Service Manager - Deadline 31/07/2025

Tasks and responsibilities :

• Provide advice, guidance, consultancy and assistance to the responsible official(s) regarding:
- The management of the development and implementation of services in order to meet the
business needs;
- Ensuring maximum uptime, accurate and early incident response, appropriate configuration
management, proactive maintenance and tuning;
- The monitoring and reporting on operations and on capacity consumption, and liaison with all
(internal and external) stakeholders;
- The management and coordination of the service desk activities, ensuring that incident,
problem, change, configuration and release management is delivered according to quality plans
(FQPs) and to quality levels agreed in the Service Level Agreement (SLA);
- The definition of KPIs, as well as the monitoring and reporting on all quality indicators; o
Security policies and procedures related to user access, PKI, certificates and password
management.

• Set up and enforce the respect of organisation, procedures and project office tasks, raising
warnings in case of non-respect of these;
• Enforce the quality of delivery on schedule;
• Structure the information in ways that are appropriate to the target audience, using the available
wiki or knowledge management systems (MS Sharepoint, Atlassian Confluence, CIRCABC);
• Report on the service status (SLA, actions, risks, issues, decisions, changes, etc.) within DG
TAXUD and/or with Member States or other partners;
• Escalate issues, in particular the ones with potential impacts on time or resources;

• Produce and/or review documents;
• Provide suggestions for service or methodology improvements;
• Participate in meetings with DG TAXUD, contractors, Member States and/or other partners;
• Support the adoption of new ways of working and automations in the context of the modernisation
initiatives (Agile, DevSecOps, including the progressive adoption of an application lifecycle
management platform based on Atlassian and open-source tools);
• On occasion, manage small-scale projects, including planning, quality management, risk
assessment and mitigation.

2. NATURE OF THE TASKS

The consultant will act as a Service Manager primarily in the area of Excise, with a focus on digital
systems supporting the exchange of information with or between Member States ( Excise Movement and
Control System (EMCS), System of Exchange of Excise Data (SEED) etc) but the consultant may also
be involved in projects related to indirect taxation or excise duties (e.g. DACx, etc).

The main tasks will include:

• The monitoring and reporting on all quality indicators.
• Set up and enforce the respect of organization, procedures and project office tasks, raising
warnings in case of non-respect of these.
• Enforce the quality of delivery on schedule.
• Structure the information in ways that are appropriate to the target audience;
• Report on the service status (SLA, actions, risks, issues, decisions, changes, etc.) within DG

TAXUD and/or with Member States or other partners.
• Escalate issues, in particular the ones with potential impacts on time or resources.
• Produce and/or review documents.
• Provide suggestions for service or methodology improvements.
• Participate in meetings with DG TAXUD, contractors, Member States and/or other partners.
• Coordinate with vendors and contractors to ensure service level agreements (SLAs) are met.
• Collaborate with development and operations teams to enhance service delivery and reliability.
• Facilitate communication and cooperation with Policy teams, Member States, Economic
Operators, and other EC services involved in the programs regarding service operations.

3. LEVEL OF EDUCATION

TAXUD PEP Service requirements, a minimum educational
qualification is: Level of education corresponding to Level 6 of the European Qualification
Framework which typically corresponds to a master’s level or 5 years of higher education.

4. KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

• Communication and Interpersonal
o Excellent communication skills in English (spoken and written), with the ability to adapt to
both technical and non-technical audiences. Additional EU languages are an asset.
o Strong interpersonal, negotiation, and facilitation skills, including the ability to participate
in and lead large, multilingual meetings and workshops.
o Proven ability to engage with diverse stakeholders in a multicultural and multilingual
environment.
• Analytical and Organisational
o Strong analytical and critical thinking skills, with the ability to synthesise complex
information and produce clear, structured deliverables.
o Ability to manage multiple priorities, work under pressure, and deliver results
independently.
o Rapid self-starting capacity in new environments and with new tools.
• Documentation and Reporting
o Skilled in drafting and reviewing technical and business documentation (e.g., reports,
meeting notes).
o Ability to apply high quality standards in all deliverables
• Project Management
o Proficiency with standard project management methodologies (e.g. Agile/Scrum) and tools
(e.g. JIRA, Confluence, HP Service Manager). A certification will be considered as an
asset.
o Strong problem-solving and conflict resolution capabilities.

5. SPECIFIC EXPERTISE

• Domain Expertise
o Proven experience supporting large-scale digital projects involving international or crossborder
information exchange.
o Experience in the field of excise duties and taxation, including direct and indirect tax
systems, , and compliance with EU tax directives (e.g. VAT in the field of Indirect
Taxation), DAC in the field of Direct Taxation).
o Demonstrated knowledge of service continuity, IT operations, and deployment of complex
multi-layer platforms, preferably across multiple jurisdictions.
o Knowledge of ITIL and service management practices; a certification (e.g. ITIL V4) will be
considered an asset.
o Proven knowledge of project management methodologies (e.g. Agile/Scrum/Prince2); a
certification will be considered an asset.
o Solid understanding of business continuity, incident escalation protocols, and disaster
recovery practices.

• Stakeholder and Institutional Experience
o Experience working with or for EU institutions, international organisations (e.g. OECD), or
public administrations.
o Knowledge of national-level IT implementation challenges and the institutional/political
context across EU Member States.
o Experience participating in EU-funded, public sector, or intergovernmental IT
environments.
o Familiarity with cross-border coordination and data governance frameworks, including
privacy, security, and legal compliance in an international context.

• Technical and Systems Knowledge
o Expertise in reviewing technical and functional deliverables (e.g. system specifications,
architectural models, interface requirements).
o Familiarity with Trans-European Systems (TES) or similarly complex distributed
architectures deployed internationally.
o Knowledgeable in specific technologies like CCN/CCN2 (CSI stack, HTTP2CSI protocols),
Oracle products especially Weblogic, Java, MySQL.
o Familiarity with large-scale distributed digital systems (TES), and their integration and
deployment across EU Member States and with international stakeholders.
o Experience supporting and monitoring national system implementation and conformance
testing.

• Tools
o Proficiency with collaboration and project tools such as JIRA and Confluence.
o Awareness of European Commission standard IT products and technical frameworks.
o Experience using Service Management platforms (e.g. ServiceNow).
o Proficiency with Service Management Tools
• Analytical and Organisational
o Strong analytical and critical thinking skills, with experience in synthesising input from
diverse technical and policy sources.
o Ability to coordinate international deployments, manage parallel stakeholder tracks, and
ensure consistency with EU objectives.

• Documentation and Reporting

o Skilled in preparing structured documentation, including reports, status dashboards, and
service-level summaries for internal and external stakeholders.
o Familiarity with Total Quality Management (TQM) and high-standard reporting
practices.

• Project and Service Management

o Hands-on experience managing complex projects or services across multiple countries or
agencies.

o Capacity to lead project coordination, escalate risks, and manage service compliance under
SLAs and OLAs.
o Familiarity with Agile@TAXUD, DevSecOps principles, and lifecycle management
practices in a regulated IT environment.

level 10 exp