Project Manager for Cyber Crisis Exercises

SURF is looking for a Cyber Crisis Exercises Project Manager. Would you like to organize large-scale cyber crisis drills in collaboration with educational and research institutions? Does developing new training materials and figuring out how best to teach professionals to handle crises excite you? Do you enjoy speaking in front of groups and are you good at getting people on board? Then this job is perfect for you!

Where you will work

SURF is the cooperative IT organization of and for the Dutch education and research sectors. SURF develops and manages cutting-edge digital infrastructure for excellent education, leading-edge research, and sustainable collaboration. We work together with our members to advance digital sovereignty, innovation, and public value in the Netherlands and internationally.

As a Cyber Crisis Exercises Project Manager, you’ll make a significant contribution to this by supporting education and research institutions in preparing for cyber crises and strengthening their digital resilience.

The team you will join

You’ll be part of the Security Awareness and Organization team, a group of 10 colleagues, each with their own thematic area of responsibility. Your area of responsibility is crisis management. This team is part of the Trust & Security department, and together we’re responsible for service delivery, innovation, and collaboration in the areas of cybersecurity, privacy, and IAM.

On Mondays, we’re always in the office and start the week with a group check-in. You’ll also work closely with colleagues from the Security Technology team and with the security and privacy professionals at our affiliated educational and research institutions.

Which service will you be helping with?

Once every two years, we organize the cross-sector cyber crisis exercise OZON. We do this together with our members: the universities, universities of applied sciences, vocational colleges (MBO), research institutions, and university medical centers (UMCs) in the Netherlands. We also involve partners who would be active in these sectors during an actual cyber crisis, such as the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science (OCW). Between 60 and 100 organizations participate in each edition of the exercise, with a total of between 2,000 and 3,000 participants. The project to set this up and lead it takes about a year, with a total of approximately 250 people involved in the preparations, which we oversee from SURF.

In other years, we organize NOZON: a program in which we guide all members in organizing their own tabletop exercise. For this, we develop exercise materials, conduct train-the-trainer sessions, and encourage the exchange of knowledge regarding crisis management.

The demand for crisis exercises is growing, and in the coming years we will further explore how SURF can help make our sectors—and SURF itself—more resilient so they can withstand large-scale societal disruption. You will also contribute to this service development.

What you will do

As a cyber crisis exercise project manager, you’ll help set up and lead the existing OZON and NOZON crisis exercises, as well as explore and develop new exercises and training materials. To this end, you’ll be in constant contact with our members and translate their needs into ongoing exercises or new training materials to be developed. You’ll delve into how we can best help professionals learn from exercises and other learning interventions, and how SURF can facilitate this. You’ll collaborate on this with the OZON product manager and the various project teams involved in the different exercises.

Your primary focus is on crisis exercises, but you’ll also work on small- to medium-sized (innovation) projects in the areas of security and privacy.

Other responsibilities

• You’ll help set up large-scale exercises like OZON by assisting in defining exercise objectives, creating schedules, developing supporting materials, and contributing to the overarching exercise scenarios
• You assist members during the preparatory phase of OZON in setting up their exercises by leading working sessions, answering questions from exercise planners at various institutions, and incorporating the identified needs into the central preparation process
• You will lead both large-scale and small-scale exercises by managing the exercise as it unfolds. Where necessary, you will speed up or slow down the progress of the exercise, and in emergencies, you will decide to pause or halt the exercise.
• You develop exercise materials for NOZON and other exercises by creating exercise packages and exploring and applying new methods of conducting exercises
• You support research on crisis exercises by contributing ideas on how to involve researchers in observing our exercises to enhance the learning potential of crisis exercises in general
• When you’re not working on crisis exercises, you’ll contribute to various innovation projects in the fields of security and privacy. Depending on your talents, interests, and the needs of our institutions, you’ll carry out projects in the areas of technology, awareness, or cybersecurity organization.

What you bring

You thrive on organizing complex projects that involve collaboration among many different parties. You know how to motivate people, maintain a clear overview, and switch effortlessly between organizing, facilitating, and communicating. You’re curious, ask probing questions, and know how to turn ideas into concrete actions. You’re confident and take diverse interests into account, without losing sight of the common goal.

In addition, you have:

• at least a higher vocational education (HBO) level of work and thinking;
• experience with project management and leading small to medium-sized projects;
• experience conducting training sessions or workshops and the ability to convey complex topics clearly and accessibly;
• strong organizational and communication skills and an excellent command of Dutch and English, both spoken and written;
• experience collaborating with various stakeholders, with the ability to bring people together and stay on course when necessary;
• knowledge of crisis management or (cyber) crisis exercises, or the motivation to quickly familiarize yourself with these areas.

Process

The first interviews will take place on Wednesday, August 27, and Monday, September 1, at our office in Utrecht. Please keep this in mind. In addition, a case study may be part of the application process. If you are eligible for this, we will notify you in a timely manner.

SURF takes pleasure in doing its recruitment itself; acquisition is therefore not appreciated.