Role ID – 2026-0036
Role Background
1.1 To strengthen the Alliance through connecting its forces, the NCIA delivers secure,
coherent, cost effective and interoperable communications and information systems in
support of consultation, command & control and enabling intelligence, surveillance and
reconnaissance capabilities, for NATO, where and when required. It includes IT support
to the Alliances' business processes (to include provision of IT shared services) to the
NATO HQ, the Command Structure and NATO Agencies.
1.2 The NATO Business Application Centre (NBAC), as part of the NCIA, and in line
with the Agency's Charter and its Cloud broker role, is to provide Business Applications
Capabilities & Services to the Agency, and across NATO Enterprise, and ensure their
harmonization rationalisation, and coherence, with the aim to enable overall efficient
day-to-day operations, support transparency, and foster internal control.
1.3 In the light of these activities, NBAC (hereafter referred to as the "Purchaser") is
seeking Support for Microsoft Power BI Service Operations, Development and Training.
This support will focus on ensuring the configuration, operational support,
development, documentation and training of Microsoft Power BI based solutions,
including both Power BI Report Server (on-premises and Saas), in alignment with
NATO's IT Service Management processes.
1.4 The Contractor is expected to deliver and maintain high-quality data visualization
solutions, aligned with business and governance requirements, while contributing to
Level 2 and Level 3 Support (incident, problem, change and service request
management) in accordance with ITIL standards. The service includes coordinating
with internal infrastructure service teams, documenting technical work, provisioning
end-user training, and supporting secure access and authentication configurations
(e.g., ADFS claims-based setup for Power BI Report Server).
1.5 The Contractor is also expected to demonstrate flexibility to support project
priorities in a dynamic operational environment and may be to work on-site at NATO
classified levels in various NATO locations, limited to NCIA Braine L'Alleud, NCIA Mons
(SHAPE) and NCIA Brussels, as operationally required.
Role Duties and Responsibilities
Power BI Server Configuration & Performance Optimization
o Provide expert-level configuration, tuning and optimization of Power BI
Server to ensure high performance and reliability. The contractor will
assess the current deployment, identify bottlenecks, and implement
best practices aligned with Microsoft standards.
Platform Administration & Monitoring
o Deliver ongoing Level 2/3 support, including monitoring of backups,
logs, and performance tuning.
o Support Level 1 support.
o Maintain compliance with ITIL processes and NATO service operation
protocols and contribute to operational resilience of BI platforms.
Incident, Problem & Change Management
o Resolve Service Desk tickets in line with SLA targets and participate in
change management, including impact assessments, patching, and
upgrades.
o Ensure coordination with cross-service infrastructure teams.
Patching & Upgrade Services (Power BI On-Premises)
o The contractor will perform planned patching and upgrade activities for
the on-premises Power BI instance in alignment with internal release
authorization (A2SL) and security standards (typically 2 to 4 times per
calendar year).
Cross-Service Coordination & On-Call Support
o Collaborate with infrastructure and database teams under OLAs to
resolve performance or upgrade-related issues.
