2024-0290 Cloud Engineer Exchange and Voice Specialist (NS) - WED 11 Dec

Deadline Date: Wednesday 11 December 2024

Requirement: Cloud Engineer (Hybrid) Exchange and Voice Specialist

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: 20th January 2025 – 31st December 2025

• 2026 Option: 1st January 2026 until 31st December 2026

• 2027 Option: 1st January 2027 until 31st December 2027

Start date is as soon as possible but not later than 20th January 2025

Required Security Clearance: NATO SECRET

1 INTRODUCTION

Supporting NATO throughout all its geographical locations, the NCI Agency is looking for Cloud Engineer (Hybrid), 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 (Hybrid), 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 (Hybrid), 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 com...