Phoenix Study Manager

ESA; Noordwijk; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

ESA is seeking a Phoenix Mission Study Manager to lead the Phase B1/B2 activities at ESTEC in Noordwijk. The role involves coordinating system engineers, security, procurement, and operations to ensure coherent study outputs and timely decision gates.

You will interface with Member States, industry, and potential operators, guiding the study through to the implementation phase while maintaining adherence to ECSS and safety standards.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in engineering plus four years of relevant experience.
• Alternatively, a bachelor’s degree with an additional four years of relevant experience.

Responsibilities

• Plan, coordinate, and execute Phoenix Phase B1/B2 study activities with timely delivery.
• Coordinate multidisciplinary inputs across engineering, safety, procurement, and operations.
• Prepare procurement documentation and support evaluations and negotiations.

Skills

Project management

Systems engineering

ECSS knowledge

Procurement coordination

Risk management

Stakeholder management

Education

Master's degree in engineering

Bachelor's degree +4 years experience

Job description

Phoenix Mission Study Manager for the Phoenix Phase B1/B2 Project within the Resilience Initiative Implementation Management Office (RNC-RI), Directorate of Resilience, Navigation and Connectivity.

The Phoenix Phase B1/B2 activities are intended to consolidate the mission and system requirements, concept of operations, technical architecture and preliminary design, and to establish the technical and programmatic baseline needed for decisions on the subsequent implementation phase.

• Workplace: Noordwijk, NL
• Location: ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands
• Type of Appointment: 4 years, extendable to indefinite

Description

Reporting to the Head of the Resilience Initiative Implementation Management Office, you will be responsible for planning, coordinating and executing the Phoenix Phase B1/B2 study activities and for ensuring the technical coherence, quality and timely delivery of all study outputs. You will act as the principal ESA interface with the industrial consortium for the study and will functionally coordinate contributions from system engineering, telecommunications, security, ground segment, operations, product assurance and safety, procurement and project control.

You will work closely with the Lead System Manager, Product Assurance and Safety Manager, Procurement Officer, Directorate project control staff and specialist engineers from the Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality and the Directorate of Operations. You will also interface with participating Member States, institutional stakeholders, industry and prospective users or operators. The role involves the functional coordination of a multidisciplinary team but does not entail line management responsibilities.

Duties

Your tasks and responsibilities will include:

• planning and managing the Phoenix Phase B1/B2 industrial and internal study activities through the agreed reviews and decision gates;
• establishing and maintaining the integrated study plan, including the scope, deliverables, milestones, interfaces, resources, schedule, cost and risk baseline;
• coordinating the consolidation of mission objectives, stakeholder and user needs, mission requirements and derived system requirements, ensuring appropriate traceability;
• leading the assessment and maturation of reference mission scenarios, concepts of operations, system architectures, design drivers, trade-offs, performance indicators, system budgets and internal and external interfaces;
• ensuring the end-to-end technical coherence of the proposed system across its space, ground, user, service, operations and security elements;
• preparing the technical elements of procurement documentation for the industrial study activities and supporting proposal evaluations and negotiations in close cooperation with the Procurement Officer;
• monitoring industrial technical performance and ensuring the completeness, quality and timely delivery of the contractual study outputs;
• leading the preparation and conduct of mission- and system-level study reviews, ensuring the timely closure of actions and confirming readiness for the subsequent phase;
• coordinating the tailoring and application of relevant ECSS, ESA, international and industry standards, including product assurance and safety, security and space sustainability requirements;
• monitoring the overall study schedule, cost and risks, identifying problem areas and ensuring that appropriate mitigation measures are implemented;
• identifying and coordinating the specialist engineering support required from the Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality and the Directorate of Operations;
• maintaining effective interfaces with participating Member States, institutional stakeholders, industry and prospective customers or operators, and providing regular progress reporting;
• preparing the technical and programmatic documentation required to support decisions on the implementation phase and ensuring an orderly handover of the approved baseline;
• supporting other RNC-RI activities within your field of competence, as required.

Technical competencies

• Experience in early-phase telecommunications mission and system studies, preferably covering Phase A, B1 and/or B2
• Multi-disciplinary knowledge of end-to-end satellite communication systems, including space, ground, user, service, operations and security elements
• Experience in requirements engineering, concept-of-operations definition, system architecture, trade-off analysis and management of system budgets and interfaces
• Experience in initiating and managing industrial studies, including technical procurement documentation, negotiations, contract monitoring and technical reviews
• Knowledge of project planning, industrial cost and schedule control, risk management and management of technical deliverables
• Knowledge of ECSS, product assurance and safety, security and space sustainability processes applicable to preparatory project phases

Behavioural competencies

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

Education and professional experience

A master’s degree in a relevant engineering discipline is required for this post, together with four years of relevant professional experience. Alternatively, candidates with a bachelor’s degree, complemented by an additional four years of relevant professional experience, may be considered.

Additional requirements

• experience in managing or technically coordinating complex industrial mission or system studies;
• the ability to coordinate multidisciplinary teams without hierarchical authority and to work effectively with Member States, institutional stakeholders and industry.

The following will be considered assets:

• experience in telecommunications or secure connectivity missions at system level;
• direct experience of working with a commercial telecommunications prime contractor and/or operator;
• experience with ESA procurement processes, including statements of work, tender evaluations, negotiations and contract follow-up.

Experience in Phase A, B1 and/or B2 activities and in preparing a mission or system for an implementation decision is highly desirable.

Experience in later implementation phases may be considered an advantage where it supports sound preparatory-phase decisions.

Important Information and Disclaimer

In principle, recruitment will be within the advertised grade band (A2-A4). However, if the selected candidate has less than four years of relevant professional experience following the completion of the master’s degree, the position may be filled at A1 level.

Applicants must be eligible to access information, technology, and hardware which is subject to European or US export control and sanctions regulations and eligible to acquire the security clearance by their national security administrations.

Successful candidates will need to undergo basic screening before appointment, which will be conducted by an external background screening service, in compliance with the European Space Agency's security procedures.

Note that ESA is in the process of transitioning to a Matrix setup, which could lead to organisational changes affecting this position.

Nationality and Languages

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

According to the ESA Convention, staff shall be recruited on the basis of their qualifications, taking into account an adequate distribution of posts among nationals of the Member States.

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