About this job

EUMETSAT operates a growing fleet of Earth Observation satellites in Low Earth and geostationary orbits (currently comprising 7 EUMETSAT Meteosat Second Generation and Metop satellites, and 2 Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites). In parallel, EUMETSAT is working towards the launch of one next generation satellite each year in the period 2020-2025.

The Generic Systems and Infrastructure Division (GSI) is responsible for engineering, maintaining and evolving generic ground segment functions, services, infrastructure and systems necessary to ensure the success of current and future programmes.

Responsibilities

Within the GSI Division, the holder of the post is responsible for the engineering and maintenance of the Mission Control System (MCS) software applications and related tools used for the exploitation of operational satellite systems, and supports mission control aspects of the design, development, Integration, Verification and Validation of new satellite systems.

Duties:

• Management of the Mission Control functions maintenance activities, in support to the exploitation of operational satellite systems. This includes the definition and execution of maintenance procedures, troubleshooting, reporting and correction of anomalies, managing evolutions, maintaining and improving the maintenance working practices and processes;
• Interfacing with internal customers (e.g. operations engineers and analysts), in the frame of anomaly investigations, definition of corrective actions, planning maintenance tasks and releases, identifying needs for upgrades;
• Requirements definition, design, development and testing of MCS applications, in support to the development of new satellite systems;
• Supporting maintenance of the EUMETSAT Ground Segment Reference Architecture and related technical documentation for the Mission Control Functions;
• Technical management of industrial maintenance contracts and support services, including the monitoring of contractors’ performance against contract and Service Level Agreement;
• Support the promotion and delivery of generic/multi-mission and cost-efficient solutions for MCS applications to be used across operational and future missions. Contribute to the maintenance of the product roadmap for MCS applications;
• Leading the engineering and maintenance team for the Mission Control System (MCS) applications, ensuring the development and maintenance of the knowledge and skill-base within the team.

Profile

• Proven experience in the domain of satellite Mission Control Systems and in maintaining large scale software systems in an operational environment, preferably related to high-availability (24/7) applications;
• Knowledge and demonstrated experience in:
  • Mission Control System functions consisting of telemetry and telecommand processing chains, procedure and schedule automation, data archive, operations preparation and ground station interfaces;
  • Integration and verification testing of complex Mission Control System applications;
  • Application software development with formal production and maintenance of technical documentation such as Software Requirements Specifications (SRS), Architectural Design Documents (ADD) , Interface Control Document and Test Plans;
  • Application Lifecycle Management functions such as configuration management, continuous integration, continuous deployment and anomaly tracking;
  • Java and C++ programming languages and related development environments as well as open source solutions and technologies;
• Knowledge of CCSDS and ECSS standards relevant to the MCS domain;
• Knowledge of one or more of the following domains/systems would be an advantage: spacecraft simulations, ESA MICONYS, SIMULS, DABYS software suites;
• The official languages of EUMETSAT are English and French. Candidates must be able to work effectively in English and have some knowledge of French;
• University degree (or equivalent) in Computer Science or Software Engineering;
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to apply them to activities within and across teams.