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General Information

Vacancy number
979/2025
Recruitment type
External recruitment (international)
Type of contract
Fixed-term appointment (Turnover Workforce)
Posted date
27-Jun-2025
Deadline to apply
04-Aug-2025
Duty station
Strasbourg
Grade
C5
Entity
Directorate General of Administration (DGA)

Description & Requirements

Your Team

The Division of Safety and Security ensure the protection of people and property at the Council of Europe, manage security and safety matters on a daily basis at the Strasbourg headquarters of the Council of Europe and coordinate security matters for the various external offices and centres, distributed across sectors. It is also responsible for implementing the overall travel safety policy for the Organisation and ensure risk prevention and respect for fire-safety regulations, in particular in premises receiving the public.

Your Role

As a Security officer – Principal Head of Sector, your role will focus on:

  • complying with security requirements and ensure observance with the specific rules and procedures in place;
  • writing and updating security instructions for your sector or area of responsibility; co-ordinating, if necessary, responses to intruders or threats;
  • maintaining up-to-date and detailed knowledge of all the Organisation's buildings, in order to replace the other Sector Managers when needed;
  • co-ordinating the escort of VIPs conducted inside the building(s) under your responsibility;
  • providing the security services essential for the proper functioning of large-scale and high-risk events organised inside the building(s) under your responsibility;
  • taking part in the implementation of response instructions in the event of an alert or serious event;
  • co-ordinating your action with the others units of the Division;
  • supervising and motivating your team;
  • supervising the outsourced security service in your area of responsibility by measuring performance indicators in accordance with the specifications.

You may be required to work outside office hours, weekends, and public holidays. You may also be assigned to another sector with the same level of responsibility. Dress is required for this position.

Requirements to apply

You must:

  • have extensive specialist training in security-related fields and/or a minimum of 4 years' experience in equivalent functions;
  • have at least 2 years of experience in team management and/or crisis management;
  • master the implementation of technical security devices and have a good knowledge of video surveillance, access control and anti-intrusion systems;
  • have a good command of IT tools, in particular common office applications (word processing, spreadsheets, presentation software, databases, e-mail, Internet browsers);
  • have a very good knowledge of French and a good knowledge of English.

You must also:

  • be a citizen of one of the member states of the Council of Europe and fulfil the conditions for appointment to the civil service of that state;
  • have discharged any obligation concerning national service (military, civil or comparable);
  • not be the parent, child, stepchild or grandchild of a serving staff member of the Council of Europe;
  • be under the age of 65 years;
  • be eligible for employment under the Turnover Workforce Scheme.

Your application must demonstrate to what extent you have the competencies listed below. To help you doing so, feel free to consult our competency framework.

Key competencies
  • Managerial - Leadership
  • Managerial - Management of teams
  • Operational - Analysis and problem solving
  • Interpersonal - Initiative
  • Professional and technical expertise:

    • experience in conducting security investigations;

    • knowledge of other European languages;

    • resilience;

    • good drafting skills.

What we offer

This job vacancy is for an international external recruitment under a Turnover Workforce Scheme (contracts limited to 4 years). You can consult the conditions of employment (salaries, allowances, pension scheme, social insurance, etc.) on the webpage What we offer. 

Applications and selection procedure

For more information on how we recruit, you can consult the page Our recruitment process. This recruitment is carried out in accordance with Articles 490 and 4110 of the Council of Europe Staff Rules. The deadline for applications is indicated in the General information section of this vacancy notice (see above) and is fixed at 23:59:59 (CET/CEST). When applying, make sure your motivation shows how your competencies make your profile the best for the role.

Important information

As an equal opportunity employer, the Council of Europe welcomes applications from all suitably qualified people, irrespective of sex, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic or social origin, disability, religion or belief. Under its equal opportunity policy, the Council of Europe is aiming to achieve gender parity in staff employed in each category and grade.At the time of appointment, preference beetwen suitable people shall be given to the person of the gender which is under-represented in the relevant grades within the category to which the vacancy belongs.

Applicants with specific needs are encouraged to request reasonable accommodations at any stage during the recruitment process. Please contact us at [email protected], we will ensure that your request is handled.

The information published on the CoE’s careers website regarding working conditions is correct at the time of publication of the vacancy notice. Any changes to these conditions during the recruitment process will beupdated on our Portal and will apply at the time of the job offer. Our career's website is not intended to be exhaustive and may not address all questions you would have. Should you have remaining questions, please contact us at [email protected].