Quality Assurance Specialist Student Assessment Specialist Intern

For more than 75 years NATOs mission has been to preserve peace and security in the Alliance for nearly one billion citizens. The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) is NATOs technology and cyber hub. We are a team of 3400 civilian and military staff working together to connect all corners of NATO and maintain its edge from 30 locations across the Alliance.

We are a key partner in NATOs Digital Transformation working hand in hand with industry to provide technical solutions and expertise facilitating political consultations and decision-making and enabling multi-domain operations.

Our experts provide secure static and deployable communications infrastructure satellite communications and information technology services connected the Alliances forces and strengthening NATOs defence and deterrence posture. Fulfilling NCIAs missions is possible because of our greatest force our order to reinforce NATOs edge we aim to hire train and retain the very best staff.

Our staff members represent both the diversity and unity of our Alliance. When you join NCIA you will be part of an organization where you can contribute authentically to the mission and purpose of NATO and help us ensure seamless connectivity among Allied partner nations.

About the Program

The NCIA internship is a 6-month program based at one of our key hubs in The Netherlands Belgium or Portugal. Our internship opportunities start from either 1 March or 1 September with the start date being dependent on the timeline to secure the required security clearance to work within the NATO community. During an internship you will join and support a diverse international team and simultaneously learn from our experts via on-the-job training working independently on purposeful projects or initiatives during your tenure.

About the Internship

Internship duration: 6 months

Location: Oeiras Portugal

The NCI Academy offers best in class vocational training on NATO systems and services with the team Academy delivering high quality certified and up-to-date training in C4ISR Cyber Command and Control and Enterprise field across the NATO community.

Project Title: Student Competency PreAssessment Development This internship offers an exciting opportunity to contribute to the future of adaptive learning and quality assurance in education. The project focuses on designing and validating a student preassessment framework to evaluate learner competencies before they attend formal training. By identifying existing knowledge skills and experience this tool will enable training programs to be tailored more effectively ensuring that instruction is targeted efficient and relevant to each participant. Working under the mentorship of a Quality Assurance Specialist the intern will help define assessment criteria aligned with course outcomes design digital evaluation instruments and explore integration with an AIdriven tutoring assistant that provides personalized feedback and learning support. The project also includes benchmarking learners entry competencies against the desired endstate proficiency levels to identify if participants already meet training objectives. This initiative offers a unique chance to gain handson experience in educational design quality assurance and applied AI in learning environments. Ideal for students in education psychology data science or instructional design the project blends analytical thinking with creativity to enhance learning quality and impact.

About you:

The valuable knowledge and experience that you bring to this role is:

Competency assessment: Performs routine assessments of knowledge skill competency or behaviour using specified methods.

Measurement: Applies standard techniques to support the specification of measures and the collection and maintenance of data for measurement. Generates produces and distributes reports. Uses measurement tools for routine analysis of data. Identifies and implements improvements to data collection methods.

Quality assurance: Contributes to the collection of evidence and the conduct of formal audits or reviews of activities. Examines records for evidence that appropriate testing and other quality control activities have taken place. Determines compliance with organisational directives standards and procedures and identifies non-compliances non-conformances and abnormal occurrences.

Behavioural Competencies

• Deciding & Initiating Action: Takes responsibility for actions projects and people; takes initiative and works under own direction; initiates and generates activity and introduces changes into work processes; makes quick clear decisions which may include tough choices or considered risks
• Creating & Innovating: Produces new ideas approaches or insights; creates innovative products or designs; produces a range of solutions to problems
• Relating & Networking: Easily establishes good relationships with customers and staff; relates well to people at all levels; builds wide and effective networks of contacts; uses humour appropriately to bring warmth to relationships with others

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible to apply for our internship program you will need to meet the following criteria:

• You are a national of a NATO member country
• You are currently studying towards a university-level degree or have recently graduated in the past 12 months
• A thorough knowledge of one of the two NATO languages both written and spoken is essential and some knowledge of the other is desirable. NOTE: Most of the work of the NCIA is conducted in the English language

We also request that you please attach the following documents to your application form:

• Copy of the university degree you have completed and/or
• Proof of ongoing studies with the dates clearly mentioned if you are still studying

Application Process:

The application process for an internship at NCIA is:

1. Apply via the NCIA Careers site by 23:59 CET Sunday 8th March 2026
2. If selected to progress to the first stage evaluation this will consists of a variety logic numeracy and behavioral gamified exercises in addition to on-demand video questions aligned to the requirements of the internship
3. Virtual interviews will take place in the months of March and April
4. Conditional offer to be presented to successful candidates by early May

Compensation

Portugal

You will be compensated at a fixed taxable rate of 1236.65 EUR per month based on 38 hours of work per week and for reasonable travel expenses to start on day 1 and to return to your home location once the internship is complete.

Thank you for your patience while we consider your application. To learn more about NCIA and our work please visit our website.

Future Opportunities

In support of the NCIA strategy to hire train and retain exceptional talent the NCIA Internship Programme embeds a performance management process throughout the 6 month internship to provide high performing interns with the opportunity to continue their internship experience after their internship is successfully completed in a paid post at G8 equivalent at the duty location for 6 months to a maximum of 24 months. There is no guarantee that the internship can transfer to an Internship Temporary Personnel (ITP) as the funding is aligned to business priorities and objectives.

NCIA prides itself on being an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to fostering an inclusive environment of mutual respect and value uniqueness and differences in gender gender identity race ethnic or cultural origin age religion sexual orientation and physical or neurocognitive ability.

Additional details on the conditions of application can be found via the NCIA career site.