The ALT-EDIC has been officially set up on February 7th, 2024, by decision of the European Commission with the Implementing Decision (EU) 2024/458. Coordinated by France, the ALT-EDIC counts twelve Members States and seven observing Member States. The Governing Board of ALT-EDIC is the Assembly of the Members (AoM).

According to the Statutes:

The role of ALT-EDIC is to implement the Multi Country Project (MCP): Alliance for language technologies in the European Union – ALTEU in the area of activity listed in the DDP Annex: European common data infrastructure and services. In this context, language coverage will focus on the official languages of all EU and EEA Member States and may extend to other socially and economically relevant languages to support the European Union’s efforts towards equality, inclusion and accessibility efforts as well as its international market competitiveness and economic growth.

The ALT-EDIC’s action plan focuses on five thematic areas:

- Action 1. Data: develop a central platform for European language resources and collect high-quality data sets, building on the Language Data Space. Creating strategic data for low-resource languages will be a particular focus.

- Action 2. Existing language models: gather open-source models, fine-tune, reduce and optimise them for use in European SMEs, and provide methodologies for their evaluation, certification, and normalisation.

- Action 3. New language models: launch new open-source models (including models with multimodal capabilities), efficiently coordinate access to EuroHPC computers for EU companies and industries and provide support to public and private experts to develop new models.

- Action 4. Evaluation, certification, and normalization: provide methodologies to address potential discrimination and bias introduced by natural language processing.

- Action 5. Ecosystem: develop a start-up incubator for businesses participating in the EDIC, promote links between industry and research, act as a key player of the European coordinated plan on AI, bring together and strengthen the LT community, provide dedicated support to institutions for investing in LT, and develop cultural programmes based on AI for language.

ALT-EDIC operates on a non-commercial basis, although it may carry out limited commercial activities, provided they are closely related to its principal tasks and that they do not compromise the achievement thereof. Any income generated by these limited economic activities is used by ALT-EDIC to further its purpose.

For more information, see https://language-data-space.ec.europa.eu/related-initiatives/alt-edic_en

Mandate of the Director

The ALT-EDIC Director is sought as an experienced manager, who will act as the legal representative of ALT-EDIC.

The mission of the Director is to lead ALT-EDIC development to fully mature and operational services. The Director shall carry out the day-to- day management of ALT-EDIC with due diligence; and in accordance with the ALT-EDIC Statutes and Implementation Rules, the directions and resolutions of the Assembly of Members and applicable laws.

The Director will lead the ALT-EDIC team and he/she will report to the Assembly of Members of the ALT-EDIC.

The Director is responsible for preparing and submitting to the Assembly of Members (AoM)  strategic, technical, scientific, legal, budgetary and administrative assessments and for preparing and submitting the annual activity plan and activity report.

Duties (from ALT-EDIC Implementation Rules (By-Laws)

The Director shall be responsible for the preparation and implementation of the decisions and programmes to be adopted by the Assembly of Members, in consultation with the Strategic Orientation Committee. The Director shall be assisted in performing his/her functions by the ALT-EDIC team.

The Director shall have various responsibilities to ensure the effective management and coordination of the ALT-EDIC. These tasks include:

1. Legal representation: The Director serves as the legal representative of ALT-EDIC in all matters, except those assigned to the General Assembly by the law.
2. Day-to-Day management: The Director is responsible for the day-to-day management of ALT-EDIC's activities and operations.
3. Human resources management: The Director is in charge of the recruitment of the ALT-EDIC team and supervises the work of recruited personnel and seconded staff (amount 20 persons with international profiles).
4. Financial management: The Director manages the ALT-EDIC budget in compliance with decisions made by the Assembly of Members.
5. Implementation of decisions: The Director ensures the proper implementation of decisions made by the Assembly of Members.
6. Governance oversight: The Director oversees the governance structure of ALT-EDIC, working with the General Assembly and other governing bodies.
7. Membership management: The Director ensures that new members meet the defined criteria before joining the ALT-EDIC and manages practical modalities related to membership.
8. Strategic planning: The Director contributes to the development of strategic plans for ALT-EDIC based on recommendations from the Strategic Orientation Committee.
9. Coordination with industry: The Director collaborates with industry stakeholders, including enterprises and SMEs, to facilitate their involvement in LT development within Europe.
10. Industrial Consortium: The Director participates in the Strategic Orientation Committee.
11. Collaborative activities: The Director may delegate coordination of specific working groups or collaborative activities to participating countries, in line with the internal rules defined by ALT-EDIC.
12. Resource allocation: The Director, in consultation with the General Assembly, allocates tasks and responsibilities among members, including the consideration of national resource centers created by EEA Member States.
13. Other duties as defined by the Assembly of Members: In addition to the above-mentioned responsibilities, the Director will be required to take over other tasks that would be defined by the Assembly of Members in line with the ALT-EDIC strategy, assuming the financial and human resources are available and adequately assigned.

Eligibility Requirements

Candidates will only be considered for the selection phase on the basis of the following formal requirements to be fulfilled by the deadline for applications:

• Nationality: the appointed Director must be a citizen of one of the Member States of the European Union or of the European Economic Area participating in the ALT-EDIC as a Member.
• University degree or diploma: the appointed Director must have:
  • - either a level of education which corresponds to completed university studies attested by a diploma, preferably in the field of STEM, Computational linguistics or Natural language processing (NLP), when the normal period of university education is 4 years or more:

      - or a level of education which corresponds to completed university studies attested by a diploma, preferably in the field of STEM, Computational linguistics, or Natural language processing (NLP), and appropriate professional experience of at least 1 year when the normal period of university education is at least 3 years (this one year's professional experience cannot be included in the postgraduate professional experience required below).

• Professional experience: candidates must have at least 10 years postgraduate professional experience at a level to which the qualifications referred to above give admission.
• Management experience: at least 5 years of the post-graduate professional experience must have been gained in a function including organisation management. International level management would be considered an asset.

Minimum Qualifications and Experiences

Required qualifications and competencies of the ALT-EDIC Director are:

• Proven experience in leading large and complex projects or initiatives in international settings;
• Proven experience in managing organisation, budget, and personnel at senior level;
• Demonstrated ability to engage and work collaboratively with diverse stakeholders;
• Demonstrated experience in leading professional staff and engaging effectively with a broad array of individuals;
• Demonstrated experience in operating at a multinational level and dealing with international institutions and funding agencies, in particular, the European Commission;
• Demonstrated ability to set out a long-term vision for an international organisation and the mean for its achievement;
• Excellent oral and written communications skills, as well as public relations skills;
• Ability to negotiate in complex and demanding situations;
• Solid understanding of Language technologies, computational linguistics, and natural language processing;
• High proficiency in the English

Desirable Attributes

Desirable attributes of the Director are:

• Master’s Degree or equivalent experience (preferably in STEM, Computational linguistics or Natural language processing);
• Knowledge of Language technologies landscape in Europe;
• Knowledge of international Language technologies research institutions, organisations, infrastructures, and other relevant bodies;
• Fluency in French beside
• Knowledge of French legislation, especially Employment and Human Resources.

Working Conditions

• Full dedication;
• The main place of work will be the ALT-EDIC statutory seat in Villers-Cotterêts, France;
• The Director will have a contract under French law.
• Duties will entail travel within and outside Europe;
• Availability can be occasionally required beyond the daily work time;
• The initial probationary period is 3 (three) months, renewable once.

Selection Procedure

ALT-EDIC selection and recruitment process is transparent and non-discriminatory. ALT-EDIC provides equal employment opportunities to all applicants. The ALT-EDIC selection and recruitment process will be conducted in English.

Applications should be addressed to the Chair of the ALT-EDIC Assembly of Members, Mr. Thibault Grouas, and submitted via email to the following recipients: thibault.grouas@culture.gouv.fr and etronci@welcomeurope.com, as a single pdf file, with the following email subject “Application for the ALT-EDIC Director position”, by 31^st May 2024, 12:00 CET. The application should include the following documents in English:

• A cover letter describing and demonstrating the applicant’s suitability for the position and how he/she can lead the activities of the ALT-EDIC and to deliver the ALT-EDIC missions;
• The Curriculum Vitae of the applicant;
• The names and contacts details of at least three persons as reference of previous professional
• Maximum 1-page vision statement of where ALT-EDIC will be in 5 years along with relevant plan and envisioned steps.

The first round of selection shall be done based on the written application, vision statement and the attached CV. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an interview by the selection committee.

It is expected that the Director will be selected by early August 2024 and that he/she will take up office by September 2024.

Any specific enquiries about this job vacancy should be sent to: thibault.grouas@culture.gouv.fr and etronci@welcomeurope.com  

Current Members States are: Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, and Spain.

Current Observers are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Malta, Romania, and Slovakia.