving technical and non-technical stakeholders across multiple levels of seniority.
Experience, within last 5 years of determining Operations Research / Operational Analysis requirements, scoping problems for study, developing analysis plans, and delivering highquality outputs that influence senior decision makers.
Experience of developing data collection and analysis plans or assessment frameworks that include measures of effectiveness and measures of performance.
Experience in gathering evidence and scoring effectiveness through use of operations research and analysis methods to defence domain issues.
Experience identifying, eliciting, assessing, analysing and communicating uncertainty and risk associated with capability / acquisition, project, programme, or portfolio decisions.
Experience of producing or working with cost and schedule estimates, including estimating methodologies, methods and processes
Experience working in a strategic or operational military command or multinational organization.
Experience supporting project, programme, and / or portfolio decisions through analytical assessment in the past 10 years, within complex and dynamic programme environments.
Demonstrated proficiency in English as defined in STANAG 6001 (Standardized Linguistic Profile (SLP) 3333 - Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing) or equivalent.

Nice To Haves

Experience using AI to support OA.

Responsibilities

Contribute to Course of Action analysis using Operations Research and Analysis methods in support of Capability Development within ACT in order to mature NATO capability requirements and set programmatic direction.
Plan and conduct research to study and establish qualitative and quantitative assessments of operational effectiveness, undertake cost-effectiveness and risk-benefit studies and analyses.
Where necessary and appropriate, interact with NATO and National research entities and industries to establish the impact of alternatives on operational effectiveness.
Where necessary and appropriate, attend engagements or workshops with NATO, National organizations, and / or industry to ensure cost estimation activities are likely to provide outputs of appropriate quality to support analysis.
Support the creation of Requests for Information and surveys to NATO Nations, Non Governmental Organizations, and industry.
Analyse the potential impact of identified individual and aggregated risks, and propose possible risk management approaches.
Elicit, and / or review and assess schedule estimates, to ensure appropriate quality and supporting evidence for decisions being supported by analysis.
Review and assess cost estimates provided by others, to ensure appropriate quality and supporting evidence for decisions being supported by analysis.
Analyse and document comparative assessments of cost, risk, schedule and operational effectiveness to inform programmatic decision-making.
Produce decision briefs / presentations describing the underlying rationale / justification for analytical outcomes. If appropriate, brief decision-makers on the context, process and outcomes.
Produce written reports of analysis conducted as part of the Capability Programme plan evidence package, for review with the International Military Staff and International Staff in NATO Headquarters.
Produce summary briefs of lessons identified / lessons learned to support continuous improvement of NATO capability development and OA branch skills and competencies.
May be required to travel to meetings and conferences both within and outside NATO boundaries for up to 60 days per year.
Perform additional tasks as required by the COTR related to the LABOR category.