Product Assurance and Safety Manager

As Product Assurance and Safety (PA&S) Manager, you will be assigned to the Earth Observation Programmes (EOP) Product Assurance and Safety Office, Quality Department, Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality.

The EOP Product Assurance and Safety Office provides support to the missions and activities of the Directorate of Earth Observation for PA&S management and coordination.

Upon joining the EOP Product Assurance and Safety Office, you will take on the role of PA&S Manager for the Copernicus Sentinel-1 Next Generation project or another project in the Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes, and you will become part of the related Project Core Team. While reporting hierarchically to the Head of the EOP Product Assurance and Safety Office, you will report functionally to the relevant Project Manager of the Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes for the specific responsibilities and duties outlined below.

Description

Duties

Your tasks and responsibilities will include:

• Establishing and maintaining the PA&S requirements baseline in compliance with ESA policies.
• Ensuring the implementation of the PA&S requirements by industry and other supplying parties (e.g. instrument providers), supporting milestone reviews and participating in the process of verifying compliance with requirements.
• Monitoring the implementation of approved plans and specifications from industry and other supplying parties (e.g. instrument providers), ensuring that adequate resources are deployed for the implementation of the PA&S programme.
• Coordinating the technical aspects of relevant service support and acting as the primary point of contact between service functions and project teams.
• Planning, coordinating and monitoring the support provided by the assigned PA&S workforce.
• Participating in the boards for the disposition of deviations from the requirements baseline (CCB), and of changes to the agreed design.
• Representing ESA in the boards established for the disposition of non-conformances and anomalies, and the definition and monitoring of relevant corrective and preventive actions (NRB), for failure investigations, and for project technical reviews (e.g. MRR, TRR, PTR or TRB).
• Ensuring the implementation of the reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS) programme and the software assurance programme, including their support for design trade-off decisions and verification of requirements.
• Monitoring the selection, procurement and use of electrical, electronic and electromechanical (EEE) components, and materials, mechanical parts and processes (MMPP).
• Ensuring the monitoring of the manufacturing, assembly, integration and test activities through mandatory and key inspection points, test witnessing, quality assurance checks, etc.
• Conducting the acceptance reviews of all contractually deliverable items.
• Reviewing the safety data packages from industry and other supplying parties (e.g. instrument providers) as needed, ensuring that they are made available on time to the corresponding safety authorities, and supporting safety reviews and other key events for ground and launch safety.
• Supervising PA&S activities during the launch campaign.
• Performing any other PA&S tasks necessary to ensure a safe and successful mission.

In carrying out these tasks, you will receive support from experts from the ESA Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality.

In addition to your project responsibilities, you will support the Head of the EOP Product Assurance and Safety Office for improvement activities and cross-project coordination.

Technical competencies

• Experience in PA&S management for space projects
• Knowledge of the individual PA&S disciplines, including RAMS, EEE components, MMPP and software PA
• Experience in the management and monitoring of industrial activities, including participation in audits and reviews
• Knowledge of space system engineering

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 field is required for this position, together with at least six years of relevant professional experience. Alternatively, candidates with a bachelor’s degree and an additional four years of relevant professional experience may be considered.

Additional requirements

• Previous experience of working as a PA Manager/Engineer on Earth observation projects and/or working with partners such as other space agencies, research institutes and universities would be considered an asset.
• The ability to coordinate and motivate a cross-functional team of experts without direct reporting lines.
• The ability to manage complex decision-making processes, especially under pressure and in the context of conflicting positions or priorities.
• Strong aptitude for reaching pragmatic, solution-oriented and fact-based decisions that maintain appropriate standards of quality.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal.

Important information

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.

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, 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.