About this job

Serco is a leading Space Services Provider with thousands of skilled resources that has supported over 50 space missions on behalf of more than 10 Space or Government agencies around the globe, including the ESA and NASA. Serco offers space capability across the full space lifecycle from satellite testing to Launch services, LEOP to spacecraft operations, space surveillance to data management, and supporting downstream application development. With over 55 years history in the space sector Serco is well placed to contribute to National strategies and New Space ventures who want to scale their businesses/organizations with skilled talent.

On behalf of our client ESA, we are looking for a Future Earth Observation Missions System Engineer to join our workforce team in ESTEC – Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

Your mission would be to provide system engineering support to the Future Missions and Instruments Division (EOP-FM) for Mission and System Studies. You would mainly support the definition and monitoring of activities for the preparation of future ESA Earth Observation (EO) missions, in particular for Copernicus Sentinels, new Earth Explorer/Earth Watch missions, Opportunity Missions, F-sats and Scout missions, as well as operational meteorology missions.

Responsibilities

• Provide system engineering support to InCubed upstream missions
• Review Technical Notes and actively participate to progress meetings and reviews related to EO future mission and system studies
• Support elaboration of SoWs, system requirements documents (SRD) and other applicable and reference documents
• Contributing to ensure the technical coherency of the system design of future EO missions, including as needed, functional analysis and design, overall system concept, system level budgets, system performance analyses, definition of spacecraft and/or payload subsystems and related data processing, and interfaces between payload/platform and launcher-ground segment
• Perform internal studies for future EO missions, in particular to assess results of external activities or preparing the formulation of new mission concepts
• Perform studies for preliminary sizing of platform/payload, first estimation of the system engineering and performance budgets, with a focus on the space segment and its interfaces with the launcher and the ground segment
• Perform internal studies to evaluate the complementarity between ESA EO future missions and other missions (existing or planned by other space organizations)
• Perform mission analysis and assessment of potential synergy or overlap of mission capabilities
• Support work in the area of modelling of system or sub-system aspects for end-to-end performance simulation and system engineering tools for future EO missions

Profile

• Master’s or equivalent in relevant technical or scientific discipline (Space System Engineering or similar)
• At least 4 years of experience
• Good general knowledge of ESA Earth Observation missions
• Strong background in space system engineering and mission analysis for Earth Observation missions
• Experience in space projects, preferably in the Earth Observation field and/or in preparatory activities (phase 0 and A)
• Experience with simulation tools, including MATLAB, Python, MS Excel, VBA and STK
• Good communication and technical writing skills with capabilities to synthesise
• Methodical and proactive, with initiative and capability to work autonomously
• Problem-solving and creativity-oriented attitude
• Proficient in the English language, both written and spoken
• Knowledge of another EU member state language is an asset.
• Candidates must be eligible to work in the EU.

Nice to have:

• Experience in space system design, mission analysis and small platform sizing
• Knowledge of Earth Observation remote sensing techniques

What we offer:

• Competitive Salary
• Corporate Benefits Package
• Support provided to EU Nationals requiring relocation – Information available upon request
• Company events