About this job

Sapienza Consulting, a Serco company, is recruiting a Technology & Frequency Management Engineer for Sapienza to work on our Customers Site (ESA-ESTEC).

Sapienza has been a partner of ESA for almost 30 years, and we pride ourselves in supporting a wide range of missions including Galileo, MTG, Copernicus and ExoMars. Our team is international with activities across the U.K., the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Responsibilities

• First, the identification of technology requirements for future Earth Observation (EO) missions. A solid collaboration with the other sections of the division and with other divisions in the EOP directorate and ESA’s technical directorate is essential for this work. The nature of the work requires a wide knowledge in engineering disciplines with a natural inclination for learning and understanding new technologies in connection to EO space systems.
• Second, the analysis and monitoring of the evolution of frequency needs for EO missions, including early concepts and potential interference conflicts with other communication services sharing the spectrum.

The Candidate will provide engineering support in the area of EO Technology Development for the following tasks:

• support the identification of the technology requirements for future Earth observations missions, covering the whole spectrum (mainly platform and ground stations network, but also support to optical and RF instruments).
• provide support to technology developments and for future EO missions, in particular for platform and ground segment.
• initiate, conduct internal studies and support to assess the results of industrial activities and in the area of technology development and modelling of end-to-end system (e.g. data flow, technical budgets) or on-board sub-system aspects.
• support the definition and monitoring of missions under preparation through, e.g. participation to reviews, assessment of industrial results, evaluation of proposals in reply to calls, including functional analysis and design, overall system concept, system level budgets, system performance analyses.
• support the EO technology observatory function outside the EOP Directorate (e.g. ARTES), and also outside ESA (e.g. other space agencies, commercial initiatives under NewSpace, and the potential spin-in from non-space sectors).

Profile

• PhD or Master’s degree in Engineering or physics with relevant background and experience in space projects and associated technology developments.
• At least 4 years of relevant work experience in the development of advanced on-board system and sub-technologies for space applications, ideally in EO domain.
• Candidates should have Experience in Space Projects, preferably in EO and/or in preparatory Activities (Phase 0 and A).
• Experience with System (Performance) Simulation and End-to-End Satellite Data Flow, including data processing, is desirable.
• Knowledge of remote sensing techniques used in Earth Observation missions.
• Knowledge of Matlab and STK or similar tools.
• Excellent interpersonal skills are needed, together with a high degree organizational and communication abilities.
• Comfortable with working in a diverse and multinational team environment.
• Fluent in English; knowledge of another ESA member-state language is an asset.
• Candidates must be eligible to work in the EU.