Luxembourgish National Graduate Trainee in Country Capability Development

The Luxembourgish National Graduate Trainee in Country Capability Development role is part of the ESA National Graduate Trainee (NGT) Programme. The ESA National Graduate Trainee (NGT) Programmes offer recent Master’s graduates the opportunity to gain practical, hands-on experience at ESA across a range of space-related disciplines.

The programmes are essentially similar to ESA’s own Graduate Trainee Programme, notably in offering the same employment conditions. They however differ in one important respect: each NGT Programme is funded by an individual ESA Member State or Associate Member under a bilateral partnership agreement concluded with ESA. As a result, a representative of the sponsoring State participates in the selection process. In addition to assessing candidates against the requirements of the position, the selection may also include an evaluation of their background and knowledge of the space policies and related activities of the sponsoring State.

The role is based at ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands.

Our team and mission

The Country Capability and Development Division, based at ESA's centre in the Netherlands (ESTEC), is responsible for implementing integration measures for the New Member States (Estonia and Slovenia), the Associate States of Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia and the European Cooperating States of Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia and Malta. This is done in cooperation with Programme Directorates and the Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality.

In particular, the Division manages the Incentive schemes, the Plan for European Cooperating States schemes and Requesting Party Activities schemes which aim to develop and strengthen sustainable industrial and academic capabilities in the space domain in these countries, through technology development contracts targeting both upstream and downstream products and services. The activities to be funded are selected through specific open calls for activities on topics related to ESA's overall future programmes activities. The Division is also responsible for the implementation of training and education activities in these countries.

Field(s) of activity/research for the traineeship

As a Luxembourgish National Graduate Trainee, you will contribute to the preparation of calls for proposals and provide support for the tender evaluation process and the follow-up/monitoring of technology development activities for New Member States/Associate Members and European Cooperating States countries.

In particular, you will be tasked with supporting the LuxIMPULSE Programme Manager and for supporting the management of the LuxIMPULSE projects. LuxIMPUSE is a partnership managed by the Luxembourg Space Agency and implemented by ESA. The partnership is dedicated to research and development activities.

As a Luxembourgish National Graduate Trainee, you may also be asked to contribute to the assessment of proposals received, together with relevant ESA programme and technical experts, and to provide support to the senior engineers managing the schemes.

You may in addition be requested to:

• provide support to the LuxlMPULSE Programme Manager in terms of performance metrics analysis, database maintenance and presentation preparation;
• organise/support training courses, together with the relevant ESA staff;
• cooperate with auditors in preparing for specific audits for LuxlMPULSE;
• organise events with Luxembourg industry and other European stakeholders to encourage the networking of national players with European space firms.

Technical competencies

• Knowledge of relevant technical and functional domains
• Relevant experience gained during internships, project work and/or extracurricular or other activities
• General knowledge of the space sector and relevant activities
• Knowledge of ESA and its programmes and projects

Behavioural competencies

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

Education

You should have recently completed, or be in the final year of, your master’s degree in a scientific, technical or business discipline.

Additional requirements

• You should have good interpersonal and communication skills.
• You should be able to work in a multicultural environment, both independently and as part of a team.
• Previous experience of working in international teams will be considered an asset.

Important Information and Disclaimer

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.

Nationality and Languages

Applications can only be considered from nationals of Luxembourg or permanent residents of Luxembourg with the nationality of an ESA Member State, Associate Member or Cooperating State.

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.