JOB DESCRIPTION

Call for Applications: EMSA/AD/2025/10 – Reserve List for an Officer – European Maritime Awareness Centre (EMAC) Data Science

The selection of candidates will follow the EMSA Staff Recruitment Procedure.
Candidates must apply for this post via the EMSA website http://www.emsa.europa.eu – vacancies.
Please note that to make an EMSA on-line application you will need to create your EMSA profile
using a valid e-mail address and a password.

1. Background

The European Maritime Safety Agency was established for the purpose of ensuring a high, uniform and effective level of maritime safety, maritime security as well as prevention of and response to pollution by ships within the EU.

The idea of a European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA)  originated in the late 1990’s along with a number of other important European maritime safety initiatives. EMSA was set up as the decentralised agency that would provide a major source of support to the European Commission and the Member States in the field of maritime safety, security and prevention of pollution from ships. The Agency was established by Regulation (EC) No 1406/2002 and subsequent amendments have refined and enlarged its mandate to cover among other measures, the efficiency of maritime transport.

2. Tasks of the agency

The Agency provides technical, operational and scientific assistance to the European Commission and Member States in the fields of maritime safety, maritime security, prevention of, and response to, pollution caused by ships as well as response to marine pollution caused by oil and gas installations.

The Agency also contributes to the overall efficiency of maritime traffic and maritime transport and supports European cooperation on coastguard functions.

EMSA’s activities can be broadly described as:

• providing technical and scientific assistance to the Member States and the European Commission in the proper development and implementation of EU legislation on maritime safety, security, prevention of pollution by ships and maritime transport administrative simplification;
• monitoring the implementation of EU legislation through visits and inspections;
• improving cooperation with and between Member States;
• building capacity of national competent authorities;
• providing operational assistance, including developing, managing and maintaining maritime services related to ships, ship monitoring and enforcement;
• carrying out operational preparedness, detection and response tasks with respect to pollution caused by ships and marine pollution by oil and gas installations;
• at the request of the European Commission, providing technical operational assistance to non-EU countries around relevant sea basins.

3. Reserve list to be used by various departments

Depending on the Agency’s needs and the qualifications and profiles of the applicants, the successful candidates could be offered employment in a determined unit within one of the departments.

4. Functions and duties

The Officer – European Maritime Awareness Centre (EMAC) Data Science will be responsible for the following tasks:

• Maintaining and enriching the Agency’s data catalogue for maritime awareness and analytical activities of the Agency;
• Supporting data warehouse management including administering the infrastructure for data storage, data access controls, data auditing, data quality management, data lineage and data discovery;
• Designing and revising data transformations and data integration patterns and supporting the build of reusable data entities;
• Participating in the design, development, and maintenance of the analytical business use cases and data products in the domain of maritime awareness;
• Designing and implementing technical solutions for the development of maritime awareness and analytical capabilities including data modelling and machine learning solutions;
• Preparing specifications for acquisition of digital solutions for data management and creation of data products in the maritime awareness and analytics domain;
• Preparing studies, designs, data models, manuals and other written products related to maritime awareness and analytics;
• Activity and budget planning and reporting on assigned contracts and projects;
• Contract management duties – liaising with external contractors, ensuring timely deliverables in line with the defined technical and quality requirements;
• Where applicable, participation and coordination of technical working groups and expert meetings in the area of expertise.

5. Eligibility and Selection Criteria

A. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

A.1 Education and experience

• 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 AND at least three years proven professional experience acquired after the award of university diploma, or; A level of education which corresponds to completed university studies attested by a diploma when the normal period of university education is at least three years AND at least four years of proven professional experience acquired after the award of university diploma.

It should be noted that due to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union on the 31/01/2020, candidates from the United Kingdom
who do not hold the nationality of another European Union Member State, are not eligible.

Only qualifications that have been awarded in EU Member States or that are subject to the equivalence certificates issued by the authorities
in the EU Member States will be taken into consideration. Please note, that degrees awarded by the United Kingdom up to 31/12/2020 are
considered as valid.

A.2 Language skills

• The main working language in the field of maritime safety is English. Candidates must
  therefore have a very good command of oral English as well as in writing with a satisfactory knowledge of at least one other official
  language of the European Union to the extent necessary for the performance of the above-mentioned duties.

B. SELECTION CRITERIA

B.1. Essential

• A university diploma in mathematics, applied mathematics, statistics or a related field (computer science, data science, engineering, etc.);
• At least three years of proven professional experience in at least two of the following areas: Implementing user-driven solutions for interpreting and displaying complex data; statistical analysis and data analysis, including examining past data through business understanding, data mining, data preparation, machine learning modelling and evaluation, developing descriptive statistical reports and predictive models to gain valuable knowledge from data through analytics for the discovery, interpretation and communication of meaningful patterns in data;
• Good professional knowledge and experience using data analytics programming languages such as R, Python, SQL or Scala.

B.2. Advantageous

• Professional experience with developing and training of machine learning models and machine learning libraries and operations. Candidates should specifically mention in their CV, the tools used, referring to specific examples;
• Professional experience with developing reports or analytics with solutions as for example PowerBI;
• Knowledge or experience in the maritime domain (search and rescue at sea, pollution response, traffic monitoring, ship/port interface, maritime law enforcement, maritime surveillance, etc.);
• Certification in Microsoft Azure Databricks;
• Experience in big data processing and analytics using technologies such as Apache Spark, Spark SQL, PySpark.

Applicants must meet the required eligibility criteria concerning the required educational qualifications and years of experience, as well as
the essential criteria by the deadline for this call for applications.

The advantageous criteria will be considered by the Selection Board depending on the number of applicants meeting the essential criteria.

Supplementary requirements (soft skills):

• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills;
• Effective listening skills;
• Excellent communication, presentation and reporting skills both oral and written;
• Be able to work under pressure.

6. General conditions

In order to be eligible the candidate must:

• Be a national of one of the Member States of the European Union or of Iceland or Norway;
• Be entitled to his/her full rights as a citizen;
• Have fulfilled the obligations imposed on him/her by the laws concerning military service;
• Meet the character requirements for the duties involved; and
• Be physically fit to perform the duties linked to the post.

It should be noted that due to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union on the 31/01/2020, candidates from the United Kingdom who do not hold the nationality of another European Union Member State, are not eligible for calls for applications at EMSA due to the fact that they do not fulfil the requirements of Article 12.2 of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants, namely, that they do not hold the nationality of a EU Member State.

7. Conditions of employment

The Reserve List for an Officer – European Maritime Awareness Centre (EMAC) Data Science will be appointed by the Executive Director, upon recommendation of the Chairperson of the Selection Committee.

This vacancy notice concerns a Temporary Agent position, pursuant to Article 2 f) of the Conditions of Employment of other servants of the European Communities.

The initial duration of the contract is three years, with possibility of renewal.

If recruited from the reserve list, the successful candidate will be recruited in the grade AD6.

The basic monthly salary, before any deductions or allowances, weighted for Lisbon, at 1 April 2025 for grade AD6 first step is 6,224.61EUR.

In addition to the basic salary, staff members may be entitled to various allowances, such as an expatriation allowance (16% of basic salary), household allowance, dependent child allowance and education allowance. The salary is subject to a Community tax deducted at source and staff members are exempt of national taxation.

Please note that recruitment is done in the first or second step of the indicated grade, depending on the duration of the acquired professional experience. EMSA offers a comprehensive welfare package including pension scheme, medical, accident and occupational disease insurance coverage, unemployment and invalidity allowance. Further information regarding rights and conditions of employment can be found in the following document.

Please note that in line with the Staff Regulations recruited candidates shall be required to demonstrate before their first promotion the ability to work in a third European Community language.

The place of employment is Lisbon, Portugal.

Candidates are advised that if they are offered a post, and accept, they must undergo a compulsory medical examination to establish that they meet the standard of physical fitness necessary to perform the duties involved.

EMSA is an Agency focused on gender balance and a harmonic workplace and strongly encourages the applications of women for the positions where they are underrepresented.

8. Submission of applications

Candidates should ensure that they clearly indicate how they meet the selection criteria in their application and motivation letter.

Candidates must submit their application electronically solely via the EMSA website within the deadline. Applications by any other means (hard copy or ordinary e-mail) or submitted after the deadline will not be accepted.

All candidates will receive an acknowledgement of receipt for their application.

EMSA is an equal opportunities employer. Staff is selected without prejudice as to sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation.

You may apply in any of the official languages of the European Union, but it would be helpful to apply in English in order to facilitate the selection process.