Telecom Product Assurance and Safety Manager

As a Telecom Product Assurance and Safety (PA&S) Manager, you will be assigned to the Connectivity and Secure Communications Product Assurance and Safety Office, Quality Department, Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality.

You will work as a Product Assurance and Safety Manager to support projects in the Connectivity and Secure Communications Directorate. You will report hierarchically to the Head of the CSC Product Assurance and Safety Office and functionally to the Project Managers of the projects you will be assigned to. Initially, you will be assigned to support two of the following projects: HydRON DS, OneSat Novacom I, HummingSat and QKDSat.

For the maintenance of professional standards, the implementation of the general ESA Product Assurance and Safety policy and contributions to corporate tasks (such as reviews, standardisation, alerts, lessons learned, etc.), you will report to the Head of the Quality Department through the Head of the CSC Product Assurance and Safety Office.

Description

Duties

Your specific responsibilities and duties will include:

• Defining or supporting the Agency’s partners in the definition and maintenance of the product assurance and safety (PA&S) requirement baselines in compliance with the relevant requirements in the statements of work, the CSC PA&S approach and the ESA PA&S policy. Projects may involve public-private partnerships between ESA and the private sector, which means that you must be able to engage with partners as required by ESA’s role.
• Reviewing contractors’ plans, specifications and effort proposed for the implementation of the project PA&S programme.
• Guiding and monitoring the implementation of PA&S requirements by contractors in order to assess performance/effectiveness, participating in design and safety reviews and directing the necessary preventive or corrective actions.
• Planning, coordinating and monitoring any PA&S support for the project team.
• Representing ESA in the Boards established for reviews (failure reviews, test reviews, etc.) and in addressing non-conformances/anomalies, etc.
• Guiding and monitoring the application and procurement of electrical, electronic and electromechanical (EEE) parts, materials and processes and controlling implementation of applicable requirements.
• Ensuring the implementation of the software PA requirements.
• Ensuring the preparation of design trade-offs, analyses and reports using reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS) data to support project decisions.
• Monitoring the manufacturing, integration and test activities with quality assurance audits, mandatory and key inspection points, test witnessing and configuration inspections.
• Defining the formal acceptance requirements and conducting the acceptance reviews of all deliverable items specified in the contracts.
• Reviewing contractors’ PA&S analyses and safety data packages, ensuring that they are available at the planned dates to support safety review schedules, in coordination with the safety authorities.
• Providing support for the tracking of the overall implementation of PA&S verification.
• Supervising the performance of contractor PA&S activities during launch, validation, operation and service, as relevant.

In performing these tasks, you will be supported by experts from the project team and the ESA Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality.

Technical competencies

• Knowledge of Product Assurance, Safety and Quality Management disciplines
• Experience in the management and monitoring of industrial activities, including participation in reviews
• Experience with the definition and application of product assurance and safety requirements baselines, tools and methods
• Experience in PA&S technical domains
• Experience with space and commercial quality standards as well as with their implementation

Behavioural competencies

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

Education

A master's degree in engineering subjects is required for this post.

Additional requirements

Significant experience as a PA&S Manager on projects involving cooperation with institutional partners, industry and/or telecom operators as well as the use of ECSS, other industrial and commercial standards and commercial off-the-shelf products, and, in general, on space telecommunications projects would be considered an important asset.

A minimum of 10 years of experience in product assurance and safety would be an advantage.

Important Information and Disclaimer

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.

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

Please note that 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, 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.