Vacancy in the Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality.
ESA is an equal opportunity employer, committed to achieving diversity within the workforce and creating an inclusive working environment. We therefore welcome applications from all qualified candidates irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, beliefs, age, disability or other characteristics. Applications from women are encouraged.
This post is classified A2-A4 on the Coordinated Organisationsโ salary scale.
Location
ESRIN, Frascati, Italy
Description
Ground Segment System Engineer in the Ground Software Systems and Functional Verification Section, Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality (D/TEC).
You will work within the Ground Software Systems and Functional Verification Section, a group of some 25 highly motivated experts in ground software engineering and assembly, integration and functional verification (AIV) for space systems. The Section contributes to the success of ESA missions such as Rosetta, Galileo, Juice, Earth Observation (EO) Earth Explorers and Sentinel missions, as well as meteorological missions. You will represent the Agency and will provide technical support for the functional verification and validation of the Ground Segment for all missions and satellites at ESA. You will also potentially support space transportation, space engineering and technology, operations and space safety missions.
The Section provides functional support to ESA Earth Observation projects in all domains relevant for EO Ground Segment systems, including the overall Ground Segment architecture for EO data production and management, payload activities planning, payload data acquisition, data processing, archival and preservation and the provision of data access to the users.
As a first assignment, you will provide support to the Science, Applications and Climate Department of the Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes in the field of digital innovation of downstream science and application environments in close cooperation with other Directorate staff.
You will be tasked with driving the innovation of best practices in the use of ICT advances for EO research and applications activities in partnership with European and international industry and academia, developing cloud-based information factories to host the operational production of EO-based information products and feed them into the information chains required to manage the green transition.
You will contribute to the advancement of digital innovation in the EO downstream sector through platform capabilities and tools that contribute to a network of resources, maximising the benefits of advancing ICT to support open science and data-intensive research, promoting collaborative and interdisciplinary research, and enabling novel data-driven information chains to integrate easily into the information flow of operational stakeholders outside the space domain. This will involve operating in a dynamic collaborative environment connected to a team of EO experts and scientists and to a network of research laboratories, scientific institutions and industrial partners distributed across all Member States.
Duties
You will manage the development and use of building blocks for a digital information factory contributing to a network of resources comprising collaborative platforms that support the transition from open science to fully operational Information-as-a-Service (IaaS) provisioning.
In that context, you will contribute to the following tasks and responsibilities:
- Identifying, assessing and implementing innovative ideas for shared platform services and tools, leveraging leading-edge ICT innovation that facilitates EO exploitation;
- Managing procurement and agile development processes for open-source building blocks;
- Liaising with open-source initiatives that can contribute to information factory building blocks;
- Managing the development of information factory environments using the building blocks;
- Supporting relevant OGC processes for standardisation;
- Advancing the use of innovative data access and analytics environments leveraging HPC infrastructures.
Technical competencies In-depth experience in cloud architectures and infrastructures and relevant technologies and practices for application deployment at scaleKnowledge of relevant industrial standards, possibly including OGC standards and best practicesKnowledge of relevant open source initiativesExperience in specific programming techniques and modelling using HPC infrastructureKnowledge of all phases of the software development life cycle and experience in agile developmentUnderstanding of modern software engineering methods and tools, R&D trends and the industrial landscape
Behavioural competencies
Result Orientation
Operational Efficiency
Fostering Cooperation
Relationship Management
Continuous Improvement
Forward ThinkingEducation
You should have a masterโs degree or PhD in a relevant engineering discipline and at least two years of experience in work-related development and/or research activities.
Additional requirements
You should also:
- have the ability to work effectively in an international and multidisciplinary team;
- demonstrate flexibility in dealing with evolving technical and operational challenges.
Experience in software development for EO science data processing and data management is an asset.
Other information
For behavioural competencies expected from ESA staff in general, please refer to the ESA Competency Framework.
For further information please visit: Professionals, What we offer and FAQ
The working languages of the Agency are English and French. A good knowledge of one of these is required. Knowledge of another Member State language would be an asset.
The Agency may require applicants to undergo selection tests.
At the Agency we value diversity and we welcome people with disabilities. Whenever possible, we seek to accommodate individuals with disabilities by providing the necessary support at the workplace. The Human Resources Department can also provide assistance during the recruitment process. If you would like to discuss this further please contact us email contact.human.resources@esa.int.
Please note that applications are only considered from nationals of one of the following States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
According to the ESA Convention, the recruitment of staff must take into account an adequate distribution of posts among nationals of the ESA Member States*. When short-listing for an interview, priority will first be given to internal candidates and secondly to external candidates from under-represented Member States*.
In accordance with the European Space Agencyโs security procedures and as part of the selection process, successful candidates will be required to undergo basic screening before appointment conducted by an external background screening service.
In principle, recruitment will be within the advertised grade band (A2-A4). However, if the selected candidate has less than four years of relevant professional experience following the completion of the masterโs degree, the position may be filled at A1 level.
*Member States, Associate Members or Cooperating States.