Deadline Date: Thursday 13 June 2024

Requirement: Cloud Engineer (Exchange and Voice Specialist) Support

Location: Off-Site

Note: Please refer to your Subcontract Agreement, article 6.4.1.a, which states “Off-Site Discount: 5% (this discount is applicable to all requirements, and applies when the assigned personnel are permitted to work Off-Site, such as at- home)”. Please be sure to price this discount in your overall price proposal when submitting bids against off-site RFQs

Period of Performance:  Base period: 22nd July 2024 – 31st December 2024

Start date is as soon as possible but not later than 22nd July 2024

Required Security Clearance: NATO SECRET

1 INTRODUCTION

Supporting NATO throughout all its geographical locations, the NCI Agency is looking for a Cloud Engineer (Exchange and Voice Specialist), joining the journey of NATO’s modernisation of IT services, through leveraging the public cloud (Microsoft Azure, M365 and Amazon AWS), delivering managed, protected, security-centric and reliable IT Services.

NCI Agency – Cloud Operations Team

The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency) is dedicated to supporting NATO’s strategic objectives, including the ambitious NATO 2030 agenda. As part of this commitment, we are spearheading the modernization and digital transformation of NATO’s IT services. Our focus is on leveraging public cloud technologies like Microsoft 365 and Intune, incorporating a security‐by‐design approach, and ensuring a seamless transition to a modern, collaborative workplace environment.

To achieve these goals, we are building a Cloud Operations team under the Cloud Center of Excellence, operating under the NATO Enterprise Cloud Operating Model (NECOM). The NECOM framework provides a standardized approach for cloud service management, ensuring interoperability, scalability, and security across NATO’s IT infrastructure. The Cloud Center of Excellence will serve as a hub for best practices, innovation, and expertise, driving the adoption and optimization of cloud technologies within NATO. This team will play a crucial role in our journey towards providing managed, protected, and reliable End User Services.

Embracing the latest technological advancements, this initiative will foster innovation and ensure NATO remains at the cutting edge of IT capabilities. By continuously evolving and integrating new technologies, we aim to enhance operational efficiency and readiness for future challenges. This remote position offers an exciting opportunity to be at the forefront of NATO’s technological evolution and contribute to the security and efficiency of our operations.

NCI Agency – Cloud Centre of Excellence (CCoE)

The Cloud Centre of Excellence (CCoE) within the NCI Agency is focused on driving successful cloud adoption and maximizing the potential of cloud technologies across the organization. It serves as a central governing body, promoting best practices, enabling knowledge sharing, and ensuring alignment between business objectives and cloud initiatives. The CCoE supports various cloud‐based solutions, ensuring their effective and efficient implementation and management. By fostering a culture of continuous improvement and innovation, the CCoE helps the NCI Agency leverage cloud technologies to enhance operational efficiency, scalability, and agility.

The NCI Agency is seeking a highly skilled Cloud Engineer (Exchange and Voice Specialist) to join our IT team. The M365 Exchange and Voice Specialist will be responsible for managing and optimizing our Exchange Online environment and voice communication systems, including Microsoft Teams, Meeting Room Devices, Call Manager integration, VoIP, and PSTN services. This role involves configuring and maintaining Exchange Online settings, managing Teams voice services, integrating meeting room devices, and ensuring seamless voice communication across the organization. You will contribute to the seamless operation of our IT services by leveraging the full capabilities of Exchange Online and Microsoft Teams, ensuring that our communication infrastructure is secure, efficient, and compliant with NATO and National Security policies.

Your responsibilities will include configuring and managing Exchange Online settings and policies, managing mail flow and transport rules, and overseeing mailbox provisioning and de-

provisioning. In addition, you will be responsible for configuring and managing Microsoft Teams voice services, including call routing, call quality management, and user settings. You will also handle the integration and maintenance of meeting room devices and ensure their seamless operation with Microsoft Teams.

The role also involves integrating Microsoft Teams with Call Manager systems, managing VoIP and PSTN services, and ensuring compliance with technical standards and regulatory requirements. You will implement and manage security measures for email and voice communications, conduct regular security assessments, and ensure compliance with organizational and regulatory requirements.

Furthermore, you will develop and maintain automation scripts to streamline administrative tasks, provide expert support and troubleshooting for email and voice-related issues, and monitor the health and performance of the Exchange Online and Teams voice environments. If you are a motivated specialist with a passion for email and voice systems, and possess strong problem-solving skills, we invite you to apply and join our dynamic team.

2 OBJECTIVES

The NCI Agency is embracing cloud services by transitioning to Microsoft 365 with a security‐centric design. This shift aims to enhance operational efficiency, collaboration, and security across the organization. We are looking for individuals with strong knowledge, a willingness to learn, and a desire to grow as part of this new challenge.

The objective of this statement of work is to establish a support and operating model for End User Services operating in the Public Cloud, with a focus on Microsoft 365 services.

3 SCOPE OF WORK

Under the direction / guidance of the local NCIA Point of Contact or the Cloud Ops Operations Manager, the Cloud Engineer (Exchange and Voice Specialist) will be supporting the following activities:

1) Exchange Online Administration:

a) Configure and manage Exchange Online settings and policies.

b) Ensure optimal performance and security of the email environment.

c) Manage mail flow rules and transport rules.

d) Oversee mailbox provisioning and deprovisioning.

2) Teams Voice Services Management:

a) Configure and manage Microsoft Teams voice services.

b) Implement and manage policies for call routing, call quality, and user settings.

c) Monitor and optimize Teams voice performance and reliability.

d) Troubleshoot and resolve Teams voice-related issues.

3) Meeting Room Devices Integration:

a) Configure and manage meeting room devices.

b) Ensure seamless integration of meeting room devices with Microsoft Teams.

c) Monitor and maintain the performance of meeting room devices.

d) Provide support and troubleshooting for meeting room device issues.

4) Call Manager Integration:

a) Integrate Microsoft Teams with Call Manager systems.

b) Configure and manage call routing and connectivity between systems.

c) Ensure high availability and reliability of integrated voice services.

d) Troubleshoot and resolve integration issues.

5) VoIP and PSTN Services:

a) Manage VoIP and PSTN services within Microsoft Teams.

b) Configure and maintain VoIP and PSTN connectivity.

c) Ensure compliance with technical standards and regulatory requirements.

d) Troubleshoot and resolve VoIP and PSTN issues.

6) Email and Voice Security:

a) Implement and manage email and voice security measures.

b) Protect against email and voice threats and ensure data integrity.

c) Configure Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) policies for Exchange and Teams.

d) Conduct regular security assessments and vulnerability scans.

7) Compliance Management:

a) Ensure compliance with organizational and regulatory requirements.

b) Implement and manage retention policies, eDiscovery, and legal holds for email and voice communications.

c) Monitor and audit email and voice activities for compliance.

d) Develop and maintain data loss prevention (DLP) policies.

8) Automation and Scripting:

a) Develop and maintain PowerShell scripts to automate Exchange Online and Teams voice administrative tasks.

b) Enhance operational efficiency through automation.

c) Implement automated workflows for common tasks.

d) Maintain and update existing automation scripts.

9) User Support and Troubleshooting:

a) Provide expert support and troubleshooting for email and voice-related issues.

b) Ensure a seamless user experience.

c) Handle escalated support tickets related to Exchange Online and Teams voice.

d) Provide training and guidance to end-users on best practices.

10) Monitoring and Reporting:

a) Monitor the health and performance of the Exchange Online and Teams voice environments.

b) Generate reports and provide insights to improve email and voice services.

c) Use Exchange Admin Center, Teams Admin Center, and third-party tools for monitoring.

d) Analyze email and voice usage and performance data.

11) Continuous Improvement:

a) Stay up-to-date with the latest Exchange Online and Teams voice features and best practices.

b) Continuously improve email and voice services to meet organizational needs.

c) Participate in Microsoft 365 community forums and training.

d) Propose and implement new features and enhancements.

12) Voice Communication Standards:

a) Ensure compliance with industry standards for voice communication.

b) Implement best practices for VoIP and PSTN services.

c) Regularly review and update voice communication policies.

d) Stay informed about emerging voice communication technologies.

13) Disaster Recovery Planning:

a) Develop and implement disaster recovery and business continuity plans for email and voice services.

b) Ensure quick restoration of services in the event of an outage.

c) Conduct regular disaster recovery drills.

d) Maintain documentation of recovery procedures.

14) Collaboration with IT Teams:

a) Work closely with other IT teams to ensure cohesive communication strategies.

b) Collaborate on cross-functional projects and initiatives.

c) Provide expertise and support for email and voice-related projects.

d) Participate in IT forums and discussions.

The contractor will be part of a team providing Technical Level 2 and 3 support, ensuring the secure, available, managed and compliant delivery of Public Cloud Services to NATO and its Strategic Commands.

The contractor will work primarily remotely, providing services during Core working hours of the Cloud Operations team (Brussels / BEL).

The measurement of execution for this work is sprints, with each sprint planned for a duration of 1 week.

4 DELIVERABLES AND PAYMENT MILESTONES

The following deliverables are expected from the work on this statement of work:

Deliverable 01: 25 sprints

Payment Milestones: Upon completion of each fourth sprint and at the end of the work.

The NCIA team reserves the possibility to exercise a number of options, based on the same scrum deliverable timeframe and cost, at a later time, depending on the project priorities and requirements.

The payment shall be dependent upon successful acceptance of the Delivery Acceptance Sheet (DAS) – (Annex B) including the EBA Receipt number

Invoices shall be accompanied with a Delivery Acceptance Sheet (Annex B) signed by the Contractor and project authority.

5 COORDINATION AND REPORTING

The contractor shall participate in daily status update meetings, activity planning and other meetings as instructed, via electronic means using Conference Call capabilities, according to the Operation Managers / Team Leaders instructions.

For each sprint to be considered as complete and payable, the contractor must report the outcome of his/her work during the sprint, first verbally during the retrospective meeting and then in written within three (3) days after the sprint’s end date. The format of this report shall be a short email to the NCIA Point of Contact mentioning briefly the work held and the development achievements during the sprint.

6 SCHEDULE

This task order will be active immediately after signing of the contract by both parties

The BASE period of performance is as soon as possible but not later than 22nd July 2024 and will end no later than 31st December 2024.

7 CONSTRAINTS

All the deliverables provided under this statement of work will be based on NCI Agency templates or agreed with the project point of contact.

All code, scripts, documentation, etc. will be stored under configuration management and/or in the provided NCI Agency tools.

8 SECURITY

The duties of the consultants require a valid NATO SECRET security clearance.

All the deliverables of this project will be considered NATO UNCLASSIFIED, while access to networks exceeding this classification level is required.

With this role being of technical nature providing administrative support, a security clearance at

the NATO Secret level is required prior to the start of the engagement.

9 PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS

The contractor will be required to work primarily remote as part of this engagement. The Cloud Operations Team is located in BRUSSELS / BEL and THE HAGUE / NLD, with working hours to be adjusted accordingly.

The contractor will be required to work within a NATO country, following the rules and regulations applicable for the operations of NATO CIS.

The contractor may be required to travel, not exceeding 1 week per month, to other NCI Agency locations as part of his role. The locations applicable for this engagement are limited to BRUSSELS / BEL and THE HAGUE / NLD. Travel expenses will be reimbursed to the individual directly (outside this contract) under NATO rules.

This individual hired for this position will be part of the NCIA Cloud Operations Team.

• The duties of the consultants require a valid NATO SECRET security clearance.

10 QUALIFICATIONS

The consultancy support for this work requires an experienced Cloud Engineer (Exchange and Voice Specialist) with the following qualifications:

1) Exchange Online Proficiency:

• Advanced knowledge of Exchange Online administration and configuration.
• Experience managing email settings and policies.
• Proficiency in configuring mail flow rules and transport rules.
• Ability to troubleshoot and resolve email-related issues.

2) Teams Voice Services Management:

• Expertise in configuring and managing Microsoft Teams voice services.
• Experience with call routing, call quality management, and user settings.
• Proficiency in monitoring and optimizing Teams voice performance.
• Ability to troubleshoot and resolve Teams voice-related issues.

3) Meeting Room Devices Integration:

• Skilled in configuring and managing meeting room devices.
• Experience integrating meeting room devices with Microsoft Teams.
• Proficiency in monitoring and maintaining device performance.
• Ability to provide support and troubleshooting for meeting room device issues.

4) Call Manager Integration:

• Expertise in integrating Microsoft Teams with Call Manager systems.
• Experience configuring call routing and connectivity.
• Proficiency in ensuring high availability and reliability of integrated voice services.
• Ability to troubleshoot and resolve integration issues.

5) VoIP and PSTN Services:

• Advanced knowledge of VoIP and PSTN services within Microsoft Teams.
• Experience managing VoIP and PSTN connectivity.
• Proficiency in troubleshooting VoIP and PSTN issues.
• Knowledge of compliance with technical standards and regulatory requirements.

6) Email and Voice Security:

• Advanced knowledge of email and voice security measures.
• Experience with Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) policies.
• Proficiency in conducting security assessments and vulnerability scans.
• Ability to respond to and mitigate security incidents.

7) Compliance Management:

• Knowledge of compliance requirements and best practices for email and voice systems.
• Experience with retention policies, eDiscovery, and legal holds.
• Proficiency in monitoring and auditing activities for compliance.
• Ability to develop and maintain data loss prevention (DLP) policies.

8) Automation and Scripting:

• Proficient in writing and executing PowerShell scripts for automation.
• Ability to develop and maintain scripts for administrative tasks.
• Experience with automating common tasks and workflows.
• Knowledge of script debugging and error handling.

9) User Support and Troubleshooting:

• Strong problem-solving and troubleshooting skills for email and voice-related issues.
• Experience providing technical support and ensuring user satisfaction.
• Proficiency in handling escalated support tickets.
• Ability to provide training and guidance to end-users.

10) Monitoring and Reporting:

• Proficient in using monitoring tools to track system health and performance.
• Ability to generate reports and provide insights.
• Experience with Exchange Admin Center, Teams Admin Center, and third-party tools.
• Knowledge of analyzing usage and performance data.

11) Continuous Improvement:

• Commitment to staying current with Exchange Online and Teams voice features and best practices.
• Proactive in implementing improvements.
• Participation in Microsoft 365 community forums and training.
• Ability to propose and implement new features and enhancements.

12) Voice Communication Standards:

• Knowledge of industry standards for voice communication.
• Experience implementing best practices for VoIP and PSTN services.
• Ability to regularly review and update voice communication policies.
• Proficiency in staying informed about emerging voice communication technologies.

13) Disaster Recovery Planning:

• Experience developing and implementing disaster recovery plans for email and voice services.
• Ability to conduct regular disaster recovery drills.
• Knowledge of maintaining documentation of recovery procedures.
• Proficiency in ensuring quick restoration of services in the event of an outage.

14) Collaboration with IT Teams:

• Ability to work closely with other IT teams.
• Experience collaborating on cross-functional projects and initiatives.
• Skilled in providing expertise and support for email and voice-related projects.
• Proficiency in participating in IT forums and discussions.

15) Others:

• The candidate has strong customer relationship skills, including negotiating complex and sensitive situations under pressure.
• Full proficiency in the English language. French language proficiency is of advantage.
• The candidate must have the nationality of one of the NATO nations.
• The candidate must possess a NATO Secret Security Clearance or national equivalent.

This role is critical for maintaining efficient IT support operations and ensuring users receive timely and effective assistance with their devices and Microsoft 365 services. As a Level 2/3 specialist, you will handle complex issues, support advanced configurations, and play a key role in strategic planning and implementation of email and voice solutions. If you are a motivated technician with strong problem-solving skills, full proficiency in English, and a passion for email and voice systems, we invite you to apply and join our dynamic team.