To support ESA’s International Space Station Increment Operations Services at at ESTEC we are looking for :
ISS Payloads Operations Ground Segment Engineer

Tasks and Responsibilities:

The candidate shall provide support mainly in the area of USOC Ground Segment coordination and evolution. In that function, he/she shall interface to the GS Team of the Operations Department (OPS-HOG) for the coordination of services provided to the USOCs by the Industrial Operator (IOT) GS Service on the one side. On the other side the candidate shall interface directly with the USOC for the management and coordination of the USOC GS matters and processes.

He/she will also participate in GS processes such as ICD updates, changes to the interfaces (PIRN process) and security matters related to USOC and Payload Operations.

The candidate shall also support the ESA ISS P/L Operations Manager for science and operations preparation activities, e.g. USOC Certification of Flight Readiness (CoFR), major Payload Reviews, review of Experiment Science Requirements documents (ESR), etc., and take care of the maintenance and upgrade of the Payloads Operations Room at ESTEC.

Specific duties include the following:

• Maintaining USOC integrated schedule for ground segment related aspects;
• Supporting the head of section in the day-to-day management of the USOC contracts, with particular emphasis on ground segment aspects;
• Interfacing the ESA D/OPS Ground Segment Maintenance and Operations service for matters related to the implementation of the USOC infrastructure in particular and ground segment and security aspects in general;
• Organising the process and the reviews leading to USOC Infrastructure Readiness;
• Providing support to the CoFR process by checking CoFR certificates for completeness and consistency, and preparing the USOC CoFR packages for ESA USOC & P/L Operations Management signature;
• Providing Membership of the ESA GS Security Control Board (SCB) and participate in monthly SCB meetings as HSF-UOP representative USOC representative;
• Reviewing and provisioning of comments to Ground Segment PIRNs on ICDs between the USOCs and Col-CC and Management of development and maintenance of USOC ICD with external User sites (e.g. UHB);
• Participating in reviews of payloads under development with major GS implications, such as ACES, AIS, EML, etc. and following up the implementation of new components of the USOC Ground Infrastructure in line with the development of future payloads (e.g. EML, ACES);
• Overall assessment of USOC ground infrastructure status ;
• Following up the performance of ground operations during routine operations, identification of problems and supporting the specification of corrective actions;
• Coordinating and Supporting USOC Operational readiness Tests;
• Monitoring of USOC implementation and documentation progress;
• Maintaining oversight of USOC Ground Infrastructure configuration, in particular the AFE;
• Contributing to the specification of the evolution of the USOC Ground Infrastructure for the next programmatic slice (2010+);

Skills and Experience:

• University degree in Engineering or Computer Science;
• Fluent in English; knowledge of another ESA member state language is an asset;
• A good knowledge of the International Space Station Programme is required;
• Good knowledge of Ground Segment processes and systems for spaceflight ;
• Capability to work in a team with other ESA organizations, e.g. the Operations Department, as well as with external partners;
• Experience in the area of GS development and maintenance
• Some knowledge of Payload Operations in Columbus and in other segments of the the ISS.

Starting date: January 2009 or as soon as possible thereafter

An exciting international working environment in a highly innovative and motivated team awaits you!

HE Space Operations is an international human resources company specialised in the space market. We have been providing consultancy services in space engineering and business administration for over 25 years. We generally work directly on-site with our principal customers such as the European Space Agency and EADS Astrium.