Assistants

EURAIL.2025.01

The Europe's Rail Joint Undertaking (EU-RAIL), based in Brussels, Belgium 

is looking for 

Assistants 
(Contract Agent, Grade FGIII) 

Please send us your application by no later than 05 June 2025 at 12:00 (Central European Time/ Brussels time), following the instructions in the ANNEX. 

The purpose of this call is to fill in one vacant post and establish a reserve list. 

1. About EU-RAIL

Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking (EU-RAIL) is established by Council Regulation (EU) 2021/2085 of 19 November 2021. It is the new European partnership on rail research and innovation established under the Horizon Europe programme (2020-2027) and the universal successor of the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking.

The vision of EU-RAIL is to deliver, via an integrated system approach, a high capacity, flexible, multi-modal and reliable integrated European railway network by eliminating barriers to interoperability and providing solutions for full integration, for European citizens and cargo.
This partnership aims to accelerate research and development in innovative technologies and operational solutions. This will support the fulfilment of European Union policies and objectives relevant for the railway sector and the competitiveness of the rail sector and the European rail supply industry. In this way, EU-RAIL will accelerate the penetration of integrated, interoperable and standardised technological innovations necessary to support the Single European Railway Area (SERA).
For further information, please consult the following website: https://rail-research.europa.eu. 

 2.    Job Description

To achieve such ambitious Programme, EU-RAIL offers the opportunity to join its professional team and make a difference in achieving a European smart and sustainable mobility and transport, via mission-oriented rail research and innovation. We are looking for Assistants to the EU-Rail Innovation Unit and Corporate Services Unit.

(S)he will have the following expected tasks and responsibilities:

• Providing Administrative assistance and coordination in supporting the Head of the Corporate Services and the Head of Innovation Pillar in ensuring the follow-up of unit meetings and agreed assignments, manage the corporate service calendar and mailing lists, and respond to general inquiries;
• Ensure the document and file management of the Unit;
• Provide administrative and logistical support for the organization of internal and external events such as meetings, workshops, conferences, consensus weeks and public events;
• Collaborate with the other assistants of the JU and act as their back-up; 
• Take on additional tasks as required in the interest of the service.

2.1. Assistant in the Corporate Services Unit

For the Corporate Services role the Legal Assistant will be reporting to the Head of Corporate Services. S/He will additionally have the following expected tasks and responsibilities:

• Provide support to the Executive Director for the Secretariat of EU-RAIL Governing and advisory Bodies (Governing Board, State Representative group, Scientific Steering group, etc.)  by following up the planning of the meetings, preparing the meetings’ agenda and presentations by liaising with EU-Rail colleagues and the JU Members, keeping the meetings’ minutes and follow-up on agreed actions.
• Provide legal support on files managed by the EU-RAIL JU, including contribution to sound drafting of decisions, under the supervision of the Chief Legal Officer;
• Provide legal support on Horizon Europe grants, in particular during grant agreement preparations, amendments and during grants implementation;
• Provide legal support in public procurement procedures for goods or services (both under operational and administrative budget) and follow up their implementation, in line with the applicable rules;
• Provide legal analysis on various requests and propose solutions (data protection, access to documents, letters of support, MoUs, implementing rules re. staff regulations etc);
• Prepare guidelines and procedures related with best practices relevant to activities of the Corporate Services Unit;
• Liaise with other Joint Undertakings legal staff and participate in Horizon Europe legal working groups;
• Contribute to the maintenance of the EU-Rail Governance and Process Handbook and other EU-Rail guidance documents including related templates. 

2. 2. Assistant in the Innovation Unit

For the Innovation Pillar role, the Programme Assistant will be reporting to the Head of Innovation Pillar. S/He will additionally have the following expected tasks and responsibilities:

• Provide support to the Executive Director for the Secretariat of EU-RAIL Stakeholders and advisory Bodies (Deployment group, System an Innovation Programme Board, DAC Supervisory Board, DAC Programme Board, etc.)  by following up the planning of the meetings, preparing the meetings’ agenda and presentations by liaising with EU-Rail colleagues and the JU Members, keeping the meetings’ minutes and follow-up on agreed actions.
• Support the Programme and Call Coordinator officer in the experts’ contract management.
• Act as the Call Coordinator backup and perform this role if needed;
• Support the KPIs building team together with the Programme and Programme and Call Coordinator officer;
• Support the Head of Innovation Pillar and the Head of System Pillar to monitor the internal yearly planning of activities and contribute to its setup;
• Ensure follow-up and monitoring of tasks assigned to the Innovation Pillar team and support the System Pillar.
• Ensure that the EU-RAIL website contains up to date information for the Programme activities;

3.    Eligibility criteria

Candidates will be considered eligible for selection on the basis of the following formal criteria to be fulfilled by the deadline of applications: 

 A) Eligibility criteria

1. To have a level of education which corresponds to: 
          a) a post-secondary education attested by a diploma, OR
          b) a secondary education attested by a diploma giving access to post-secondary education and appropriate professional experience of three 
   years;
2. To have a thorough knowledge of one of the official Community languages and a satisfactory knowledge of a second of these languages to the extent necessary to perform his/her duties;
3. Be a national of a Member State of the European Union;
4. To be entitled to his or her full rights as a citizen;
5. To have fulfilled any obligations imposed by the applicable laws concerning 
   military service;
6. To meet the character requirements for the duties involved¹;
7. To be physically fit to perform the duties linked to the post^2. 

All eligible applications will be assessed and scored against the requirements listed below. 
Please note that non-compliance with at least one of the essential criteria will result in the exclusion of the candidate from the selection. Advantageous criteria constitute additional assets and will not result in exclusion, if not fulfilled. 

All eligibility criteria must be fulfilled by the deadline for applications and maintained throughout the selection procedure and appointment. 

B) Selection criteria: 

Successful candidates should have:  

1) Essential qualifications and experience

• At least 1 year of professional experience in an administrative function relevant for the tasks mentioned above;
• Proven experience in drafting documents such as letters, minutes of meetings, etc.
• Proficiency with electronic office equipment including MS office and O365 (e.g. Word processing, Excel, Power Point presentations, MS Project etc.);
• Excellent command of written and spoken English;

2) Advantageous qualifications and experience

• 3 years or more of proven knowledge (by experience and/or relevant academic studies) of the relevant tasks mentioned above;
• Experience in supporting the implementation of European funding programmes (e.g. Horizon Europe) including with proficient use of IT tools (e.g. Sygma, Compass, SEP, EMI/ECS, CORDA, eProcurements, etc.); Experience with document management and good practices for document management (filing plans, document security, retention periods, Ares, Sharepoint, etc.) 

3) Behavioural competences

• Motivation – open and positive attitude;
• Excellent organizational skills and ability to work under pressure, prioritise and to meet deadlines;
• Strong sense of responsibility, commitment and co-operation;
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills;
• Service-oriented, results-driven and flexible attitude with curious personality and willingness to learn and improve continuously.

4.    Independence and Declaration of Interest

The Administrative/Programme will be required to make a declaration of commitment to act independently in the public interest and to make a declaration in relation to interests which might be considered prejudicial to his/her independence.

5.    Appointment and reserve list

The Executive Director of the Joint Undertaking will select the successful candidate and offer the post. A binding commitment can only be made after the verification of all conditions and will take the form of a contract signed by the Executive Director.
The reserve list will be used in order to fill vacant positions within EU-RAIL.
Candidates should note that inclusion on the reserve list does not guarantee recruitment. Recruitment will be based on availability of posts and budget.
The reserve list for this post will be valid until 31 December 2025 and may be extended at the discretion of the Appointing Authority of EU-RAIL.

6.    Conditions of employment

The place of employment will be Brussels, where the Joint Undertaking premises are located.

The successful candidate will be recruited as a Contract Agent FGIII, pursuant to Article 3(a) of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Communities, for a period of three (3) years. After an evaluation of the job holder's performance, and subject to budget availability, the term of office may be extended. The period of engagement will not in any case exceed the lifetime of EU-RAIL.

Candidates should note the requirement under the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants for all new staff to complete successfully a probationary period.

The pay of staff members consists of a basic salary supplemented with specific allowances, including expatriation or family allowances. The provisions guiding the calculation of these allowances can be consulted in the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants available at the following address:

 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CONSLEG:1962R0031:20140101:EN:PDF 

Salaries are exempted from national tax, instead a Community tax at source is paid.

Important Note

Candidates are kindly advised to read the ANNEX that represents an integral part of this vacancy and provides information on how to complete the application, the steps of the selection process and appeal procedures.