IAEA Junior Professional Officer Program
Michael Farnitano

In July, the U.S. Mission to Internal Organizations in Vienna concluded a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to support a Junior Professional Officer (JPO) Program at the International Atomic Energy Agency.  This agreement now makes it possible to start a new program to prepare young professionals for careers in the nuclear industry and international civil service and to reinforce the multilateral co-operation activities of the U.S. Government.  Member States including France, Netherlands, Germany, Japan and Italy have enjoyed the benefits of JPO programs for some time.  This new employment mechanism will serve to promote U.S. interests by increasing U.S. representation at the IAEA while it compliments the IAEA's Internship and Cost Free Expert programs.

The JPO program is available for USG extrabudgetary program sponsors to consider funding the employment of junior staff for safeguards and other IAEA activities or projects.  We have identified immediate opportunities for a JPO in the Office of Nuclear Security serving as a junior analyst and another assigned to the Safeguards Department Rokkasho Project functioning as a software developer.  IAEA program managers are required to initiate requests for JPOs in a manner similar to how CFEs are requested including the preparation of a job description.

Key features of this program include:

• JPOs shall be persons with suitable academic and professional qualifications who, as a rule, are not over 32 years old and lack the practical experience required for employment as safeguards experts or as regular IAEA staff members in accordance with IAEA standards for recruitment.

• Assignments are expected in the areas of engineering, equipment development and maintenance, technical writing, information collection and analysis, software development, information security, and other technical areas.

• Letters of Appointment constitute JPOs as members of the staff of the IAEA, subject to the IAEA Staff Regulations and Rules and entitled to most staff benefits.  As such they will have the status of international civil servants and will be subject to the authority of the Director-General of the IAEA and will be responsible to him/her in the exercise of their functions.

• The U.S. expects to fund approximately five JPOs per year, subject to the availability of funding. Each JPO would normally be assigned for a period of twelve months.

• JPOs would be recruited on the basis of salary grade P-1 or P-2 as full-time staff of the IAEA.  Two years of relevant work experience, after graduation of first university degree, is considered a requirement for a P2 salary grade.

• JPOs may be assigned to mission/program critical tasks that cannot be assigned to interns.

Additional information about the program is available from the ISPO Office.