Our team and mission

The Head of the Business Unit Controlling and Project Management Support Office manages a team that provides the ESA Directorate for Earth Observation Programmes (EOP) with support for the Directorate’s overall human and financial resources planning, controlling, and reporting. The office provides project control and management support services to all operational units in the Directorate.

The team’s tasks include:

• controlling the activities of the Business Unit (BU) in accordance with the agreed financial and workforce targets;
• consolidating and maintaining short-, medium- and long-term plans, including budgets for all activities of the Directorate, as well as related schedules, cost, cash and commitment plans, workforce plans (staff and contractors) and procurement plans;
• monitoring and reporting at Directorate level on the implementation of the yearly plans covering both activities and resources and elaborating, together with project/line managers, corrective measures to respond to deviations from plans;
• maintaining information flow between line/project/programme management on controlling-related matters;
• providing project control services and management support to all departments, programmes, projects and operational units in the Directorate;
• acting as the main interface to the services in the Finance, Planning and Controlling Department and ensuring coherence of data;
• supporting the consistency, accuracy and timely closure of the Agency’s accounts, ensuring coordination within the BU of the provision of accounting-related information;
• coordinating the budget, cost and commitment ceiling scrutiny within the BU, including risk assessment, and monitoring the implementation of mitigation actions and the Directorate-level financial contingency policy;
• coordinating the Directorate’s implementation of the Agency’s industrial policy;
• supporting integrated project reviews;
• ensuring consistency and adequacy in planning/reporting working methods, in a manner coordinated with the Finance, Planning and Controlling Department.

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

Field(s) of activity/research for the traineeship

As a Luxembourgish National Graduate Trainee, your tasks and responsibilities will include:

• business controlling: providing data science and business analytics support for the Directorate’s controlling and programme controlling;
• financial and resource planning: supporting the Earth Observation Business Unit Controlling Office in financial and resource planning exercises;
• business analytics and processes: exploring and prototyping modern ways to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of business processes and analytics;
• data maintenance and quality: creating, updating and structuring master data to ensure accuracy and compliance;
• data governance and process: developing and enforcing the data entry model for standards, policies, and workflows;
• cross-functional collaboration: analysing and improving the link between IT and business departments to resolve data inconsistencies;
• automation: utilising and implementing digital solutions for master data operations.

Technical competencies

Behavioural competencies

Result Orientation

Operational Efficiency

Fostering Cooperation

Relationship Management

Continuous Improvement

Forward Thinking

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

Education

You should have recently completed, or be in the final year of, a master’s degree in data science, industrial engineering, engineering management, economics or supply chain management.

Additional requirements

You should have good interpersonal and communication skills and should be able to work in a multicultural environment, both independently and as part of a team. Previous experience of working in international teams can be considered an asset. Your motivation, overall professional perspective and career goals will also be explored during the later stages of the selection process.

You should also have:

• Strong analytical skills
• Strong knowledge in MS Excel and PowerBI or Tableau, as well as in one or more of the following: Python, R, SQL
• Experience with Machine Learning / AI is a distinct asset