IRIS² Lead Ground Segment Service Engineer

As IRIS² Lead Ground Segment Service Engineer, you will work as a Secure Connectivity Ground Segment Service Engineer in the Secure Connectivity Ground Segment & Operations Office (CSC-IG), within the Secure Connectivity Programme Department (CSC-I) in the Directorate of Connectivity and Secure Communications.

• Location: ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands.
• Workplace: Noordwijk, NL.
• Type of appointment: 4 years, extendable to indefinite.
• Grade band: A2 - A4; if the selected candidate has less than four years of relevant professional experience following completion of the master’s degree, the position may be filled at A1 level.

Description

The ESA Programme Related to EU Secure Connectivity, hereinafter referred to as “Secure Connectivity”, also IRIS², is intended to support the effective development and validation of the EU Secure Connectivity governmental infrastructure and the services provided by it, as well as the validation and demonstration of services based on the commercial infrastructure developed by the contractor(s) delivering the EU Secure Connectivity governmental infrastructure.

Reporting to the Head of the Secure Connectivity Ground Segment & Operations Office, you will be responsible for supervising all ground segment service engineering tasks related to the effective design and development of the infrastructure providing services to the end users, operated by the IRIS² service management center, GOVSATCOM Hub and commercial operators.

Duties

Your tasks and responsibilities will include:

• supervising the end-to-end technical requirements lifecycle for the IRIS² service component of the ground segment—including OSS and BSS—covering functional, performance, operational, and security requirements, as well as decomposition to lower levels and the definition of associated interfaces;
• coordinating with domain teams, such as operations, security, and service management (ITIL), to ensure consistent requirements, aligned processes, and coherent operational workflows across the service infrastructure of the ground segment;
• preparing for, contributing to, and supporting project reviews at ground-segment level, ensuring technical consistency, completeness of inputs, and alignment with applicable standards and milestone objectives;
• supervising the implementation of the service-infrastructure activities, ensuring that delivered components meet defined requirements, interface specifications, and verification and validation plans;
• liaising with the system office to ensure correct implementation, integration, and validation of the interfaces between the system, the service component of the ground segment and the external interfaces (GOVSATCOM Hub, commercial operator), including support to interface control activities and cross-segment coordination;
• supporting the alignment of OSS/BSS workflows with ITIL processes, including incident, problem, change, and configuration management, to ensure operational readiness and smooth service transition;
• monitoring relevant schedules and delivery progress, identifying risks and issues affecting the service infrastructure of the ground segment, conducting technical impact assessments, and proposing mitigation actions;
• monitoring and controlling changes and deviations/anomalies related to the service component of the ground-segment, ensuring change requests are analysed for technical impact, documented properly, and implemented in a controlled and traceable manner;
• supporting integration activities involving 5G Core-related architectures, including the assessment of service-based interfaces, exposure mechanisms, and operational workflows where applicable to the IRIS² service infrastructure;
• supporting the service and exploitation team at the European Commission managing the overall service lifecycle management (following ITIL).

Technical competencies

• Strong capability in supervising the full lifecycle of technical requirements for a service infrastructure, covering functional, performance, operational, and security aspects, as well as their decomposition into lower-level requirements and associated interfaces.
• Proven experience in coordinating cross-domain technical activities, ensuring effective alignment with operations, security, system engineering and other relevant teams to maintain coherence across all requirements and interfaces.
• Demonstrated experience in service management frameworks (eg. ITIL, TMF).
• Expertise in supervising the implementation of service-infrastructure activities, ensuring compliance with specifications, tracking integration status, and validating functional performance throughout the development lifecycle.
• Solid experience in tracking, evaluating, and controlling changes, ensuring that all modifications are assessed for technical impact, properly documented, and implemented in a controlled and traceable manner.
• Proven experience in the development and integration of large scale software systems.

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

• strong problem-solving skills to deal with day-to-day operational challenges, together with demonstrated planning and organisational skills;
• strong results orientation with the ability to set priorities and present practical solutions both orally and in writing;
• the ability to manage challenging situations proactively and constructively and to be customer focused;
• direct experience of working with a commercial telecommunications company and operator will be a distinct advantage;
• experience in public-private partnership projects would be an asset;
• public speaking experience and the ability to conceptualise complex ideas would be beneficial;
• experience working in projects with a security dimension would be beneficial.

Important information

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 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.

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.