Primary Location CA-Halifax
Schedule Full-time
Application Deadline 31-Oct-2026, 11:59:00 PM
Salary (Pay Basis) 9,820.40Canadian Dollar (CAD) Monthly
Grade NATO Grade G15
The post is budgeted from 1 January 2027, and the successful candidate is expected to start employment as soon as possible thereafter.
OVERVIEW OF DIANA
NATO DIANA is the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, a NATO body dedicated to finding and accelerating innovation to provide decisive defence and security effects for the Alliance, while fostering deep-tech innovation.
NATO DIANA is comprised of a Board of Directors, representing all 32 nations, and an operational team referred to as the DIANA Executive (“DX”). Operating from three offices in Europe and North America, the DX leverages a network of military end users, world-leading accelerator sites, test centres, professional mentors and experts, and Allied expertise to accelerate the most innovative technologies from across the NATO Alliance. DIANA is a dynamic, agile workplace, which strives for innovative thinking, diversity, and performance excellence across all teams. To achieve our mission, DIANA is committed to providing our people with an environment that is positive, inclusive and collaborative.
OVERVIEW OF THE ROLE
The Commercial Operations Officer operates at the intersection of strategy, market intelligence, and data analytics to assess growth opportunities for DIANA innovators, emerging technology trends, and defence sector demand signals. This role requires ownership of insight generation to directly influence how DIANA supports growth and market opportunities for its innovators.
*Reserve candidates may be considered for similar posts in Estonia or UK, if appropriate.*
Reporting to the Chief Adoption Officer or their delegate.
Duties of this role include:
- Provide forward-looking perspectives on emerging technology markets and trends.
- Integrate internal and external data sources to identify patterns, trends, strategic insights, and competitive opportunities for DIANA innovators.
- Conduct market research and analysis to understand defence customer demand and map commercial solutions able to solve Allied defence problems.
- Identify opportunities to improve data quality and collection across teams to inform how DIANA delivers growth support for innovators.
- Prepare executive briefings, market assessments, competitive analysis, and strategic presentations for senior leadership.
- Perform any other related duties as may be required.
ROLE REQUIREMENTS, QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE
ESSENTIAL
The incumbent must have:
- A Bachelor’s degree from a nationally recognised/certified university in business, marketing, economics or a related field, together with at least two years of relevant professional experience; or, exceptionally, at least six years of progressive relevant professional experience in lieu of a degree.
- A minimum of two years of relevant professional experience in market research and analysis, business intelligence, commercial insights, data analytics or a related field.
- Demonstrated experience using business intelligence tools, such as Power BI or Tableau, and Python-based analytics or automation to analyse and present data.
- Demonstrated experience translating market research, commercial insights or technology assessments into evidence-based recommendations that support strategy development, portfolio management or growth initiatives for emerging technologies or start-ups.
- Proven ability to conduct quantitative analysis, interpret complex datasets and communicate clear, actionable insights to support organisational decision-making.
- Possess the following minimum proficiency levels in NATO’s official languages (English and French): Level V (“Advanced”) in one language and Level I (“Beginner”) in the other.
NOTE: Most of DIANA’s internal work is conducted in the English language.
DESIRABLE
The following would be considered an advantage:
- A Master’s degree in business, economics, data analytics, technology management or another relevant field.
- Knowledge of defence, security, dual-use or emerging-technology markets and ecosystems.
- Experience producing concise, evidence-based insights for senior leaders while also undertaking the underlying data collection, validation and analysis.
COMPETENCIES
The incumbent must demonstrate:
- Organizational and Environmental Awareness: Understands the wider mission and considers the impact of their actions on others.
- Initiative & Responsibility: Takes ownership and accountability.
- Adaptability & Flexibility: Embraces change, adjusts priorities as needed, and continues to deliver results in evolving environments.
- Customer Service Orientation: Provides timely, professional, and solution-focused support to all stakeholders.
- Planning & Prioritizing: Allocates time and resources effectively, balances competing priorities, and delivers work to agreed timelines.
- Teamwork: Collaborates openly and supports colleagues to achieve shared goals.
- Self-awareness and a Learning Mindset: Seeks opportunities to learn, reflects on experience, and applies learning to improve outcomes.
WHAT WE OFFER
- Genuinely meaningful work as part of the newest unit within the most successful alliance in history.
- Tax-free salary.
- Household and children’s allowances and privileges for expatriate staff including expatriation and educational allowances (where applicable) and additional home leave.
- Excellent private health insurance scheme.
- NATO pension scheme.
- Generous annual leave of 30 days plus official holidays.
- Flexible working conditions and a smoke-free office in Halifax.
- Opportunities for learning and development.
CONTRACT
In accordance with the NATO Civilian Personnel Regulations, the successful candidate will receive a definite duration contract of three years, which may be followed by an extension.
USEFUL INFORMATION REGARDING APPLICATION AND RECRUITMENT PROCESS
Please note that we can only accept applications from nationals of NATO member countries.
Applications must be submitted using the e-recruitment system, and any documents sent through other formats will not be reviewed (including email, social network, etc).
Before you apply to any position, we encourage you to click here and review how to apply.
Due to the broad interest in NATO DIANA and the large number of potential candidates, telephone or email enquiries cannot be dealt with.
NOTE: DIANA will not accept any phase of the recruitment and selection, prepared in whole or in part, by means of generative artificial-intelligence (AI) tools, including and without limitation to chatbots, such as Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (Chat GPT, Copilot, Claude, etc.), or other language generating tools. DIANA reserves the right to screen applications to identify the use of such tools. All applications prepared, in whole or in part, by means of such generative or creative AI applications will be rejected without further consideration at DIANA’s sole discretion, and DIANA reserves the right to take further steps in such cases as appropriate.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
NATO is committed to diversity and inclusion, and strives to provide equal access to employment, advancement and retention, independent of gender, age, nationality, ethnic origin, religion or belief, cultural background, sexual orientation, and disability.
NATO is committed to fostering an inclusive and accessible working environment, where all candidates living with disabilities can fully participate in the recruitment and selection process. If you require reasonable accommodation, please inform us during your selection process along with documented medical evidence to support your request.
For further information please see the full job description on our recruitment portal.
For more information on DIANA, please visit our website.
