EPSO AD7 in ICT: EPSO/AD/429/26, four fields and 782 places

An open competition published on 6 May 2026 (Official Journal C/2026/2425) to build reserve lists of AD7 administrators in four ICT fields. The EU institutions, bodies and agencies recruit from those lists.

Each candidate could apply for one field only. It is the first of EPSO's two ICT competitions in 2026; the second, at AD8, covers artificial intelligence and cybersecurity and is open until 13 October 2026: see the guides to AI and cybersecurity.

Besides EU citizenship and two EU languages (one at C1, another at B2), one of four combinations of studies and experience, the same in all four fields. The experience counts from the date of the diploma and has to match the duties of the field in Annex II of the notice.

A master's or a PhD in an accepted area satisfies the four- and five-year options whatever the first degree was. The accepted areas depend on the field:

• ICT infrastructure and clouds and networks: computer science or IT, electrical or electronics engineering, telecommunications, software engineering, cybersecurity, data science, cloud computing, AI, computational linguistics, high-performance computing and quantum technologies.
• ICT project management: the same areas and a much wider list, including IT audit and management, digital transformation, economics, finance, business, project management, communication, mathematics, statistics, physics and engineering.
• Data science: data science or analytics, data management and governance, AI or computational linguistics, mathematics, statistics, or any other discipline with a proven focus on data science.

All tests are remote and supervised, on the dates in the invitation, and not necessarily in this order.

For the platform and the rules of remote testing, see the guide to TAO.

In a strict order, set out in the notice:

1. The reasoning tests are marked first. Fail them and nothing else is marked.
2. The field test is marked for those who passed reasoning. Everyone with at least 15/30 is ranked by that score.
3. From the top of each field's ranking, a limited number of candidates, in principle no more than 1.5 times the places, have their essay marked and their eligibility checked: about 306 in ICT infrastructure, 342 in ICT project management, 249 in clouds and networks and 276 in data science, plus any ties at the cut-off.
4. Those who pass the essay and are eligible go onto the reserve list, in ranking order, until the places are filled.

There is no interview and no assessment centre before the list. See how EPSO scores its tests.

The notice publishes no syllabus: the test is specific to the field. The closest thing is Annex II, the typical duties of each field:

• ICT infrastructure: design, architecture and operation of infrastructure solutions; IT operations run through managed service contracts; DevSecOps; enterprise information security policies; the lifecycle of physical and virtual components; infrastructure project portfolios; high-performance computing and quantum technologies; and supervising IT teams and contractors.
• ICT project management: managing projects, programmes and portfolios across their lifecycle; business and technical analysis and cost estimation; monitoring costs, timelines, risks, quality and security; leading teams and managing stakeholders; bridging business and technical domains; project management frameworks, quality assurance and contracts.
• Clouds and networks: design, implementation and operation of cloud and network solutions; strategic planning, architecture and governance; service operation, monitoring and compliance; and stakeholder management.
• Data science: data engineering; advanced statistical modelling; data architecture and semantic technologies; high-performance computing; data integration and APIs; MLOps and automation; analytics and visualisation; and data governance.

The test is in language 2, so the technical vocabulary has to be learned in that language too.

1. Do not underestimate reasoning. It only has to be passed, but it comes first, and an experienced professional who has not sat a psychometric test in years can fail it. Practise the real format: 40 questions in 65 minutes across three timed tests. See the guide to the reasoning tests.
2. Put most of your time into the field test. It is the only score that ranks you: 30 questions in 40 minutes, about 80 seconds each, in your second language. Work through Annex II of your field duty by duty.
3. Read the essay documentation as soon as EPSO publishes it. The EUFTE is based on EU documentation that EPSO puts on its website before the test, and it is marked on written communication, not on facts. See the guide to the EUFTE.
4. Watch your EPSO account. Invitations and the testing modalities arrive there, and results only come at the end of the competition.