Contract roles on NATO programmes
Every NATO location, and what happens in each one
People plan a move to «somewhere in Europe» and then find that the work they wanted sits in a town they had never heard of. This page is the map: every command, agency, centre and school of the Alliance, the city it sits in, and what is done there. Where we place people ourselves, we say so. One thing to be clear about first, because it decides whether any of this is for you: every role we handle is a contract role, and we do not place permanent staff.
Where does most NATO contract work actually sit?
Four places in two neighbouring countries carry the bulk of the engineering, communications and information work we are asked to staff. They sit within a few hours of each other. That matters if you are weighing up where to live.
| Place | Organisation | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Mons, Belgium | Allied Command Operations (SHAPE) | Executes NATO military operations and gives strategic direction to military activity. The NATO Communications and Information Systems Group sits here as well, and the NCI Agency runs central planning, system engineering and configuration management for the Alliance’s Air Command and Control systems from this site. |
| Brussels, Belgium | NATO Headquarters | The political and civilian centre of the Alliance. The NCI Agency is headquartered here, and so is the Science and Technology Organization, which runs the Alliance’s research programme. |
| Brussels, Belgium | NCI Agency | |
| Brussels, Belgium | Science and Technology Organization | |
| Braine‑l’Alleud, Belgium | NCI Agency | A quiet town twenty kilometres south of Brussels, and one of the busiest addresses on our own board. Contract engineering and information-systems work for the NCI Agency is based here; most people commute from Brussels or Waterloo. |
| The Hague, Netherlands | NCI Agency | A main NCI Agency site, and the second Dutch address people are asked to move to. Technology delivery rather than command work. |
| Brunssum, Netherlands | Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum | Conducts joint operations across NATO’s northern and central areas. It sits in Limburg, close to both the German and Belgian borders. |
What work is there in Germany, Poland and Portugal?
Air command, training and the Ukraine effort are concentrated here. Poland in particular is a NATO country in a sense that has nothing to do with the front line: the training, the analysis and the education centres that keep the rest of it running sit here, and almost nobody outside the Alliance knows that.
| Place | Organisation | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Ramstein, Germany | Allied Air Command | Coordinates and executes NATO air operations across every theatre. |
| Uedem, Germany | Combined Air Operations Centre Uedem | Air operations over central European airspace. |
| Geilenkirchen, Germany | NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Force | The Alliance’s own airborne surveillance fleet and the people who keep it flying. |
| Wiesbaden, Germany | NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine | Training and security support for Ukrainian forces, coordinated from here. |
| Ulm, Germany | Allied Joint Support and Enabling Command | Logistics and the movement of forces across Europe. |
| Oberammergau, Germany | NATO School Oberammergau | Education on Alliance strategy, operations and policy, in the Bavarian Alps. |
| Bydgoszcz, Poland | Joint Force Training Centre | Two organisations, one city. The Joint Force Training Centre trains NATO forces on joint operations, and the NATO-Ukraine Joint Analysis, Training and Education Centre works with Ukrainian personnel. For anyone already living in Poland, this is the Alliance address closest to home. |
| Bydgoszcz, Poland | NATO-Ukraine Joint Analysis, Training and Education Centre | |
| Oeiras, Portugal | NCI Academy | The NCI Academy, where communications and information systems people are trained, alongside NCI Agency work. On the coast west of Lisbon. |
| Lisbon, Portugal | Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre | The Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre, which studies operations and turns them into doctrine, and Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO. |
| Lisbon, Portugal | Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO |
Which sites carry their own specialist trade?
Several of them are the only address in the Alliance for what they do. Allied Command Transformation sits on the American side of the Atlantic and builds the capability that operations will need in ten years, which is why it opens this list rather than closing it. The places under it are smaller in headcount but not in importance. If your specialism is maritime, undersea or research, the map below is where it lives.
| Place | Organisation | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Norfolk, Virginia, United States | Allied Command Transformation | One of the two strategic commands of the Alliance and the counterpart to Allied Command Operations at Mons: it develops NATO’s military capability and runs the transformation work. Allied Joint Force Command Norfolk shares the city and directs operations in the Atlantic and North American areas. |
| Naples, Italy | Allied Joint Force Command Naples | Runs operations in southern Europe and the Mediterranean, and the Strategic Direction-South HUB works alongside it. |
| Naples, Italy | Strategic Direction-South HUB | |
| Poggio Renatico, Italy | Deployable Air Command and Control Centre | Air command that can be picked up and moved. |
| Sigonella, Sicily, Italy | NATO Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Force | Collection and analysis. |
| La Spezia, Italy | Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation | Maritime science, on the Ligurian coast. |
| Rome, Italy | NATO Defence College | Strategic education for senior military and civilian leaders. |
| Northwood, United Kingdom | Allied Maritime Command | Together with the NATO Shipping Centre and the Maritime Centre for the Security of Critical Undersea Infrastructure, the cables and pipelines nobody thought about until recently. |
| Northwood, United Kingdom | NATO Shipping Centre | |
| Northwood, United Kingdom | Maritime Centre for the Security of Critical Undersea Infrastructure | |
| London, United Kingdom | DIANA | The Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, which brings commercial technology into defence. |
| Izmir, Türkiye | Allied Land Command | Planning and execution of land operations. |
| Torrejón, Spain | Combined Air Operations Centre Torrejón | Air operations over southern and western Europe. |
| Stavanger, Norway | Joint Warfare Centre | Advanced joint training and the large Alliance exercises. |
| Bodø, Norway | Combined Air Operations Centre Bodø | Northern European airspace, above the Arctic Circle. |
| Capellen, Luxembourg | NATO Support and Procurement Agency | Procurement and logistics for the whole Alliance. |
| Souda Bay, Crete, Greece | Maritime Interdiction Operational Training Centre | Boarding and interdiction training. |
| Paris, France | Collaboration Support Office | The arm of the science organisation that connects researchers across member nations. |
Tell us where you would go, and we will tell you what sits there
The map above does not change. What is open on any given week does. Ask us rather than a search engine. Send a CV and the two or three places you would genuinely move to, and you will get a straight answer about the work that exists there and what the clearance route looks like from your passport.
This page describes where the work sits in practice. It is not legal or immigration advice, and organisations and sites change, so confirm the current position with us before you plan around it.