ESA Graduate Trainee in Artificial Intelligence Engineering for Verification Data

This opportunity is for an ESA Graduate Trainee in Artificial Intelligence Engineering for Verification Data within the Directorate of Navigation at the European Space Agency (ESA).

Our team and mission

You will join the Galileo Programme Office, which is part of the Galileo and European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) Programme Department within the Directorate of Navigation at the European Space Agency. You will work in the System Assembly, Integration, and Verification (SAIV) team, in close cooperation with engineering, performance, and test teams involved in the Galileo Second Generation programme.

Overall goal

The goal of the System Assembly, Integration, and Verification (SAIV) team is to ensure that the current and next generation of the Galileo system operates correctly, safely, and reliably. This includes confirming that all system elements work together as intended, that system performance meets mission requirements, and that the evolution of the system does not disrupt existing services.

Team mission

The team is responsible for qualifying the Galileo system through a step-by-step and flexible development approach. This includes the ground control and mission infrastructure, as well as the new Galileo Second Generation satellites. The qualification process covers system architecture improvements and service evolution compared to the first-generation Galileo system.

Main activities

The main responsibilities of the System Assembly, Integration, and Verification (SAIV) team include:

• Leading system compatibility test campaigns that verify the correct interaction between the satellite, the Galileo ground infrastructure, and user receivers. These tests confirm full end-to-end system functionality before satellite launch.
• Leading radio frequency compatibility tests to ensure that transmitted and received signals behave correctly and do not interfere with system performance.
• Performing compatibility testing of the Galileo ground segment at both interface level and functional level.
• Conducting overall system performance testing to verify that the system meets its expected accuracy, availability, and reliability targets.
• Conducting in-orbit test campaigns after satellite launch to confirm that all satellite subsystems function correctly in the space environment.
• Managing in-orbit validation campaigns to verify and validate mission-level performance requirements once the satellites are fully operational in orbit.

Role within the programme

The System Assembly, Integration, and Verification team (SAIV) plays a central role in protecting service continuity and overall system performance. It works closely with engineering, security, deployment, and performance teams to ensure that system upgrades and new capabilities are introduced without degrading existing Galileo services.

Field(s) of activity/research for the traineeship

You will contribute to an exploratory research and development activity focused on the use of large language models, a type of artificial intelligence designed to understand and generate structured text, in support of engineering and verification activities for space missions.

Your main activities will include:

• Exploring how artificial intelligence can support the automated creation, update and consistency checking of engineering traceability data and verification matrices.
• Investigating methods to detect gaps, inconsistencies or missing links in engineering documentation using artificial intelligence.
• Supporting the generation of structured document outlines related to assembly, integration and verification activities, based on existing engineering data.
• Exploring the use of artificial intelligence to assist testing activities, in particular by analysing test logs, interface data and operational outputs, without replacing engineering judgement.
• Working with existing internal artificial intelligence platforms and collaborating with other teams working on similar topics at system and segment level.

Through this traineeship, you will gain hands-on experience in applying artificial intelligence to real engineering problems, understand system engineering and verification processes in a space operations context, and develop skills in research, prototyping and cross-team collaboration.

Technical competencies

• Knowledge of relevant technical/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/projects

Behavioural competencies

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

Education

You should have just completed, or be in the final year of your master’s degree in one of the following fields:

• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Data Science
• Software Engineering
• Systems Engineering
• A related engineering or scientific discipline

Additional requirements

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

You should also have:

• Strong interest in artificial intelligence and its application to complex engineering systems
• Programming skills, preferably in Python or a similar language
• Ability and motivation to work independently on exploratory research topics
• Interest in system engineering, verification and engineering documentation
• Good communication skills and ability to work in an international team
• Willingness to collaborate across teams and to explore innovative, non-standard solutions

Nationality and Languages

Please note that applications can only be 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, and the United Kingdom. Nationals from Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia as Associate Member States, or Canada as a Cooperating State, can apply as well as those from Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Malta as European Cooperating States (ECS).

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.