ESS/Instrument Engineer

Package Description
Joining Serco Italy’s amazing team offers:

• Competitive Salary
• Great career opportunities in the Space industry
• Corporate Benefits Package
• Support provided to EU Nationals requiring relocation – Information available upon request
• Company events
• International environment

Job Introduction
Serco is a leading Space Services Provider with thousands of skilled resources that has supported over 50 space missions on behalf of more than 10 Space or Government agencies around the globe, including the ESA and NASA. Serco Italia S.p.A. is one of the top 50 World Space Manufacturing and Service companies with a long history of providing Earth Observation operations, maintenance and front-end services to the European Space Agency. The company also offers vast experience to a huge number of IT and space markets including: central governments, defence organisations, the aerospace industry and commercial companies.

We are currently seeking an experienced and dynamic ESS/Instrument Engineer in the frame of the PDGS Engineering Support Service. You will have the opportunity to support the Data Quality Manager, covering aspects related to Instrument Performance, Operational Processors (particularly L1) and Calibration (particularly offline calibration). It spans starting from phase E2.

Main Responsibilities
As a ESS/Instrument Engineer you will concentrate your activities on the following:

• Operational Processors support communication between all stakeholders in Phase E2 using collaborative tools.
• Reviews related to L1 processors and offline calibration processors.
• Planning and Preparation of documentation during the phase E2 data quality activities (including processor maintenance and evolution as well as product monitoring).
• Support for the testing and acceptance of Level 1. Testing is considered white-box testing, i.e., an understanding of the processing algorithms and detailed working of the processors shall be acquired.
• Review of documentation from various sources: ESA, Industry during the project phases dealing with sub-systems implementation and testing.
• Generation of technical notes whenever needed during the relevant project phases.
• Providing support to instrument anomaly investigations. This will specifically involve tracing anomalies from the instrument back to L1b data.
• Operations of the various supporting tools for the part relevant to the processing functionality.
• Support the investigation of anomaly mitigation either on instrument settings or calibration processors.
• Support to the updates of the Offline Calibration Processors and in particular the derivation and provision of updated instrument and CCDB settings.
• Interact with the Mission Post Launch Support and associated industry as well as the DISC.
• Participate in progress and planning meetings relevant to the tasks.
• Participation and support to the Mission Advisory Groups and Quality Working Groups upon request.
• Workshop planning, Support the integration of the processors within processing centre.
• Definition of integration and validation tests.
• Run of integration and validation tests procedures.
• Test results analysis.
• Test reporting.
• Support review of products Quality Control and Instruments Monitoring baselines.
• Support for processing algorithms definition and review.
• Support to products format definition review.
• Ad-hoc development of tools for the accomplishment of the PDGS testing and validation.

Successful Candidate Your skills:
The following skills and experience are mandatory:

• University master degree or equivalent qualification, preferably in Remote Sensing and Earth Observation.
• Good understanding of and background in geophysical sciences and/or specific instruments as LIDAR, Radiometer and MultiSpectral Imager.
• Experience in instrument development and on-ground testing.
• Experience in the development of instrument L1 ATBD.
• Experience in instrument and data monitoring.
• Experience in data quality control.
• Experience in operational processors development.
• Experience in calibration activities.
• Fluent English language (oral and written).
• Autonomous in writing technical notes, specifications and reports in English.
• You have good inter-personal skills and team spirit.

The following skills would be highly desirable:

• Good knowledge of the ESA Earth Explorers missions (and instruments) and processes related to their PDGS development.
• Programming skills in order to develop tools for the accomplishment of the engineering, testing and validation activities.
• A sound knowledge of containerization technologies and virtual environment.
• Knowledge of the ECSS standards and documentation and configuration control management techniques.
• He/she will be requested to travel on mission.