Description

Reporting to the Head of the Mission Management and Ground Segment Department, you will be responsible for the management of Earth Observation (EO) missions during their exploitation phase (Phase E2 and beyond), for the procurement of third-party missions’ capacity and for the EO product quality of the missions.

Duties

Your tasks and responsibilities will include:

• managing the ESA EO missions, i.e. the Earth Explorer and Earth Watch missions in Phase E2; 
• managing the Copernicus missions handled by ESA, i.e. Sentinel missions in Phase E2; 
• ensuring the exploitation, operations and evolution of the above missions in line with the mission requirements and evolving user or service needs together with the ESA Ground Segment and Data Management Division and the Copernicus Ground Segment and Data Management Division;
• ensuring the overall EO product quality of the above missions, including product and processor performance and evolution, calibration and validation activities;
• managing the activities relating to the procurement of third-party mission capacities, including the ESA customer role with EO commercial missions, as part of the Copernicus Contributing Missions and the ESA Earthnet programme, and the ESA data access agreements with EO national and international missions;
• managing the activities relating to the ESA EO heritage mission data;
• elaborating, together with the ESA Ground Segment and Data Management Division and the Copernicus Ground Segment and Data Management Division, future scenarios for mission, ground segment and EO data management in view of the expanding EO data framework, data volumes and variety and user needs; 
• contributing to the further integration and increased efficiency of the Department in accordance with its objectives;
• supporting increased cooperation with the other departments of the Directorate, in particular efforts towards increased end-to-end mission coherency.

You will also be responsible for identifying, assessing, managing and reporting on the health and safety risks in your area of responsibility.

Technical competencies

Behavioural competencies

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

Education

A PhD or master’s degree in a natural science or in engineering is required for this post.

Additional requirements

The following competencies are considered assets:

• Extensive experience of project management in an international context;
• Ability to communicate and promote the achievements of Earth Observation in general and ESA missions in particular;
• Ability to promote performance and foster cooperation within and across teams in a matrix organisational context.

Furthermore, you should have:

• proven experience of leading, motivating and developing a team in a project environment;
• the ability to provide strategic direction to the individuals and teams within the Division and to relate team objectives to the overall, evolving organisational goals and context;
• the ability to drive performance and foster cooperation within and across teams throughout the organisation;
• demonstrated excellent leadership, relationship management and communication skills, both oral and written;
• a proven track record of representing the Agency’s interests to external interfaces;
• excellent cognitive, analytical, delegation, planning and organisational skills;
• the ability to anticipate problems, resolve complex issues and relate situations to their context;
• the ability to reach solution-oriented, pragmatic and timely decisions of a high standard and with integrity as well as to support others, such as team members, upper management and other stakeholders, in this process.

People management experience is an asset, as is international experience, i.e. outside your home country, as well as experience in diverse functional areas relevant to ESA activities.