Coastal Altimetry Scientist

Job Introduction

At Serco, we strive to promote and enable the diversity, development, wellbeing and safety of our people. We understand that healthier, happier employees go hand-in-hand with strong business performance, enhanced productivity and better outcomes for those we serve. We want everybody who works for Serco to have a positive experience and access to opportunities to develop in their chosen careers.

Dedicated to the European Space Agency’s Earth-observing activities, ESA-ESRIN is the European centre of excellence for exploitation of Earth observation missions. The mission and payload operations of ESA's Earth observation satellites are managed here, and ESRIN is the primary source for the acquisition, distribution, and exploitation of data from these and other non-ESA satellites.

Serco has a long history of providing Earth Observation operations, maintenance and front-end services to ESA. To provide continual service improvement, Serco has recently introduced a special focus on evolution and innovation, with the aim of supporting ESA in further evolving the services and products.

Does working in a Serco environment sound appealing to you?

We would love to hear from you and your interest in the new opportunity of Coastal Altimetry Scientist in Toulouse !

Does this vacancy not suit your profile? Not to worry, you can send your updated CV to careers.italy@serco.com – a member of our Recruitment Team will come back to you shortly after.

Role Responsibility

Within the Data Quality and Algorithm Management Office, you will join the Quality Assurance For Earth Observation (QA4EO) contract and will work on the Cal/Val support area, directly responding to the Area Manager with the objective of exploring a new methodology assessment and scientific analysis of in situ data and a combination of field measurements and numerical process modeling over polar ocean and coastal areas with particular emphasis on small scale dynamics in conjuction with satellite altimetric data analysis  (low and high resolution). 

We are looking for a bright, young, post-doc like scientist, working in close liaison with ESRIN and with MIO (Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography) in Marseille/ Toulouse (France)

RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES: 

• Coastal altimetry
• Multimission Polar (ice) 
• Support the organization and execution of intercomparison exercises and international workshops
• You will perform the following main activities, under the direction and guidelines of the Work Package leader and Area Manager:
• Processing, Quality Control (QC), formatting and analysis of in-situ and field campaign data;
• Processing and validation of ocean model outputs with the use all the available in situ and field campaign data and altimetry over selected areas of interest in the coastal regions and over polar ocean.
• Contribute to coastal and polar Altimetry data analysis and comparisons with in situ measurements and model;
• Sensitivity study, optimization and error assessment of the developed altimetric methods.
• Use ocean circulation model outputs in support to the interpretation of slope currents positioning and intensity variability as depicted by altimetry;
• Exploring and pre-processing available satellite, model and in situ datasets on the distribution and variability of sea-ice regions;
• Contribute to the writing of scientific papers and presentations in international conferences
• Attendance to European progress meeting or conferences

Successful Candidate

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE: 

You should have a high level of self-motivation, the capability to work effectively in a team and autonomously, and have excellent organisation skills. A strong proactive attitude is required in identifying problems and proposing solutions. 

Mandatory knowledge and experience requisites are:

• University degree, or equivalent, in oceanography or a related discipline.
• Good knowledge of ocean dynamics and ocean physics
• Development of tools for analysis of large set of data and data visualization
• Proven experience in the field of oceanography (list of publications).
• Experience in polar sea ice processes and sea ice modeling is of advantage. 

SKILLS AND ATTRIBUTES: 
Mandatory requisites are:

• Hands-on experience with ocean validation methods and scientific analysis of in situ data; 
• Hands-on experience with ocean ice and multimission satellite polar data; 
• Experience with high-frequency radar or glider data being an advantage;
• Good experience in the scientific exploitation of ocean numerical modeling;
• Basic knowledge of altimeter mission and their applications would be an advantage;
• Good oral and written communication;
• Spatial, temporal and other statistical analyses of EO data;
• Scientific publication and reporting (including oral presentations) of results;
• Good Working proficiency in English.
• Good scientific programming skills (e.g. Matlab, IDL, C, Pyton or Fortran);

In addition, you should have:

• Attitude to follow guidelines and to require minimum supervision, proactively requesting help when needed
• Ability to plan and report and to work to deadline

Additional assets: 

• Experience with Altimetric Earth Observation Satellite mission data

-------------------

Important:

Any offer of employment is contingent upon you providing documents to verify your identity and employment eligibility, as required by law.

Applicants are reminded that they will be requested to produce such documentation during the recruitment process.

Please contact a member of the recruitment team if you require further details of acceptable types of documentation required for verification of identity and work authorization. 

Data Protection:

When creating a profile on the Serco Career Centre you agreed to the Data Protection policy, a copy is available upon request.You may submit a written request revoking your consent to this agreement at any time.

Package Description

Joining Serco's amazing team offers:

• Competitive Salary 
• Great career opportunities in the Space industry
• Competitive Salary
• Corporate Benefits Package
• Exciting relocation package (if applicable)
• Company events
• International environment

About the Company

Why should you join Serco ?

At Serco not only is the nature of the work we do important, everyone has an important role to play.

Meaningful and vital work - You’ll contribute to methodologically intercepting challenges whilst achievements will also be recognised and celebrated.

A world of opportunity - You’ll be wholeheartedly supported with development and career progression

Great people - You’ll become an integral member of a well-defined and supportive team who believe passionately in the value of our work.

What we offer

• Chance to contribute to innovation in the public services sector
• A company passionate about diversity and inclusion
• Permanent employment with comprehensive Serco Benefits package.
• Pension

About Serco

At Serco, not only is the nature of the work we do important, everyone has an important role to play when managing complex public services.  

We are a team of 50,000 people responsible for delivering essential public services around the world, we are innovators, committed to redesigning and improving public services for the benefit of everyone.

By joining Serco you will have unlimited access to our Global Employee Networks – SercoInspire (Gender), SercoEmbrace (Multicultural), SercoUnlimited (Disability) and In@Serco (LGBT & Networks). Serco Employee Networks, led by colleagues who are passionate about diversity, inclusion and belonging. 

Apply

Please click on the apply button to be taken to our careers website

Serco is a Disability Confident Employer committed to employing and retaining people with disabilities.  Disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job will be given the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities at an interview.

Serco European Agencies