Description

The Space Safety Programme Department is responsible for the implementation of European capabilities and services in the domains of Planetary Defence, Space Weather, Space Debris and CleanSpace. Significant parts of the Programme, related to space debris monitoring, space traffic coordination, and mitigation and risk assessment technologies, rely on implementation via the Space Debris Office. At the same time, the Office is also responsible for providing other customer programmes and third parties with the Agency’s technical expertise and services in the domain. It also represents ESA’s position with respect to international partners. Moreover, the Office provides domain expertise to support the Agency’s policy evolution and implementation, and assumes a coordination role for related technology developments.

Duties

Reporting to the Head of Space Safety Programme Department, you will have the following responsibilities:

• Implementing projects related to the COSMIC element of the ESA Space Safety Programme when they are entrusted by the COSMIC Project Management team to the Office, with delegated responsibility for the cost at completion;
• Implementing space debris projects entrusted to the Directorate of Operations by third-party customers (such as the Spanish Space Agency, Greece, or the European Commission) trough delegated responsibility for the cost at completion;
• Reporting to COSMIC Project Management on project risks, schedule and costs;
• Liaising with support functions, such as controlling, quality, procurement, space segment expertise, radar and optical instrumentation, technology programmes, and launcher experts to ensure successful project implementation;
• Ensuring routine operational collision avoidance support as well as contingency support for ESA and third-party missions, including the procurement and maintenance of the necessary infrastructure, services and data;
• Ensuring the development, maintenance and availability of tools for risk analysis and compliance and contributing to related standards, policies and project reviews;
• Supporting customer programmes with expertise on space debris mitigation and related tools in liaison with the CleanSpace Office and the Sustainability Engineering Office;
• Leading ESA’s representation at the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC);
• Supporting ESA’s outreach activities on the sustainable utilisation of space.

Technical competencies

Behavioural competencies

Result Orientation
Operational Efficiency
Fostering Cooperation
Relationship Management
Continuous Improvement
Forward Thinking

For more information, please refer to ESA Core Behavioural Competencies guidebook

Education and professional experience

A master's degree in engineering or a related field is required for this post, together with more than eight years of relevant professional experience in the domain.

Additional requirements

• More than eight years of hands-on experience in space debris technologies and projects;
• Managing individuals and a team, organising activities with limited resources while ensuring a motivating work environment;
• The ability to drive your team’s performance, developing team members by encouraging learning, delegating responsibility and giving regular and constructive feedback;
• Strong problem-solving skills to deal with day-to-day operational challenges, together with demonstrated planning and organisational skills;
• Strong results orientation with the ability to set priorities and present practical solutions both orally and in writing;
• Demonstrated customer-focused thinking;
• Providing functional support to a large and evolving customer base;
• Previous people management experience would be an asset.

You should also:

• have an interest in working with companies that are relatively new to the space field;
• be capable of working autonomously, taking initiative and being hands-on;
• show strong leadership capabilities, with proven relationship management and communication skills;
• be able to adapt your hierarchical and functional reporting skills to the situation;
• be able to anticipate problems, be sufficiently flexible to seek solutions, and be capable of taking pragmatic and timely decisions;
• take a results-oriented approach with the ability to set priorities;
• have an interest in outreach and communicating on space safety topics to a wide-ranging audience.