Our team and mission

The Quality and Product Assurance Management Division is responsible for:

• Providing Product Assurance support for ESA projects and R&D activities in close cooperation with the Product Assurance & Safety Offices;
• Quality Assurance, product surveillance (including audits) and Product Assurance support to product qualification and certification, software Product Assurance and RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, and Safety);
• Supporting Supply Chain Management in close cooperation with CIC-IP and developing and implementing of Product- and Quality Assurance methodologies, techniques, and tools;
• Coordinating European Test Centres accreditation and operating the ESA Alert System;
• Supporting the ESA's Quality Management Organisation; Managing ESA’s corporate Knowledge Management Team (including ESA Libraries).

Candidates interested are encouraged to visit the ESA website: http://www.esa.int  

Field(s) of activity for the internship

Topic of the internship: Quality in Reliability Availability Maintainability and Safety (RAMS)

The European Space Agency has undertaken in the past few years the development of the Return of Experience (REX) from in-orbit data capability.

The main objective of this initiative is to:

• Compare Reliability Predictions with in-service reliability to optimise designs of future ESA missions;
• Contribute to the minimisation of Space Debris, by providing support to the accurate computation of the probability of successful disposal enabling better-documented End-of-Life decisions.

To that end, the ESA RAMS section has developed a REX Digital Dashboard tool to collect and track the relevant in-orbit data. Other supporting tools from the section include:

• CFDA (Catalog of Failure Data Analysis);
• “SSYSTER2” in support of Technical RISK Assessments.

The objective of the internship is to support:

• The statistical processing of the collected in-orbit data, applying Data Analysis techniques, and potentially the use of Bayesian inference technique:
  
  • At component level, to create a database for the main active parts;
  • At sub-system and Satellite level.
• The integration of the REX Digital Dashboard Tool with the other tools: CFDA and SSYSTER2. For example, the addition of in-orbit failure modes (REX) in the CFDA catalog.

The preferred duration for this internship proposal is 6 months.

Behavioural competencies

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

For more information, please refer to ESA Core Behavioural Competencies guidebook

Education

You must be a university student, preferably studying at master’s level. In addition, you must be able to prove that you will be enrolled at your University for the entire duration of the internship.

Additional requirements

The working languages of the Agency are English and French. A good knowledge of one of these is required. Knowledge of another ESA Member State language is an asset.

During the interview, your motivation for applying to this role will be explored.

You must have knowledge in Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety, and in particular in statistical methods.

Knowledge in Space Systems and prior programming experience and some experience with web-development (HTML, CSS) and version control systems (git…) would be an asset.

You must have good interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to work in a multicultural environment, both independently and as part of a team.