EMSA

The European Maritime Safety Agency was established for the purpose of ensuring a high, uniform and effective level of maritime safety, maritime security as well as prevention of and response to pollution by ships within the EU.

The idea of a European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) originated in the late 1990s along with a number of other important European maritime safety initiatives. EMSA was set up as the regulatory agency that would provide a major source of support to the Commission and the Member States in the field of maritime safety and prevention of pollution from ships.

The European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) No 1406/2002, as amended, provides the legal basis for the establishment of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).

The Agency provides technical, operational and scientific assistance to the European Commission and Member States in the fields of maritime safety, maritime security, prevention of, and response to, pollution caused by ships as well as response to marine pollution caused by oil and gas installations.

The Agency also contributes to the overall efficiency of maritime traffic and maritime transport.

EMSA's applications are increasingly evolving to become a unified, integrated and comprehensive on-time maritime intelligence ecosystem, and Unit C.4 organises the application system architecture, delivery and validation of the EMSA systems. The unit is  responsible for: the application delivery lifecycle; Maritime Support Services, coordination with business units (Department B, C); coordination with operations (Unit A3-Operations Support); technical specifications and technical consultations, and; the coordination of contracting companies. It is also responsible for integrated service design, facilitating dialogue with Member States and coordinating the development of integrated maritime systems at both the business and technical levels.

C.4.1 MARITIME SUPPORT SERVICES

The MSS provides an operational and technical service with responsibility for ensuring systems availability and stability by monitoring the continuity of the incoming and outgoing data flows, quality reporting and incident management linked with all Agency maritime applications. In the event of maritime emergencies the MSS acts as a single point of contact for mobilisation of EMSA operational services, and will report to EMSA and the Commission on maritime accidents in accordance with the EMSA contingency plan.

C.4.2 APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

Effective Delivery, Top Class Technology. Section 4.2 is responsible for the technical design, development and delivery lifecycle coordination of EMSA applications. The big challenge for the section is the redesign of the applications to support their interoperability within an integrated maritime services environment. This must provide comprehensive, on-time information to the maritime users, while at the same time being prepared for the introduction of modern technologies and scalability to meet future performance requirements. To achieve these challenging goals, the section applies a strict project management approach to the planning, management, coordination and control of the delivery process. The section is also responsible for the introduction of new software technologies and software architecture improvements.

C.4.3 TESTING AND APPLICATION MONITORING

Quality in the First Place. Section 4.3 is responsible for: the coordination of the technical and business validation and verification of applications; application build management; application deployment and; the preparation of application monitoring systems. The section also delivers outputs from the change management and application maintenance life cycles. The big challenge ahead is to manage quality and efficiency in the delivery of the complex integrated EMSA system. To achieve these challenging objectives, the section focuses on automation procedures in build and testing management, complemented by strict coordination, planning, controlling and reporting. Top class tools for business requirements, software life cycle management, automation build management and automation testing are also on the radar of the section.

The Project Officer for the RPAS Data Centre will, under the responsibility of the Head of Unit C.4 ‘Digitalisation & Application Development’ be responsible for: managing and performing project management, technical and administrative tasks related to the EMSA RPAS Data centre (RPAS-DC).  This will include support to the Agency with project and technical management for ICT applications in the field of aeronautics and RPAS, and RPAS sensor data. In particular, the main tasks will be: 

• Coordination of ICT activities related to the definition, setup, configuration, operation and maintenance of the EMSA RPAS Data Centre;
• Integration of operational RPAS payload data as provided by the EMSA RPAS based services in the RPAS-DC;
• Providing expertise on technology and tools relevant for the data centre e.g. image and video processing, data management;
• Liaising with the business teams at EMSA to translate business requirements for the data centre into clear technical specifications;
• Managing of contractor’s development activities including reviewing technical design documentation and ensuring project delivery;
• Supporting new procurements including the preparation of tender specifications related to the data centre;
• Supporting the testing and validation processes of the data centre when required;
• Setup and manage ICT projects related to the data centre where needed;
• Preparing documents, such as reports, notes, letters and presentations and minutes of meetings, coordination and management of document flows internally and with external institutions.

A. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Qualifications and experience required:

A.1 Education:

• A level of education which corresponds to completed university studies attested by a diploma when the normal period of university education is four years or more, or;
• A level of education which corresponds to completed university studies attested by a diploma and appropriate professional experience of at least one year when the normal period of university education is at least three years.

A.2 language skills:

The main working language in the field of maritime safety is English. Candidates must therefore have a very good command of oral English as well as in writing with a satisfactory knowledge of at least one other official language of the European Union to the extent necessary for the performance of the above mentioned duties.

B. SELECTION CRITERIA

B.1 Essential:

• At least 2 years of work experience in one of the following fields:
  • ICT architecture
  • Application development for geospatial information
  • Mission exploitation systems
• Proven hands on experience with project and/or technical management in the implementation of IT projects;
• Experience in analysing requirements and drafting/reviewing technical documentation.

B.2 Advantageous:

• Expertise on image and video processing technology (e.g. image mosaicking, detection and tracking of objects in video, jitter reduction), preferably from aircraft or satellite systems;
• Knowledge of image, video and geospatial standards (e.g. STANAG 4609, OGC W*S) and in GIS software applications;
• Experience on RPAS, general aviation and/or maritime domain covering live sensor data acquisition, processing and visualization, e.g. experience on ICT mission and data exploitation COTS solutions;
• Experience and technical knowledge in 24/7 operational services;
• Experience with PRINCE 2 or PMBOK project management.

The advantageous criteria will be considered by the Selection Board depending on the number of applicants meeting the essential criteria.

Applicants must meet the required eligibility criteria concerning the required educational qualifications and years of experience, as well as the essential criteria by the deadline for this call for applications.

In addition to the requirements above, candidates invited to the interview and test phase may also be assessed against the following supplementary requirements: 

Supplementary:

• Excellent communication skills;
• Strong organisational and problem solving skills;
• Ability to work independently.

In order to be eligible the candidate must:

• Be a national of one of the Member States of the European Union or of Iceland or Norway;
• Be entitled to your full rights as a citizen;
• Have fulfilled the obligations imposed on you by the laws concerning military service;
• Meet the character requirements for the duties involved and
• Be physically fit to perform the duties linked to the post.

The Project Officer for the RPAS Data Centre will be appointed by the Executive Director, upon recommendation of the Chairperson of the Selection Committee.

This vacancy notice concerns a Temporary Agent position, pursuant to Article 2 f) of the Conditions of Employment of other servants of the European Communities.

The offering of a post is subject to EMSA’s Establishment Plan being amended, following the adoption of the amendment to Regulation (EC) No 1406/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a European Maritime Safety Agency.

The initial duration of the contract is three years, with possibility of renewal.

The successful candidate will be recruited in the grade AD 5.

The basic monthly salary, before any deductions or allowances, weighted for Lisbon, at 1 July 2016 for grade AD 5 first step is 3738.04EUR.

In addition to the basic salary, staff members may be entitled to various allowances, such as an expatriation allowance (16% of basic salary), household allowance, dependent child allowance and education allowance. The salary is subject to a Community tax deducted at source and staff members are exempt of national taxation.

Please note that recruitment is done in the first or second step of the indicated grade, depending on the duration of the acquired professional experience. EMSA offers a comprehensive welfare package including pension scheme, medical, accident and occupational disease insurance coverage, unemployment and invalidity allowance. Further information regarding rights and conditions of employment can be found in the following document:

http://ec.europa.eu/civil_service/docs/toc100_en.pdf;

Please note that in line with the Staff Regulations recruited candidates shall be required to demonstrate before their first promotion the ability to work in a third European Community language.

The place of employment is Lisbon, Portugal.

Candidates are advised that if they are offered a post, and accept, they must undergo a compulsory medical examination to establish that they meet the standard of physical fitness necessary to perform the duties involved.

Candidates must submit their application electronically solely via the EMSA website within the deadline. Applications by any other means (hard copy or ordinary e-mail) or submitted after the deadline will not be accepted.

All candidates will receive an acknowledgement of receipt for their application.

EMSA is an equal opportunities employer and encourages applications from all candidates who fulfil the eligibility and selection criteria without any distinction whatsoever on any ground such as sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age, marital status or other family situation or sexual orientation.

You may apply in any of the official languages of the European Union, but it would be helpful to apply in English in order to facilitate the selection process.

For each selection process a Selection Committee is nominated. The selection is carried out in two phases:

1. In the first phase all eligible applications will be evaluated by the Selection Committee and scored against the selection criteria. Please note that non-compliance with at least one of the essential selection criteria will result in the exclusion of the candidate from the selection process. Advantageous criteria constitute additional assets and will not result in exclusion, if not fulfilled. The advantageous criteria will be considered by the Selection Committee depending on the number of applicants meeting the essential selection criteria.

On this basis, the Selection Committee will invite to the interview and to the test phase the best qualified candidates (maximum of 15), on condition that they have achieved at least 60% of the highest possible score during the evaluation of applications. Should the case arise that there are various candidates scoring the same number of points in the 15th ranking, the number of candidates to be invited will be increased accordingly to accomodate this. 

2. In the second phase, the selected candidates will be invited to pass one or several written tests related to the job profile and to take part in a selection interview.

During this recruitment phase, the selected candidates will be evaluated by the Selection Committee. After the interviews and tests, the Selection Committee will draw up a list of the most suitable candidates to be proposed to the Appointing Authority. Only candidates receiving at least 70% of the maximum points at interview and at the test phase will be included in the list of the most suitable candidates. The Appointing Authority will select the successful candidate and decide whether to also adopt a reserve list. The successful candidates will be informed accordingly.

All candidates will receive an information letter of the outcome of their application.

Please note that a binding commitment can only be made after verification of all conditions and will take the form of a contract signed by the Executive Director.

The reserve list will remain valid for a period of 1 year following its establishment. Therefore candidates whose name will be put on a reserve list could be offered a contract during this period of time. Please note however that inclusion in the reserve list does not guarantee recruitment.

Please note that the selection process may take several months to be completed and that no information will be released during this period. Once a selection process has been completed, its status will be displayed in the e-recruitment.

Please note that once you have created your EMSA profile, any correspondence regarding your application must be sent or received via your EMSA profile.

For any prior enquiry, please refer to the FAQ (Frequently asked questions) section, or send an e-mail to recruitment@emsa.europa.eu

Requests for information and appeal:

An applicant who would like further information, or considers that he/she has grounds for complaint concerning a particular decision may, at any point in the selection procedure, request further information from the Chairperson of the Selection Committee.
For information on how to lodge a complaint and/or an appeal procedure, please consult the ‘General Information for Recruitment’ overview on our website for more information:
http://www.emsa.europa.eu/recruitment-info.html