Description

System Engineer in the ExPeRT Team, Directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration Programmes (D/HRE), assigned as integrated support from the Systems Engineering Division, Systems Department, Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality.

The Directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration Programmes is a programme directorate within the ESA matrix structure. Through a partnership between humans and robots, D/HRE is dedicated to exploring destinations in space where humans are already living and working – or will live and work in the future – for the purpose of scientific research, economic development, international cooperation and public inspiration.

The ExPeRT Team plans and implements to schedule and budget preparatory mission concepts, system studies and technology development activities funded by the E3P for all ESA exploration destinations, including LEO, cis-lunar space, the Moon and Mars.

You will be assigned to one or more early phase mission concept studies for small missions to the Moon. You will report to the Moon Exploration Study Lead; however, you may also be assigned to exploration studies for LEO and other Moon missions.

Duties

Your tasks and responsibilities will include:

• study manager/technical officer duties for assigned early phase studies for small missions to the Moon (surface and orbiters), including preparation, organisation and oversight of both ESA internal study work, Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) studies and industrial pre-Phase A or Phase A/B1 studies; 
• systems engineering support to early phase studies in which you are not the technical officer/study manager;
• reporting on study status to the relevant exploration study lead.
• Specific technical officer/study manager duties include:
  • management of the early phase exploration study definition process and reviews;
  • preparation and oversight of the engineering and systems documentation of the ITT, such as the statement of work MRD and the mission description document, and all applicable and reference documentation;
  • management of inputs from and collaboration with supporting directorates; 
  • supervision, provision of support and functional management of the tasks of junior systems engineers, young graduate trainees, payload engineers and support engineers within the project;
  • management of the industrial contractors, ensuring the smooth running of the studies and the timely delivery and completeness of all deliverables;
  • coordination with the D/HRE Science Offices and Human Exploration Group on their provision of science inputs for studies, such as science traceability matrices and science requirements documentation for the definition of payloads;
  • acting as the D/HRE interface to the manager of technology development activities associated with the study.
• General systems engineering study support duties include:
  • defining, analysing and maintaining spacecraft requirements and requirements documents;
  • support of mission architecture trades;
  • supervision and provision of support to the functional analysis process, including model-based systems engineering;
  • monitoring, supporting and liaising with the study scientist and payload engineer on their provision of the payload description document (PDD) and payload-related requirements documentation;
  • supervision and provision of support to the RAMS and FDIR process, including maintenance of the space elements’ redundancy concepts;
  • monitoring and supporting all aspects of the mission analysis, ground segment and operations as they relate to the space elements; 
  • monitoring and supporting all aspects of the environmental analysis as it relates to the space elements;
  • assisting the technology development team in defining, monitoring and controlling all critical technology development activities for a given study;
  • identifying and coordinating the required D/TEC and D/OPS support relating to the above tasks, keeping in mind the cost constraints of the study;
  • monitoring industry’s provision of technical documentation to ESA and consolidating across parallel contracts;
  • in the execution of these tasks, interfacing directly with the industrial study technical team in accordance with the communication rules set out by the study manager; 
  • provision of support to internal and external reviews and meetings, leading technical meetings and workshops as agreed by the study manager;
  • support of CDF studies in the role of customer study manager or customer systems engineer;
  • supervision, support and functional management of the tasks of junior systems engineers and support engineers within the project.

You will also participate in periodic meetings with the parent Division, contributing to the transfer of technical knowledge and lessons learned across the Agency.

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

A master’s degree in a relevant domain is required for this post.

Additional requirements

A background, knowledge or experience in the following areas would be an asset:

• Exploration missions;
• Moon and LEO missions;
• Mission implementation/project development phases (B2/C/D);
• Technology development and maturation.

You should be able to demonstrate at least five years of experience, including work in industry and on early phases (defined as spanning from concurrent engineering up to Phase A/B1).