Exercise Planner

Good afternoon!

We're seeking Exercise Coordination and Alignment Branch (ECAB) Support Analysts to support our colleagues at NATO in Norfolk, VA.

 Salary is negotiable based on experience.

Taskings:

1. Integrate Warfare Development and Transformation Priorities

• Support Warfare Development Integration by assisting ECAB with integration of Warfare Development priorities, Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) objectives, and future warfighting requirements into NATO's exercise enterprise through a coordinated multi-year programme of work.

• Support integration and governance by assisting ECAB with providing governance, synchronization, and strategic alignment across NATO's exercise enterprise.

• Participate in planning conferences, workshops, and coordination events, ensuring integration of warfare development themes and priorities.

• Assisting ECAB in the above tasks includes supporting the development, refinement, and documentation of exercise-related campaign plans, concepts, and supporting products.

2. Develop Future Warfighting Capability and Transformation Initiatives

• Support Warfare Development Exploitation by assisting ECAB in using exercises to identify capability gaps, refine concepts, assess emerging capabilities, and support future force development through Warfare Development in Exercises (WDiE) and Warfare Development Exploitation Teams (WDETs), including identification, refinement, and documentation of themes and candidate activities.

• Support Audacious Training (AT) and Innovation Integration by assisting ECAB in integrating AT Lines of Effort (LoE) (enhancing realism, leveraging new technology/innovation, and acting on lessons learned), AI-enabled capabilities, experimentation, innovation initiatives, and JATEC participation in NATO exercises.

3. Assess Exercise Outcomes and Convert Observations to Actionable 

Recommendations

• a. Support after-action review (AAR) and lessons-learned processes, drafting formal reports and recommendations.

• Contribute to the development of rolling programmes of work for WDiE and related initiatives

4. Stakeholder Engagement

• Coordinate with NATO entities (e.g., SHAPE, JWC, JFTC, JATEC, JALLC), partners, and external stakeholders as required.

• Track, consolidate, and report on branch contributions to NATO-level guidance (e.g., SACEUR’s Guidance on Education, Training, Exercises, and Evaluation (ETEE).

5. Administrative & Knowledge Management

• Maintain records, schedules, and document repositories.

• Provide regular progress updates to the designated Project Lead and COTR.

6. Additional Taskings

• Directly support the Branch Head as required and represent ECAB at meetings and conferences both within and outside NATO boundaries, with anticipated travel requirements of up to 30 days per year.

• Perform additional tasks as directed by the COTR that are consistent with the assigned labor category and within the scope of this contract.

Essential Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in International Relations, Defence/Strategic Studies, Political Science, Emergency Management, or related field; OR equivalent professional experience.

• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in military exercise planning, collective training, or defence transformation initiatives.

• Familiarity with NATO exercise planning processes and documents (e.g., NATO Warfighting Capstone Concept, Warfare Development Agenda, Bi-SC Collective Training & Exercises Directive, SACEUR’s Guidance on ETEE).

• Proven ability to draft professional-level planning documents, reports, and campaign plans; proficiency with MS Office Suite and collaborative platforms.

• Strong organizational and project management skills.

• Excellent oral and written communication skills.

• Experience coordinating with multinational or interagency partners.