Cost Estimating Engineer

Telespazio; Noordwijk; Hybrid; EUR 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working scheme

Health insurance

Pension plan

Coursera membership

Travel allowance

Relocation package

30 days annual leave

Job summary

Telespazio Belgium is seeking a highly skilled Cost Estimating Engineer to join the team at ESTEC in the Netherlands as a contractor for Telespazio Belgium. The role requires independent cost estimation across various cost categories and provides an opportunity to influence ongoing European Space Agency programs.

You will work within a hybrid framework (3 days in the office, 2 days remote in the Netherlands) while relocating to the Netherlands is required.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Physics, Engineering or Computer Science.
• Experience with ECOS (ESA Costing Software), preferably Version 6.
• Strong knowledge of Space Systems Cost and cost estimation methods.

Responsibilities

• Provide independent cost estimates, typically covering Industrial Technical and Programmatic Risk Margin, Launch cost, ESA Internal cost and related margins.
• Develop and maintain cost estimate templates for Industry and support tender evaluations and negotiations.
• Support analyses of cost estimates prepared by Industry in the role of expert.
• Develop and maintain the cost databases and tools required for cost estimating activities.
• Contribute to data science tasks: gather cost data, perform exploratory analysis, and build predictive cost models and dashboards.
• Promote cost estimating practices across the Agency and its partners.

Skills

Cost estimation

Data analysis

Cost engineering

Education

Master’s degree in Physics/Engineering/Computer Science

Tools

ECOS (ESA Costing Software)

Job description

Telespazio Belgium can count on more than 45 years of experience in the field of Space Operations Service & Engineering activities.

We provide a significant contribution to the most major Space programs of the European Space Agency, EUSPA and other Telespazio Groups. Our core business is to work on the ground to build bridges into space, contributing to the success of ambitious missions.

The European Space Agency is our biggest client and we provide highly qualified employees to many sites of ESA but mainly for ESTEC in the Netherlands, and we provide a permanent contract with great benefits, a good salary, a relocation package along with genuine support to our employees.

Telespazio Belgium has an on‑site service at ESTEC in the Netherlands, and we are looking for a highly skilled Cost Estimating Engineer to work there.

Candidates must be eligible for a security personal clearance from an EU Member State national security administration

What is expected from you:

Provide independent cost estimates, typically covering:

• Industrial Technical and Programmatic Risk Margin
• Launch cost.
• ESA Internal cost.
• ESA Technical and Programmatic Risk Margin.
• Provide cost estimate templates for Industry, to be requested as part of the study deliverables at appropriate milestones.
• Support the analyses of cost estimates prepared by Industry in the role of expert.
• Provide ad‑hoc analysis in support to Tender Evaluations and Negotiations.
• Support studies (including those in the CDF), projects and project reviews (Resource Assessments, Independent Project Reviews, other) with the section's cost estimate tools [RD04], databases and benchmarks, and provide them with independent cost estimates as needed.
• Develop and maintain the cost databases and tools required for above.
• Contribute to the promotion of cost estimating and cost engineering across the Agency and its partners.
• Support the capture and dissemination of knowledge and lessons learned on cost estimating across the Agency.

Cost Data Science Engineering

• Contribute to the gathering and organising of cost data and related technical and programmatic data from various projects and proposals and transforming these into a usable format ensuring data quality, consistency, and availability.
• Support exploratory data analysis to understand the data and identify patterns, trends and anomalies, gaining insights and forming hypotheses.
• Participate to the build of predictive cost models selecting appropriate algorithms, training models on historical data, and validating their performance.
• Contribute to the creation of visual representations of data, such as charts, graphs, and dashboards, to make the data more understandable for communicating insights to stakeholders.
• Contribute to technology development and work plans for ESA's technology programmes related to data science.
• Contribute to the capture of knowledge related to the development and use of information factories and support its dissemination.

What you offer:

• Master’s degree or equivalent qualification in in Physics, Engineering or Computer Science.
• Proven experience using ECOS (ESA Costing Software), preferably Version 6.
• Understanding, knowledge and experience of Space Systems Cost.
• Knowledge of and experience in cost estimates.

What we offer:

• 30 days of paid annual leave, plus the days ESTEC is closed including public holidays (~12 days) based on a 40-hour working week;
• Hybrid working scheme (3 days in the office and 2 days remote in the Netherlands)
• Flexible working hours; you are in charge of your own agenda respecting core working hours
• Fully paid collective extensive health insurance scheme;
• A good pension scheme with no personal contribution;
• A career development (Coursera membership + training budget);
• Travel allowance;
• Extensive relocation package

Where:

You will be working within ESTEC, the European Space Agency’s offices in the Netherlands as a contractor for Telespazio Belgium. We don’t expect the employees to be on‑site full time however you will still have to relocate to the Netherlands for this position.

Check out the ESTEC site here: esa.int/About_Us/ESTEC

Please note that interviews will be held via Teams.

When

Deadline to apply: 03/09/2026