Mission Planning Operations Engineers (EUMETSAT)

Package Description

What we offer if you join our amazing team:

• Competitive Salary 

• Corporate Benefits Package 

• Support provided to EU Nationals requiring relocation – Information available upon request

• Company events

Job Introduction

We have an exciting (and challenging) opening for several Mission Planning Operations Engineers in Darmstadt. 

Dynamic, Energetic, Entrepreneurial, Highly Motivated, Resilient … If this describes you then we would love to hear from you :) Come and join talented diverse Serco team at the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) based in Darmstadt, Germany. 

Discover the offer below and click on ‘Apply’ if you know that your skillset and talents are a suitable match for this opportunity.

• Serco – The employer of choice for a career within the Space Sector.

Serco are a trusted provider of services to National Space Agencies and the European Space Agency (ESA), we have over 40 years’ experience supporting the space sector and providing services for all stages of our customer’s space missions.

• Join our community of space specialists across Europe

We are proud to support the European institutional Space landscape: Serco boasts an extensive network of Space professionals located at our offices in Darmstadt, Noordwijk, Frascati, Paris and Madrid, all within close proximity of our two largest space sector customers, European Space Agency/European Space Operations Centre (ESA/ESOC) and European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT).

• Supporting Women in Aerospace

Diversity and Inclusion is extremely important to us. Supporting women's opportunities, development and visibility in the space sector is key and that is why we are proud members and supporters of Women in Aerospace Europe, a dynamic and global network supporting women's careers in Aerospace.

Women in Aerospace Europe (WIA-E) – Supporting women in STEM (wia-europe.org)    

Main Responsibilities

As Mission Planning Operations Engineers you will concentrate your activities on the following:

• Performing routine, on-call, and contingency scheduling tasks using the mission planning facilities
• Liaising with external entities in order to fulfil joint operations requirements and maintaining relevant documentation
• Responding to mission planning related anomalies and operational contingencies
• Performing the monitoring of the mission planning systems, generally by running system checks to spot system anomalies or errors
• Raising, monitoring and steering the lifecycle of mission planning related anomaly reports (ARs) and non-conformance reports (NCRs)
• Supplying context and analysis to support the investigation of anomalies
• Participation in meetings and reviews (long-term scheduling, schedule consolidation, anomaly review boards, etc.)
• Defining the mission planning operational implementation (rules, database configuration, etc.)
• Maintaining a detailed understanding of the space and ground segment operational needs that are met through mission planning
• Updating and rolling out of new versions of the mission planning operational implementation following approved configuration management procedures
• Maintaining mission planning documentation such as user guide, operational implementation document, joint operations document, ICDs and other operational documentation
• Supporting the Operations Preparation Integrated Team (OPTT) in the development and procurement of the mission planning application software and any related tools (developing missions only)
• Participating in reviews concerning the mission planning system, interfacing facilities and associated tools, throughout the procurement lifecycle (developing missions only)
• Contributing to the definition of any changes to the supplied mission planning application software, or to in-house supporting software that could lead to performance and/or ergonomics improvements
• Contributing to the process of implementing the above-mentioned changes by raising of engineering change proposals and change requests internally within EUMETSAT
• Participating in the installation of the mission planning application software and related tools at EUMETSAT if required, as well as verifying the installation
• Training of personnel in mission planning, on-call and routing scheduling tasks
• Performing routine scheduling tasks at the BUCC in support of periodic or emergency activations

Successful Candidate

Do you think you are the person we are looking for? See below what experience or knowledge you should bring:

• University degree or equivalent in a relevant discipline
• Knowledge of the principles of satellite monitoring and control
• Experience in the field of mission planning, gained during the operations and/or development of GEO and/or LEO satellite systems
• Experience of LEO and/or GEO spacecraft operations, preferably gained in an operational control room environment
• Experience programming with Java, Python or similar
• Experience working in LINUX/UNIX and MS Windows environment
• Ability to detail and synthesise complex technical concepts in formal documents and verbal presentations
• Evidence of personal initiative and action orientation in professional experience
• Ability to work in a clear, structured manner, calmly and correctly under stress, with a minimal supervision
• Experience of working proactively within a small team
• Shown personal initiative and action orientation in professional experience

Nice to have:

• Experience in managing small teams in a technical environment
• Experience in production and maintenance of mission planning operational rules using a Java-like Business Rules Management System (Jboss Drools or ILOG Rules)
• Experience of LEO or GEO mission planning system specification, development and procurement
• Experience of AIV related activities (test procedure generation, requirements verification and validation, etc), preferably in the field of space mission planning systems
• Practical experience with Software Version Control Systems (e.g. CVS, SVN or Git) and Software Configuration Management Systems (e.g. Serena Dimensions)
• Knowledge of CCSDS standards applicable to Mission Planning scheduling operations (e.g. Simple Schedule File Format Specification) and applicable Cross-Support standards
• Practical experience with the Linux/Unix operating system (user command level)
• Working experience with relational databases and SQL, preferably involving Oracle
• Experience of working with files in XML format, including XML file edition, schema validation and related tools (Oxygen and/or XMLSpy)
• All candidates must be eligible to work in the EU.

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. We are a company passionate about diversity and inclusion. 

About Serco

Serco provides the User Helpdesk and Data Centre Operations Service of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), which plays a key role in enhancing the use of EUMETSAT data, products and data services.

The main objective of the service is to ensure effective and user-driven service to support the provision of data, both real-time and offline, as well as to provide comprehensive technical information to support all forms of user enquiries relating both to current operational services and to future satellite programmes of EUMETSAT.

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:

For more information on how the personal data in your application is process, please see the link Data Protection policy here.