Sentinel-2 Mission Engineer

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 Italy 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 Sentinel-2 Mission Engineer in Frascati !

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

Are you looking to secure a career in a public sector environment? We would love to hear from you! 

As Sentinel-2 Mission Engineer you will be responsible for:

Objective

Provide technical support to the Copernicus Sentinel Mission Manager for various activities:

• Contribute to the definition and the maintenance of the Sentinel observation scenarios based on the inputs from the EC, Copernicus Services, ESA Member States and other stakeholders. The observation scenario is one of the main elements of the Sentinel High-Level Operation Plan (HLOP); in particular, it consists of the definition, implementation, optimisation and maintenance of the Sentinels observation plans as the result of the technical analyses and simulations performed based on user needs (in particular, those of the Copernicus Services and Copernicus);
• Support the Sentinel-2 Products evolutions definition and implementation process.
• Support the Sentinel-2 mission reviews.
• Support outreach activities related to Sentinel missions, liaising with EO scientific community and the Communication officers.
• Follow-up of the relevant web portals (Sentinel Online in particular) for what concerns Sentinel-2 mission information and news, including technical information (e.g. specific DOIs pages creation).
• Support the Sentinel-2 Mission manager in the preparation of relevant reports, including collection of performance indicators and statistics.
• Support the Sentinel-2 Mission Manager and the Sentinel-2 Data Quality Manager in their interaction with the S2 Quality working Group (S2 QWG), and S2 External Validation Team (S2VT).

Activity Tasks

The contractor shall perform in detail the following tasks:

The contractor shall assist the Mission Manager in the preparations and maintenance of key documents (e.g. Sentinel High Level Operations Plan) and presentations, in the collection of mission observation requirements from the various user communities, in the execution of mission simulations within the technical mission constraints and in the definition of the observation scenarios, ensuring the transfer to the operational mission planning systems. In addition, the contractor shall support the Mission Manager in publishing on the Sentinel Online portal some Sentinel mission news. Finally, the contractor shall support the Mission Managers in the preparation of regular reports.

In particular the contractor shall:

• Support the Mission Manager in the collection, characterisation, consolidation, maintenance and configuration control in dedicated database of mission observation requirements coming from the various user communities: Copernicus services, national services, and other categories including scientific use, Landsat and other HR optical user community projects, international cooperation, commercial value-adding, etc. Support the Mission Manager in interfacing the relevant user communities for the above tasks;
• Support the transfer of mission plans into the operational mission planning systems of the payload data ground segments, defining the adequate interfaces;
• Verify the implementation of the pre-defined observation scenarios in the mission operations providing analysis and reporting on the effective acquired data;
• Managing the technical evolution of mission simulation tools and Sentinel-2 based new prototype processors: definition of requirements, follow on of implementation, perform testing and validation.
• Support the preparation and update of mission and operations documents including High Level Operation Plan, Mission Operations Plans, etc…) as well as presentations of related information;
• Support the review of technical requirements and additional inputs from Sentinel international partners;
• Support the set up of Sentinels Collaborative ground segment activities in performing specific technical analyses related to the activities of various partners, including in particular system budgets (estimation of volume of data to be accessed by international mirror sites, etc.);
• Support the publication of Sentinel mission news and technical information on the relevant web portal (Sentinel Online in particular) covering various mission-level information such as technical news, unavailability reports, observation plans, calibration plans, products availability, data quality, etc.;
• Support outreach activities related to Sentinel missions (e.g. in identifying relevant Sentinel images, contribution to web stories on Sentinel data related applications, etc.) and liaise with EO Communication officers;
• Deliver new presentations as requested for meetings;
• Participation to relevant meetings when requested, in particular in the preparation and execution of the S2 QWG and S2VT, as well as in User workshops
• Assist with the collection and analysis of information for the compilation of technical notes, plans, etc.;
• Contribute to the review of technical notes and documents;
• Contribute to the Sentinel mission operations reporting;
• Assist the organisation during Sentinel mission operations reviews, including the preparation and distribution of data packages and procedures;
• Support the management of Review Item Disposition (RIDs) during operations reviews;
• Support the review of data packages during operations reviews;
• Keeping up to date the lesson learnt files;
• Ensure that the ESA standards and processes (i.e. Quality Management System) are maintained

In return, we offer a friendly, supportive and professional environment that respects your work/life balance and ultimately contributes to the delivery of public services in Italy and around the world.

Successful Candidate

Your skills:

Activity required skills

The staff allocated by the Contractor to this task shall own the following key skills:

• Good knowledge of Sentinel-2, but also-1 and -3 missions;
• Knowledge of Copernicus Contributing Missions;
• Experience in Sentinel mission, in particular in Sentinel-2 operational phase;
• Good knowledge of Sentinel operational mission planning system;
• Experience in remote sensing application domains, in particular related to Sentinel-2, but also -1and -3 missions;
• Good technical and analytical skills;
• Good time management skills;
• Ability to work under pressure and without continuous supervision;
• Good knowledge of MS office tools and especially advanced skills in presentation tools (e.g. PowerPoint, Keynote).

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

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 Italy’s amazing team offers:

• Competitive Salary 
• Great career opportunities in the Space industry
• Competitive Salary
• Corporate Benefits Package
• Support provided to EU Nationals requiring relocation – Information available upon request
• 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.

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 60,000 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