ERO Payload & System Engineering Liaison Officer

Description

ERO Payload & System Engineering Liaison Officer in the NASA MSR ERO Team, Mars Exploration Group, Directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration Programmes, assigned as integrated support from the Systems Engineering Division, Systems Department, Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality with a resident assignment to NASA (Goddard Space Flight Center) for an initial period of two years. If selected for this position, following the period of residency at Goddard (US), you may be offered the possibility to cover the role of ERO AIT/V System Engineer.

The Earth Return Orbiter (ERO) is one of three flight mission elements of the Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign, conducted in collaboration with NASA. The Capture, Containment and Return System (CCRS) is a NASA CFI to the ERO project. The development of CCRS falls under the responsibility of NASA Goddard, with several critical deliverables received from JPL. CCRS is a very large and complex payload (mass > 600kg; cost > $500m) to be integrated within and flown on board ERO. Its purpose is central to the MSR campaign objective of acquiring the Mars orbiting samples and returning them safely to Earth. The timely availability of the CCRS payload, complying sufficiently with the ERO spacecraft interfaces, is extremely important to preserve the ERO launch date and avoid uncontrolled cost expenditure.

Duties

Reporting directly to the ERO Project Team Leader, you will act as ESA’s onsite representative within the CCRS development team at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, liaising with the CCRS engineering, operations and procurement teams and participating in any meetings as required. Your primary function will be to actively identify technical and schedule risks, issues and points for attention to be addressed with the CCRS team at Goddard and reported to the ERO Team. In particular, you will:

• by delegation of the ERO Project Team Leader, report to and coordinate regularly with the ERO Payload Engineer on tasks to be executed or items to be followed up, such as participation in technical interface meetings, facilitation of co-engineering activities, maintenance of an overview of the overall CCRS design and development status, including ongoing CCRS trade-off studies, tracking of CCRS budget and performance metrics, definition of the joint AIT/V programme, and support to interface requirement maintenance, control, flow-down and verification definition;
• by delegation of the ERO Project Team Leader, assist the Spacecraft Operations Manager as required with tasks such as monitoring of CCRS ground segment development, participation in CCRS ground segment reviews, and follow-up of CCRS operations concept discussions;
• actively identify technical risks that could impact the ERO design, interfaces, AIT/V, operations and schedule;
• in coordination with the ERO Scheduler, monitor the CCRS schedule, follow up with the CCRS engineering and procurement teams on schedule-critical items, actively monitor free-float variance and investigate root cause, and actively research risk elements;
• provide support to NASA reviews where your experience and technical knowledge can be brought to bear; in consultation with the ERO Payload Engineer, you will coordinate the provision of any required expert support from the ERO Project Team and TEC for this purpose;
• provide technical support to the ERO Planetary Protection Engineer;
• provide support to other project disciplines, including definition of subsystems, requirements verification and project control as appropriate, to maximise the benefit within the Project;
• participate in other Project Department tasks where your experience can be brought to bear;
• participate in periodic meetings with the parent Division, contributing to the transfer of technical knowledge and lessons learned across the Agency;
• regularly liaise with the parent Division for general technical knowledge-sharing and contributions and lessons learned on matters of significance to the Division.

The ERO Payload & System Engineering Liaison Officer is ERO’s most visible ambassador to NASA. You will take particular care to:
 

• maintain strong communication with the ERO Project Team;
• coordinate effectively with the ERO Project Team prior to engaging ESA in discussions and decisions with a direct bearing on ESA’s ability to meet technical and programmatic requirements;
• communicate information and decisions to NASA clearly with due consideration of objective analysis and technical justification;
• promote an effective working relationship between NASA and ESA by encouraging cooperation and collaboration within the teams and with the various project interfaces.

Technical competencies

Behavioural competencies

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

Education

A master's degree in engineering for this post is required.

Additional requirements

• You should demonstrate a proven ability to cooperate with international teams (industrial partners and governmental agencies), as well as good interpersonal and communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Experience in space exploration programs is an asset.

As specified by the ESA Export Control Policy and due to the nature of the work, you may undergo specific security screening of nationality and contact with countries under arms embargo and may be asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).