Our team and mission

The Space Medicine Team (HRE-HM) within the directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration directorate, is mandated to care for ESA Astronaut’s health and wellbeing during their entire career. In execution of this task, SMT performs numerous medical tests and evaluations to monitor Astronauts’ health that are collected into ESA Astronaut Medical Database (AMD).
SMT is responsible for maintaining, assuring the quality of, and further developing the AMD. Before the AMD was introduced, medical data were stored in a SQL Server database. Some of these records have already been transferred to the AMD, but the extent of the transfer is still unclear. This internship aims to support that transition by analysing the existing SQL database, creating a diagram of the relationships between tables, defining a secure transfer strategy to move data to the AMD without duplication, and documenting and helping implement that strategy.

During this internship, your mission will be to:

• analyse the SQL database and create a diagram showing the relationships between the existing tables;
• define a strategy for securely transferring data to the AMD while preventing duplicates;
• document the data transfer strategy and support its implementation.

Additionally, the Space Medicine Team has been looking into integrating AI solutions developed in house to gain more knowledge from medical record stored in the databases. With the support of the AI Team, you will be implementing a local search engine and fine tune it with the requirements of the Space Medicine Team.

Candidates interested are encouraged to visit the ESA website: http://www.esa.int

Field(s) of activity for the internship

Topic of the internship: Handling of data archives

You will be responsible for the following tasks:

• Test Planning and Execution:
  • develop test cases for various data import scenarios;
  • execute test cases to verify data accuracy, completeness, and formatting after import.

• Validation and Quality Assurance:
  • identify data anomalies, inconsistencies, or transformation errors;
  • compare source data against imported data to ensure accuracy and completeness;
  • automate validation procedures, where feasible.

• Documentation:
  
  • maintain detailed documentation of test results, issues found, and resolutions;
  • document the data import process, including tools used and data mapping rules.

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

You must be a university student, preferably studying at master’s level. In addition, you must be able to prove that you will be enrolled at your University for the entire duration of the internship.

Additional requirements

The working languages of the Agency are English and French. A good knowledge of one of these is required. Knowledge of another ESA Member State language is an asset.

During the interview, your motivation for applying to this role will be explored.

You should be pursuing a master’s degree in Data Science, Information Technology, Computer Science or a related discipline.

Skills Required:

• knowledge of SQL and Microsoft SQL Server;
• proficiency in Python programming, including object-oriented design and clean, modular coding practices;
• basic experience with Python web frameworks (e.g., Flask, FastAPI) and understanding of HTTP/web application architecture;
• familiarity with REST APIs: designing, consuming, and handling authentication (e.g., API keys);
• understanding of networking fundamentals (TCP/IP, client-server model, sockets, and API communication tools like Postman/curl);
• solid grasp of data structures & algorithms, plus exposure to vector databases and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) workflows (e.g., embeddings, semantic search);
• attention to detail and a structured approach to problem solving.