Senior Specialist – Product Technical Lead, Solution Delivery Unit, ICT Department (AD7)

This selection procedure is intended to establish a reserve list of successful candidates. It is envisaged to start using the reserve list in Q3/Q4 of 2026.

Europol retains the right to make use of the reserve list to select candidates for similar posts within the organisation, should business needs require so.

1. Organisational setting

Organisational setting:

The post of Senior Specialist – Product Technical Lead, is located in one of the teams within the Solution Delivery Unit, ICT Department, Capabilities Directorate.

The ICT Department has the responsibility for devising, delivering and operating critical technology capabilities and solutions supporting the core mission and support processes of Europol. Over 150 internal staff members and a significant number of domain-specific consultants are responsible for devising, developing, delivering and operating information management and communication technology capabilities that ensure enhanced criminal information analysis and exchange among Europol, Member States and third parties.

The Solution Delivery Unit is responsible for the development and quality assurance of ICT solutions. This includes Application Delivery, Quality Assurance (requirements management, testing), and Law-Enforcement Accelerated Provisioning services that provide technology support to fast-moving operational activities.

Purpose of the post:

The Product Technical Lead (PTL) ensures coherent, high-quality delivery of technology solutions across multiple squads, including co-sourced teams. The role combines delivery leadership and technical leadership, ensuring that execution is aligned with Europol’s technical direction and delivery roadmap.

Acting as central coordination point between stakeholders and delivery teams, the PTL drives alignment on priorities, manages cross-team technical dependencies, and ensure transparency on progress and outcomes. In parallel, the PTL provides technical direction, and ensuring solutions are maintainable, compliant and operable.

The PTL works closely with the Product Delivery Manager, Squad Leads, Architecture, Engineering, Security, QA Center of Excellence and the Business Stakeholders to ensure solutions are delivered with both strong execution and sound technical integrity.

Reporting lines:

The incumbent will report to a Senior Specialist - Head of Team - Solution Delivery / Head of Unit Solution Delivery.

2. Functions and duties

The incumbent carries out the following main functions and duties:

• Coordinate delivery across multiple internal and external squads, aligning milestones, interfaces, and cross-team technical dependencies while respecting squad autonomy;
• Coordinate the translation of the objectives by the Squad Leads into an integrated delivery plan and release sequencing (scope, timing, and resourcing assumptions);
• Ensure delivery visibility through streamlined governance, progress tracking and reporting;
• Facilitate technical alignment with target architecture and engineering standards, collaborating with architects and senior engineers on key design and integration choices;
• Ensure non-functional requirements are addressed and evidenced as part of delivery;
• Partner with the QA Center of Excellence (QA CoE) to align test approach, quality gates and acceptance evidence expectations across squads;
• Coordinate acceptance readiness across squads, QA CoE and stakeholders to enable effective releases;
• Proactively identify and manage delivery risks, issues; drive mitigation actions and escalate when needed;
• Coordinate external partner deliverables and integration points, ensuring outputs align with agreed expectations, internal standards, and acceptance approach;
• Coordinate release readiness and cutover activities with Europol ICT Department and other stakeholders, ensuring operational handover is prepared;
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives across delivery ways of working in alignment with the Unit’s strategic direction, fostering transparency and collaboration across internal and partner teams;
• Perform any other duties in the area of competence as assigned by the line management.

3. Requirements - Eligibility criteria

a. Candidates must

• Be a national of one of the Member States of the European Union and enjoy full rights as a citizen;
• Have fulfilled any obligations imposed by the applicable laws on military service;
• Produce appropriate character references as to his or her suitability for the performance of the duties;
• Be physically fit to perform the duties pertaining to the post as further specified in Article 13 of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Union (CEOS);
• Produce evidence of a thorough knowledge of one of the languages of the Union and a satisfactory knowledge of another language of the Union to the extent necessary for the performance of the duties.

b. Candidates must have

• A level of education which corresponds to completed university studies attested by a diploma when the normal period of university education is four years or more;

OR

• A level of education which corresponds to completed university studies attested by a diploma and appropriate professional experience of at least one year when the normal period of university education is at least three years;

OR

• Professional training of an equivalent level in a relevant area and after having completed the training, at least the number of years of relevant professional experience as indicated below:

Duration of professional training Additional professional experience required for equivalency

More than 6 months and up to 1 year 4 years

More than 1 year and up to 2 years 3 years

More than 2 years and up to 3 years 2 years

More than 3 years 1 year

• In addition to the above at least 6 years of professional work experience gained after the award of the diploma.

4. Requirements - Selection criteria

a. Professional experience

Essential:

• Experience (preferably 8+ years) in .NET or Java software development projects, contributing to the design and implementation of scalable and maintainable applications;
• Experience acting as Technical Delivery Lead / Tech Lead, owning technical execution end-to-end;
• Experience coordinating delivery across multiple squads/teams on a shared initiative/program, including managing technical dependencies’;
• Experience working in an outsourced/co-sourced software delivery model, collaborating with external Scrum squads/partners and ensuring alignment on ways of working;
• Experience driving integration and release readiness across teams.

Desirable:

• Experience drafting and/or reviewing Statements of Work (SoW) for 3rd-party software development;
• Experience in product-oriented delivery models and/or scaled multi-team environments;
• Experience in a highly regulated environment with an articulated governance model.

b. Professional knowledge

Essential:

• Knowledge of enterprise software engineering in Java (11+) and/or .net (8+), sufficient to review and challenge code/designs;
• Knowledge of solution and integration design for multi-team delivery, including architectural decision-making and interface contract definition;
• Knowledge of operating in a co-sourced delivery setup;
• Knowledge of Agile methodologies (e.g., Scrum/Kanban) and their practical application in cross-functional, multi-squad or hybrid environments;
• Knowledge of CI/CD and release flow concepts, with explicit understanding of dependency management for multi-squad delivery.

Desirable:

• SAFe Agilist (SA) certification (Leading SAFe).

c. General competencies

Essential:

Communicating:

• Excellent communication skills in English, both orally and in writing.
• Excellent presentation skills.
• Ability to draft clear and concise documents on complex matters for various audiences.

Analysing & problem solving:

• Structured approach to work aimed at getting results.
• Excellent analytical and critical thinking skills.
• Competent user of Microsoft Office applications (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook) and the internet.

Delivering quality and results:

• High degree of commitment and flexibility.
• High level of customer and service-orientation.

Prioritising and organising:

• Excellent organizational skills including the ability to plan own work load, establish clear priorities and exercise initiative.
• Ability to manage projects and familiarity with project management terminology and methodology.

Resilience:

• Strong ability to work well both independently and in a team.
• Very good interpersonal skills, including the ability to effectively liaise with other departments, groups and teams as well as with external partners.
• Ability to remain effective under a heavy workload and demonstrate resistance to stress.

Living diversity:

• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relations with co-workers in an international and multi-disciplinary work environment.

Advising:

• Ability to synthesise various data into a coherent and relevant whole, transforming it into a valuable and correct conclusion.
• Building constructive relationships with clients, adequately identifying and managing their needs and expectations, and giving well-grounded advice.

d. Additional conditions:

Fulfil the condition stipulated in Article 5 of the Decision of the Executive Director on the Duration of contracts of employment for Temporary Agents, on the start date of the possible contract of employment which may be offered.

5. Selection procedure

All applications for Temporary Agent posts must be submitted through the online recruitment system accessible via Europol’s website. For further information, please consult the Europol Recruitment Guidelines.

The Authority Authorised to Conclude Contracts of Employment (AACC) sets up a Selection Committee, composed of at least three members, consisting of one chair and at least one member from the administration and one member designated by the Staff Committee.

The selection criteria, set out in this Vacancy Notice, will be assessed by the Selection Committee throughout the different stages of the selection procedure. Before the start of the selection procedure, the Selection Committee will decide which selection criteria will be used at each stage of the selection procedure. Certain selection criteria will be assessed only for shortlisted candidates during a written test and/or a competency-based interview.

The Selection Committee will assess the applications received in order to make an initial selection of those candidates meeting all eligibility criteria and matching best the selection criteria (suitability).

The minimum pass-mark for being shortlisted, i.e. invited to participate in a post-related selection procedure, consisting of a test and a competency-based interview, is established as 60% of the total maximum score.

The Selection Committee will shortlist the 10 highest scoring candidates. All candidates having a score equal to the 10th highest scoring candidate will be invited to take part in the first stage of the selection procedure (written and / or practical test). At shortlisting stage, the Selection Committee will also establish the pass-mark for the selection procedure.

The Selection Committee will assess the written test against the selection criteria. Those candidates who do not reach the pass-mark for the test will be informed that they do not qualify to participate in the interview. All candidates who reach the pass-mark for the test will be invited to the second stage of the selection procedure (interview).

It is intended for the selection proc