• Ownership of V&V planning and execution on large, complex projects (5+ years, recent). Candidates must be able to describe in their application, in detail, at least two large or complex programmes where they authored or led the Master Test Plan / Event Test Plan and directed execution — not merely contributed test cases under someone else's plan. Be ready to discuss specific trade-offs made if selected for the interview (e.g., risk-based test
  prioritization, scope cuts under schedule pressure);
• Functional, non-functional, and interoperability testing (3+ years, recent). Candidates should be able to walk through a specific non-functional test campaign (e.g., performance, security, interoperability) they designed and executed, including how pass/fail criteria were defined and what was found;
• Managing external stakeholders and co-workers on large, complex projects. Candidates must provide a concrete example of a disagreement or escalation with an external stakeholder (vendor, contractor, or sponsor) during test execution, and how it was resolved;
• Ability to read and reason about hardware/software system architectures from design documentation. Assessed via a short architecture-reading exercise during the interview (e.g., reviewing a redacted system design excerpt and identifying testable risk areas);
• Clear, concise, engaging communication — oral and written. Assessed directly through the interview and through a short-written exercise (e.g., drafting an executive summary of a fictitious non-compliance finding);
• Team leadership experience (testers, quality, or development engineers). Candidates must specify in their application team size, their role (technical lead vs. line manager vs. project lead), and one example of a performance or resourcing decision they made;
• Testing in virtualized and cloud environments. Candidates should in their application name the specific platforms/environments used (e.g., VMware, AWS, Azure, on-prem virtualization) and describe one testing challenge unique to that environment;
• Familiarity with test management, defect management, and requirements management tools. Name your organization's actual toolset here (e.g., Jira/Zephyr, HP ALM, DOORS, Azure, TestRail….). Candidates should describe in their application how they used the tool to manage traceability or defects on a real project;
• Independent testing of externally-contracted work. Candidates must describe in their application a case where they served as an independent verifier of work performed by an external party, including how independence was maintained and how findings were reported.

Desirable:

• Advanced testing/test management certification (e.g., ISTQB Advanced/Expert level, or equivalent);
• Experience testing within the NATO/military business domain;
• Experience with assurance tools and processes (e.g., audit frameworks, compliance assessments);
• Experience as an interoperability tester within a NATO context.