This selection procedure is intended to establish a reserve list of successful candidates. It is envisaged to start using the reserve list in Q4 of 2025/Q1 of 2026.
Europol retains the right to make use of the reserve list to select candidates for similar secondments within the organisation, should business needs require so.
1. Organisational Context
Organisational setting:
The SNE will be assigned to the Cyber Intelligence Team in the Digital Support Unit (DSU), European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), Operations Directorate.
The Operations Directorate deals with the core business of Europol, improving the effectiveness and cooperation of the competent authorities in the Member States (MS) in preventing and combating serious and organised crime, as well as terrorism affecting the MS. This requires close cooperation with the Liaison Bureaux at Europol and via them with the Operational Teams in the MS.
Europol delivers a number of products and services to national law enforcement agencies (LEAs) to support them in their fight against international serious and organised crime, as well as terrorism.
The Operations Directorate hosts five distinct Departments: Operational and Analysis Centre, European Serious Organised Crime Centre, EC3, European Counter Terrorism Centre and the European Financial and Economic Crime Centre.
EC3 serves as the centre for the MS fight against cybercrime in the European Union (EU), delivering operational and investigative support on complex cybercrime investigations. EC3 also provides support to the EU institutions and MS in building operational and analytical capacity for investigations and cooperation with external partners. EC3 is the collective voice of European cybercrime investigators across LE and the knowledge hub of LE on how to tackle cybercrime.
The Centre comprises of three Units, each with their own area of responsibility.
The Expertise \& Stakeholder Management Unit is responsible for collecting information about new developments and technologies and provides advice on how
to efficiently and effectively tackle new phenomena in the field of cybercrime. The Unit is actively involved in coordinating work with external partners such as government entities, private parties, academia and industry partners. Furthermore, the Unit is coordinating and delivering strategic products such as the Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA). Other areas of responsibility include assessing relevant new technology trends, external liaison and stakeholder management including the four EC3’s Advisory Groups, cooperation with Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs), development of pan-European cybercrime offender prevention campaigns, and capacity building activities.
The EC3 Operations Unit is responsible for delivering the operational services to MS of EU and other partners with whom Europol has operational agreements. The Unit consist of five teams: AP Cyborg (cyber-dependent crime), AP Terminal (payment fraud and on-line fraud schemes), AP Twins (child sexual exploitation), AP Dark Web (criminal use of anonymization services) and the J-CAT coordination team (operational support to the Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce).
Furthermore, the Unit is responsible for the provision of deconfliction within cases, enriching data sets, advising and participating in operational actions and delivering analytical support.
The Digital Support Unit is assisting EC3 Operations and other Operations Centres of Europol horizontally with intelligence products, information, technical and forensic support through three teams, Cyber Intelligence Team, Cryptocurrency Team, Forensics Team.
CIT provides support in the pre-processing, enrichment and analysis of large amounts of operational data. CIT liaises with the cybersecurity community and coordinates EU Law Enforcement Emergency Response Protocol against major cross-border cyber-attacks.
The Cryptocurrency Team provides advanced cryptocurrencies tracing support and Blockchains analysis to support MS investigations and intelligence gathering. Cryptocurrency Team is also in charge of production of strategic products and services, including specialised capacity building activities.
The Forensic Team provides access to critical data through advanced decryption capabilities, digital forensic services, and tailored research and development activities in support of Member States’ investigations and operations. The team also delivers document forensic services.
Purpose of the secondment:
The SNE will support cybercrime investigations by processing and analysing large datasets, in order to better understand services offered in the cybercriminal ecosystem. In particular, the SNE will assist with operational activities related to the extraction, transformation, loading and enrichment of large datasets.
Reporting lines:
The SNE will report to and work under the supervision of the Head of the Cyber Intelligence Team.
2. Functions and duties
The SNE will carry out the following main functions and duties:
Provide support to operational activities by extracting, transforming or loading (ETL) of large datasets contributed by the EU MS or collected from open sources;
Maintain close contact with the members of the Analysis Projects and/or other relevant partner agencies/organisations;
Support the administration, maintenance and technical management of various advanced tools operated by EC3 jointly with other EC3 colleagues and/or ICT;
Participate in meetings, working groups and conferences and present analytical and technical results as and when required;
Provide on-the-spot operational support to specific operational enquiries and events if and when required.
3. Requirements - Eligibility criteria
Candidates must:
Be a member of a competent authority in the meaning of the Article 2a) of the Europol Regulation and enjoy full rights as a citizen of a Member State;
Produce evidence of a thorough knowledge of one of the languages of the European Union and of a satisfactory knowledge of another language of the European Union in accordance with the decision of the Management Board on the internal language arrangements of Europol as referred to in Article 64(2) of the Europol Regulation, with the understanding that the SNE will have to carry out his / her duties in a mainly English-speaking environment;
Have at least three years of professional experience in the field of law enforcement which is relevant to the duties to be carried out during the secondment.
4. Requirements - Selection criteria
a. Professional experience:
Essential:
Experience with the law enforcement environment and practices in the field of cybercrime;
Experience with ETL-processes and related tools;
Experience using SQL (e.g. MySQL, MSSQL) and NoSQL (e.g. Elasticsearch, Apache Solr, MongoDB) databases;
Experience in programming and/or scripting required to process large volumes of data (e.g. with Python).
Desirable:
Experience analysing large datasets related to cyber dependent and/or cyber enabled crimes;
Experience with data science techniques, particularly machine learning and Natural Language Processing.
b. Professional knowledge:
Essential:
Sound knowledge of SQL and NoSQL databases;
Basic knowledge of programming and/or scripting (e.g Python);
Knowledge of cybercriminal modus operandi;
Data analysis skills.
c. General competencies:
Essential:
Communicating:
Very good communication skills in English, both orally and in writing;
Ability to draft clear and concise documents on complex matters for various audiences;
Analysing \& problem solving:
Keen eye for detail with the ability to maintain standards of accuracy under pressure of tight deadlines;
Excellent analytical and critical thinking skills;
Competent user of Microsoft Office applications (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook) and the internet.
Delivering quality and results:
High degree of commitment and flexibility;
High level of customer and service-orientation.
Prioritising and organising:
Good administrative and organisational skills.
Resilience:
Ability to work well under pressure, both independently and in a team;
Very good interpersonal skills, including the ability to effectively liaise with other departments, groups and teams as well as with external partners.
Living diversity:
Ability to work effectively in an international and multi-cultural environment.
5. How to apply
Member States are invited to nominate their Seconded National Experts according to the selection criteria and profile, as specified in this document.
Candidates endorsed by the national competent authorities are required to complete the SNE application form available on Europol’s website in English.
The application form must be accompanied by a letter from the sending authority to the Executive Director of Europol expressing willingness to second the candidate.
Applications must be filled in electronically, duly signed and submitted by means of email to Europol’s Human Resources Unit, HR Operational Support Team, to C2-12@europol.europa.eu via the Europol National Unit of the Member State concerned, and, if necessary, the respective Liaison Bureau. Candidates who do not provide all necessary information or do not comply with any of the above will not be considered.
Applications must be received by Europol at the latest on the day of the deadline specified in this notice of secondment. Applications received after the deadline will not be accepted. Receipt of all applications is confirmed by an email of acknowledgement. Candidates may check the progress of the relevant selection procedure on Europol’s website.
6. Selection procedure
The Deputy Executive Director of Europol’s Capabilities Directorate (DEDC) sets up a Selection Committee, chaired by the Head of the relevant Directorate or a senior representative, and composed of a representative of the respective Unit, as well as of the Human Resources Unit.
The Selection Committee establishes the pass-mark for interview. The pass-mark for shortlisting is established as 60% of the total maximum score.
The Selection Committee assesses the applications received in order to make an initial selection of candidates meeting all eligibility criteria and examines their qualifications, experience and skills against the selection criteria set out in this notice of secondment. Candidates scoring above the pass-mark are invited to participate in a selection procedure.
The Selection Committee will invite the 8 highest scoring candidates (shortlisted). All candidates having a score equal to the 8th highest scoring candidate will be included to the list of invited candidates.
The Selection Committee conducts an interview with the shortlisted candidates performed remotely in order to evaluate their language skills, to assess their experience and qualifications and determine whether they possess the key skills required.
7. Secondment and Reserve list
After the selection procedure has taken place, the Selection Committee establishes a list of successful candidates.
Candidates are successful if they score above the pre-defined pass-mark for interview.
The list shall be shared with the Deputy Executive Director Capabilities Directorate (DEDC), in order to establish a Reserve List.
Reserve Lists of successful candidates are valid for 3 years (36 months).
Candidates who attend the selection procedure will be informed of the outcome, i.e. whether they have been successful or not.
Europol retains the right to make use of the Reserve List to select candidates for similar secondments within the organisation, should business needs require so. Inclusion on the Reserve List does not guarantee secondment.
The secondment of a successful candidate is finally effected by an exchange of letters referred to in Article 4(4) of the MB Decision on SNEs, specifying the details of the secondment, including as regards its duration.
8. Terms and conditions
The SNE shall remain in the service of the sending authority throughout the period of secondment and shall continue to be paid by that employer. The sending authority shall also be responsible for all social rights, particularly social security and pension entitlements.
During the period of secondment the SNE is entitled to a daily subsistence allowance paid by Europol, and may also be eligible for a monthly allowance depending on the distance from the place of origin. If the SNE receives any allowance from other sources similar to the subsistence allowance paid by Europol, this amount shall be deducted.
Detailed rules regarding the secondment of national experts to Europol are described in the Management Board Decision laying down rules on the secondment of national experts to Europol of 8 October 2024.
9. Enquiries / measures of redress
The Selection Committee’s work and deliberations are confidential. It is forbidden for candidates to make direct or indirect contact with the members of the Selection Committee or for anyone to do so on their behalf. All enquiries related to a selection procedure should be addressed to the HR Operational Support Team at the following email address: C2-12@europol.europa.eu.
As regards requests for the reason(s) candidates were found to be ineligible, the scores obtained at specific stages of the selection procedure or available measures of redress, candidates are referred to the Europol Recruitment Guidelines for SNEs available on Europol’s website for further information.
10. Additional information
Equal opportunity
Europol is an equal opportunity employer. We accept applications without distinction on grounds of gender, sexual orientation, national, ethnic or social origin, religion or beliefs, family situation, age, disability, or other non-merit factors. Our employment decisions are based on business needs, job requirements and qualifications, experience and skills.
We live diversity and provide an inclusive work environment to all. We strive to recruit, develop and retain a diverse and talented workforce through application of equal opportunity and impartiality.
Privacy statement
Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 and Decision No 1247/2002/EC, applies to the processing of personal data carried out in the process of selection and recruitment of Seconded National Experts at Europol following the EDOC 1480832 application of this Regulation to all administrative personal data held by Europol in accordance with Article 46 of the Europol Regulation.
For additional information, candidates are referred to the applicable privacy notice available on our website.
Security screening
Selected candidates are required to furnish a valid security clearance certificate before the start of the secondment. Failure to obtain or provide the requisite security clearance certificate at the requested level before the start of the secondment may render the offer of secondment invalid.
In case the security clearance certificate expires within six months of the start of the secondment, the renewal procedure will be initiated expeditiously. Europol may at any time terminate the secondment if the result of the security screening is not positive or the necessary security clearance level is not granted /extended.
The security clearance level required for this secondment is: CONFIDENTIEL UE/EU CONFIDENTIAL.
Main dates
Publication date: 9 October 2025
Deadline for application: 7 November 2025; 23:59 Amsterdam Time Zone
Selection procedure: November 2025
Contact details
In case of further questions please call +31 (0) 70 353 1152 or +31 (0) 70 302 5276.