2025-0234, Level 3 Support For Web Application Security

Duties

Level 1 support is user facing and is the first line of all technical support. At this level, all incidents and service requests will be logged, categorized, prioritized, diagnosed and managed. Incidents and service requests will be resolved within the boundaries of Level 1 support staff competence and administrator permissions limited to end-user devices. ESOC Centralized Service Desk (CSD) will provide Level 1 Support for Internet Website Publishing and Protection Service. Level 2 support applies specialist skills to provide technical support, beyond that available at Level 1, to service requests and incident investigation, diagnosis and resolution. This level performs proactive end-to end service monitoring and takes actions to resolve incidents and recover the services impacted. This level of support requires full administrator permissions to both end-user and back-end systems. Level 2 will be provided by NISC. Level 2 Support Staff is integrated in ESOC, SHAPE, Mons, Belgium.

Level 3 support provides the highest level of specialist skills available in the NCIA in order to support individual services and systems. This level will also, if applicable, liaise and work with external product and service suppliers as needed.

NISC Level 3 staff perform this level of support on-site, in The Hague, Netherlands.

This SOW covers Level 3 support for managing and optimizing Web Application Security services, including Web Application Firewall (WAF), Web Application and API Protection (WAAP), DDoS mitigation, Content Delivery Network (CDN), and Bot Management, as described in Annex C.

All services provided by NCIA, regardless of whether they are end-user services or supporting services, are under the responsibility of NCIA Service Delivery Managers (SDM).

Under the direction / guidance of the Internet Website Publishing and Protection Service, Service Delivery Manager, the following activities will be conducted by Level 3 support:

Operations:

1. a) Configure and maintain Cloudflare WAF rules and policies, in line with NATO Security Policy, to protect against OWASP Top 10 and other emerging threats.
2. b) Implement and manage WAAP features for securing APIs and applications, including schema validation, threat intelligence, and behavioural analysis.
3. c) Implement Rate Limiting Policies to protect APIs and web applications from abuse, brute force attacks, and scraping attempts. Design intelligent thresholds based on traffic patterns and application sensitivity.
4. d) Monitor and mitigate DDoS attacks, leveraging Cloudflare’s L3/L4/L7 protection capabilities.
5. e) Optimize CDN configurations to ensure high availability, low latency, and efficient caching strategies.
6. f) Deploy and fine-tune Bot Management policies to differentiate between good bots and malicious traffic.
7. g) Leverage Cloudflare Workers to deploy server less functions at the edge for custom logic, header rewriting, request inspection, or response manipulation.
8. h) Monitor and enforce Page Rules for URL-specific behaviours such as redirects, cache settings, and security controls.
9. i) Analyse traffic patterns, security logs, and incident data to proactively identify and remediate vulnerabilities.
10. j) Work closely with DevOps, Application Security, and Networking teams to enforce secure deployment practices.
11. k) Respond to security incidents and support troubleshooting efforts related to Cloudflare services.
12. l) Keep documentation up to date for security policies, procedures, and architecture diagrams.
13. m) Stay current with Cloudflare’s roadmap, industry trends, and evolving threat landscapes.

Inventory:

1. a) Maintain updates to the CMDB with the Configuration Items used by the services/systems listed in Annex C;
2. b) Perform all operation, support and maintenance activities on the platforms described in Annex C.

Incident Logging, Tracking, Dispatching:

1. a) Log and track incidents, work orders and change requests using the incident ticketing system (ITSM);
2. b) Investigate and resolve Application Security Service (WAF, WAAP, CDN, etc), Performance and Availability (CDN) and Threat Mitigation and Resilience (DDoS, Rate Limiting) related issues, directly assigned by end-users/requesters, or escalated from Level 2 support, within the staff competences and administrator permissions;
3. c) Maintain communication with end-users when needed;
4. d) Ensure all tickets are updated with accurate and detailed information and resolved (or assigned to appropriate stakeholders) within the agreed service levels;

Escalation:

1. a) Escalate complex issues to Level 4 support (vendor) or appropriate teams when necessary.
2. b) Follow up on escalated issues to ensure timely resolution and user satisfaction.

Knowledge Base Management:

1. a) Contribute to the creation/maintenance of a knowledge base, documenting common issues and solutions.
2. b) Share knowledge and best practices with team members to improve overall service quality.

Performance Monitoring:

1. a) Monitor support metrics and KPIs to ensure high-quality service delivery.
2. b) Participate in regular reviews to identify areas for improvement and implement corrective actions.

Automation and Efficiency:

1. a) Leverage Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools (e.g., Terraform or Cloudflare’s native SDK/curl) to establish and maintain a scalable, repeatable, and auditable security posture through the deployment and management of Cloudflare WAF rules, firewall policies, custom configurations, and security settings.
2. b) Utilize automation to create workflows for repetitive tasks, improve service efficiency and proactively implement solutions.

Communication and Collaboration:

1. a) Communicate effectively with internal user community to understand their issues and provide clear instructions.
2. b) Collaborate with IT teams to resolve issues and improve service delivery.

Transition-In

The Contractor shall start the execution of the contract by implementing the transition-in on-boarding plan.

The on-boarding plan shall include at the minimum:

• Detailed schedule of the activities with GANTT chart.
• Resources and PFE required from the Purchaser for successful execution of on-boarding plan

The on-boarding period will be divided in two parts; Shadowing and Reverse Shadowing.

• For the Transition-In on-boarding, Shadowing will be the monitoring of Purchaser’s activities by the Contractor for each product listed in Annex C. Reverse shadowing will the monitoring of the Contractor activities by the Purchaser for item listed in Annex C.

Transition-Out

Whatever the cause or the triggering event of the contract coming to an end, the Contractor shall end the execution of the contract by implementing the transition-out Handover-Takeover (HOTO) plan.

The transition-out Handover-Takeover plan to be executed for contract closure or contract termination shall include at the minimum:

• Detailed HOTO schedule with GANTT chart
• Transition to The Purchaser of any tools, procedures, training and documentation used by The Contractor to execute this SOW.
• Resources and PFE required from the Purchaser for successful execution of HOTO plan

Handover-takeover period will be divided two parts; Shadowing and Reverse Shadowing.

For the Transition-Out HOTO, Shadowing will be the monitoring of the Contractor activities by The Purchaser for each item listed in Annex C. Reverse shadowing will be the monitoring of the Purchaser activities by The Contractor for the second instance for each product listed in Annex C.

The services shall be carried out in sprints, each sprint is planned for a duration of one (1) week.

The content, scope of each sprint and their related acceptance criteria are to be peer reviewed within the sprint, and communicated to the contractor using NCIA tools (Jira, daily monitoring /reporting).

Input and guidance will be provided by NCIA in written form or/and during the targeted review meetings.

Requirements

Services to be provided under this SOW require ONE resource with the following qualifications and expertise:

Technical Proficiency:

The support for this work requires the following technical proficiencies, with minimum 3 years experiences in the following domains:

• Cloudflare Security Stack
• Web Application Firewall (WAF) Configuration
• DDoS Mitigation & Rate Limiting
• API Security & Schema Validation (Page Shield)
• Bot Management
• SSL/TLS Management
• DNS & CDN Optimization
• Security Analytics & Logging
• Secure Coding & Vulnerability Assessment/Mitigation (WASP top 10)
• Incident Response & Troubleshooting
• DevOps & Automation - Use Terraform or APIs to automate Cloudflare configurations.
• Cloudflare Workers and Zero Trust (Bonus)

Tasks:

The support for this work requires expertise in performing the following tasks:

• Deploy, Configuration, Management, Security Operations
• Monitoring, Upgrade, Version Control

Problem-Solving Skills:

• Analytical Thinking – Ability to analyse traffic patterns and identify anomalies or malicious behaviour using data-driven insights.
• Troubleshooting & Debugging – Skilled at diagnosing and resolving technical issues related to performance, security rules, and system errors.
• Security Incident Response – Capable of quickly responding to and mitigating active security threats without affecting legitimate traffic.
• Performance Optimization – Identifies and addresses performance bottlenecks while balancing security and speed.
• Automation & Configuration Consistency – Uses Infrastructure as Code to ensure consistent, reliable, and error-free deployments.
• Risk Assessment & Prioritization – Evaluates security risks and prioritizes remediation efforts based on impact and urgency.

Automation Skills:

• Experience with IaaC to automate routine support tasks.
• Proficiency in automation to create workflows and automate repetitive processes.
• Ability to identify and implement automation opportunities to enhance efficiency.

Communication and Interpersonal Skills:

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Full proficiency in English.
• Ability to communicate technical information to non-technical users in a clear and concise manner.

Customer Service Orientation:

• Strong customer service focus with a commitment to user satisfaction.
• Patience and empathy when dealing with user issues and concerns.

Organizational Skills:

• Ability to manage multiple support tickets and prioritize tasks effectively.
• Attention to detail in documenting support activities and maintaining accurate records.

Team Collaboration:

• Ability to work effectively as part of a team and share knowledge and resources.
• Willingness to collaborate with colleagues to solve complex issues.

Others:

• The candidate has strong customer relationship skills, including negotiating complex and sensitive situations under pressure.
• Full proficiency in the English language.
• The candidate must have the nationality of one of the NATO nations.