Altimetry Data Quality Engineer
Frascati, IT
European Space Agency - ESA
The European Space Agency portal features the latest news in space exploration, human spaceflight, launchers, telecommunications, navigation, monitoring and space science.
Location
ESRIN, Frascati, Italy
Description
Altimetry Data Quality Engineer in the Sensor Performance, Products and Algorithms Section, ESA Earth Observation Mission Management and Product Quality Division, Mission Management and Ground Segment Department, Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes.
You will contribute to the overall quality of the sensor data products provided by ESA in the altimetry domain, with an initial emphasis on the cryosphere and hydrology products of the Sentinel-3 and CRISTAL altimetry missions.
You will also provide product quality and Cal/Val support for the other ESA Earth Observation (EO) missions and data, specifically in relation to challenges in calibration, validation, data processing and product evolutions.
You will report to the Head of the Sensor Performance, Products and Algorithms Section.
Duties
Your tasks and responsibilities will include:
- supporting the quality, calibration and validation activities related to Sentinel-3 and CRISTAL altimetry missions, including the radar altimetry payload with a specific focus on the hydrology (rivers and lakes) and cryosphere (sea ice and land ice) domains;
- continuously assessing evolving user requirements regarding current and future altimetry missions (such as CryoSat and S3-NG-T) in terms of data processing, data quality, calibration and validation, exploring potential synergies with other EO missions;
- fostering a community effort, bringing together multi-disciplinary, multi-sensory remote-sensing experts, scientists and end-users, to ensure that the most up-to-date EO retrieval techniques are integrated into open science tools and used for the generation of synergetic products;
- contributing to multi-agency cooperation in the domain of polar and hydrology altimetry (such as with EUMETSAT, NASA and CNES);
- managing R&D activities and ensuring that the outcomes are properly injected into an operational framework to support the preparation of future missions under ESA’s responsibility, especially in the cryosphere and hydrology domains;
- proposing innovation in the area of EO product algorithm development, calibration and validation through a collaborative framework with remote-sensing scientists in order to introduce more flexibility in ESA services to EO end-users;
- fostering ESA’s strategy and innovation in terms of algorithms, calibration, validation and product evolution, including the development and operation of related fiducial reference measurements (FRMs);
- managing the industrial contracts related to EO sensor data quality, algorithm evolution and Cal/Val activities with an initial focus on altimetry missions;
- supporting the Mission Managers in communication activities, contributing to the preparation of presentations and reports. Publishing papers in peer-reviewed journals is strongly encouraged.
Technical competencies
Knowledge of the scientific discipline, particularly in altimetry, data processing and calibration/validationState-of-the-art knowledge in your area of responsibility at the required levelKnowledge of the international altimetry communityExperience in managing scientific or technical teams, preferably in an international contextKnowledge of the cryosphere and/or hydrology domains would be a strong assetKnowledge of open source and open scienceSound knowledge of ESA Earth Observation programmes, the Copernicus programme and the international EO contextBehavioural competencies
Result Orientation
Operational Efficiency
Fostering Cooperation
Relationship Management
Continuous Improvement
Forward Thinking
Education
A PhD or master’s degree in physics, engineering or Earth sciences with a particular emphasis on data processing algorithms, calibration and validation applied to EO missions is required for this post.
Additional requirements
The following would be considered an asset:
- At least three years of relevant professional experience
You should also have:
- a high level of motivation and dedication, with the ability to take ownership and act proactively.
- a proven ability to work effectively within a team and across teams in an international environment.
- strong problem-solving skills to deal with day-to-day operational challenges, together with demonstrated planning and organisational skills.
- strong result orientation with the ability to set priorities and present practical solutions both orally and in writing.
- effective negotiation skills.
- flexibility and the capacity to work on different topics.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness
ESA is an equal opportunity employer, committed to achieving diversity within the workforce and creating an inclusive working environment. We therefore welcome applications from all qualified candidates irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, beliefs, age, disability or other characteristics. Applications from women are encouraged.
At the Agency we value diversity, and we welcome people with disabilities. Whenever possible, we seek to accommodate individuals with disabilities by providing the necessary support at the workplace. The Human Resources Department can also provide assistance during the recruitment process. If you would like to discuss this further, please contact us via email at contact.human.resources@esa.int.
Important Information and Disclaimer
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.
During the recruitment process, the Agency may request applicants to undergo selection tests. Additionally, successful candidates will need to undergo basic screening before appointment, which will be conducted by an external background screening service, in compliance with the European Space Agency's security procedures.
Note that ESA is in the process of transitioning to a Matrix setup, which could lead to organisational changes affecting this position.
The information published on ESA’s careers website regarding working conditions is correct at the time of publication. It is not intended to be exhaustive and may not address all questions you would have.
Nationality and Languages
Please note that applications can only be considered from nationals of one of the following States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
According to the ESA Convention, the recruitment of staff must take into account an adequate distribution of posts among nationals of the ESA Member States*. When short-listing for an interview, priority will first be given to internal candidates and secondly to external candidates from under-represented Member States*.
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.
*Member States, Associate Members or Cooperating States.
* Salary range is an estimate based on our AI, ML, Data Science Salary Index 💰
Tags: Data quality Engineering Industrial Open Source PhD Physics R Radar R&D Security
More jobs like this
Explore more AI, ML, Data Science career opportunities
Find even more open roles in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Natural Language Processing (NLP), Computer Vision (CV), Data Engineering, Data Analytics, Big Data, and Data Science in general - ordered by popularity of job title or skills, toolset and products used - below.
- Open Data Science Manager jobs
- Open Research Scientist jobs
- Open Data Engineer II jobs
- Open Principal Data Scientist jobs
- Open Business Data Analyst jobs
- Open BI Analyst jobs
- Open Sr Data Engineer jobs
- Open Data Scientist II jobs
- Open Business Intelligence Engineer jobs
- Open Data Science Intern jobs
- Open Sr. Data Scientist jobs
- Open Senior Business Intelligence Analyst jobs
- Open Software Engineer, Machine Learning jobs
- Open Lead Data Analyst jobs
- Open Azure Data Engineer jobs
- Open Junior Data Scientist jobs
- Open MLOps Engineer jobs
- Open Data Analytics Engineer jobs
- Open Manager, Data Engineering jobs
- Open Marketing Data Analyst jobs
- Open Data Engineer III jobs
- Open Junior Data Engineer jobs
- Open Data Engineering Manager jobs
- Open Data Analyst II jobs
- Open ETL Developer jobs
- Open GCP-related jobs
- Open Data management-related jobs
- Open Privacy-related jobs
- Open Excel-related jobs
- Open ML models-related jobs
- Open Data pipelines-related jobs
- Open APIs-related jobs
- Open PhD-related jobs
- Open PyTorch-related jobs
- Open LLMs-related jobs
- Open Finance-related jobs
- Open Data visualization-related jobs
- Open TensorFlow-related jobs
- Open Consulting-related jobs
- Open Deep Learning-related jobs
- Open Business Intelligence-related jobs
- Open Generative AI-related jobs
- Open CI/CD-related jobs
- Open NLP-related jobs
- Open Data governance-related jobs
- Open DevOps-related jobs
- Open Kubernetes-related jobs
- Open Git-related jobs
- Open Hadoop-related jobs
- Open Docker-related jobs