Intern in the Galileo and EGNOS Programme Department - Resilient Navigation Systems

European Space Agency; Nederland; Hybrid; EUR 11,000 - 18,000; Full time

Job summary

European Space Agency's Galileo and EGNOS Programme Department in Noordwijk, Netherlands, invites a university student to join the Resilient Navigation Systems team as an intern. You will explore how future positioning, navigation and timing can become more autonomous by leveraging space-based capabilities and reducing reliance on ground infrastructure.

This role emphasizes security awareness, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and hands-on analysis.

Qualifications

• Must be a university student in the final or penultimate year of a Master's program.
• Must be enrolled at the university for the entire duration of the internship.
• Good knowledge of English or French is required; knowledge of another ESA Member State language is an asset.

Responsibilities

• Investigate architectures to improve resilience by leveraging the space segment and reducing ground dependence.
• Assess functions currently performed by the ground segment and whether they can move into space or be supported by space-based data exchange.
• Investigate inter-satellite links, distributed processing, orbital regimes, and how a common time/reference frame could be maintained.
• Identify missing elements to achieve greater autonomy and resilience, including potential new technologies or architectural changes.
• Develop, as a final objective, a roadmap toward a more autonomous and resilient space-based PNT system.

Skills

English proficiency

Master's student

Education

Master's student in a relevant field

Job description

Intern in the Galileo and EGNOS Programme Department - Resilient Navigation Systems

Noordwijk, NL

Our team and mission

You will be joining the system security unit of the Galileo programme, which forms part of the Directorate of Resilience, Navigation and Connectivity. Our team is responsible for managing security activities throughout the programme, addressing both civil and governmental services to maintain robust end-to-end security standards.
We facilitate the definition of mission requirements and their subsequent evolution, integrating these into the system design while considering both performance and security. Furthermore, our unit assists in prototyping user segment receivers and system validation tools, enabling us to verify system capabilities and performance levels in advance and ensure compliance with mission, system and security specifications.

Your internship will look at how future positioning, navigation and timing systems could become more resilient by making better use of the space segment and reducing their dependence on ground infrastructure.

Today, the generation and maintenance of high-accuracy navigation information rely heavily on ground infrastructure. Precise satellite orbits and clocks are determined and monitored from the ground, while information such as Earth orientation parameters is also generated through ground-based processing and observations. This creates a strong dependency between the space and ground segments and can represent a vulnerability to the resilience of the overall service. A disruption or loss of access to critical ground infrastructure could affect the ability to maintain accurate positioning, navigation and timing services.

At the same time, a number of new space-based capabilities are becoming available. Galileo provides a global navigation infrastructure, while new concepts involving low Earth orbit satellites, distributed navigation payloads and missions such as Genesis could provide additional measurements, precise timing and orbit determination capabilities. The question is whether these different capabilities could be brought together as a system of systems, with the space segment itself providing a much larger part of the information currently generated on the ground.

As an intern, you will have the following tasks:

• investigating what such an architecture could look like and, more importantly, what would be needed to make it work and improve the resilience of the overall system;
• looking firstly at the functions currently performed by the ground segment and assessing which of them could potentially be moved into space or supported by information exchanged between space-based assets, including orbit and clock determination, time and frequency synchronisation, Earth orientation information, navigation data generation and integrity monitoring;
• investigating then how different space assets could work together, including the measurements available from different types of satellites, the information that would need to be exchanged, possible inter-satellite links, distributed processing, the use of different orbital regimes, and how a common time and reference frame could be maintained across the system;
• identifying, as a key part of the internship, what is still missing to make the system sufficiently autonomous and resilient, including assessing gaps that may require new technologies, additional measurements or a different system architecture, and evaluating their impact on the ability of the system to continue providing positioning, navigation and timing services when parts of the ground infrastructure are unavailable or degraded;
• developing, as final objective, a possible roadmap towards a more autonomous and resilient space-based positioning, navigation and timing system, proposing how existing and future capabilities could complement each other, identifying the main technical and architectural challenges, and determining which developments would be needed to move from today's predominantly ground-supported architecture towards a system in which the space segment can increasingly determine, maintain and distribute its own navigation and timing information, even in the presence of disruptions to the ground segment.

Result Orientation
Operational Efficiency
Fostering Cooperation
Relationship Management
Continuous Improvement
Forward Thinking

You must be a university student, preferably in your final or second-to-last year of university course at Master's level. In addition, you must be able to prove that you will be enrolled at your university for the entire duration of the internship.

Additional requirements

The working languages of the Agency are English and French. A good knowledge of one of these is required. Knowledge of another ESA Member State language is an asset.

During the interview, your motivation for applying to this role will be explored.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness
ESA is an equal opportunity employer, committed to achieving diversity within the workforce and creating an inclusive working environment. We therefore welcome applications from all qualified candidates irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious beliefs, age, disability or other characteristics.

At the Agency we value diversity, and we welcome people with disabilities. Whenever possible, we seek to accommodate individuals with disabilities by providing the necessary support at the workplace. The Human Resources Department can also provide assistance during the recruitment process. If you would like to discuss this further, please contact us via email at [e-mail] .

Important Information and Disclaimer
During the recruitment process, the Agency may request applicants to undergo selection tests.

Applicants must be eligible to access information, technology, and hardware which is subject to European or US export control and sanctions regulations.

The information published on ESA’s careers website regarding internship conditions is correct at the time of publication. It is not intended to be exhaustive and may not address all questions you would have.

Nationality

Please note that applications are only considered from nationals of one of the following States: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.