Our team and mission

The Flight Software Systems Section is a group of around 20 highly motivated experts in embedded software for space systems. We provide technical support for the development and functional verification and validation of the on-board software for all missions and satellites at ESA, e.g. space science, human and robotic exploration, Earth observation, telecommunications & integrated applications, navigation, space transportation, space engineering and technology, operations and space safety. The section has contributed to the success of ESA missions such as Rosetta, Galileo, Juice, Earth Observation Sentinels missions, meteorological missions and many more.

The Section is also responsible for defining, initiating and managing technology research and development (R&D) activities in its field of expertise to ensure that future missions use state-of-the-art technologies efficiently to guarantee the quality required for space systems and to enable increased functionality in a properly verified manner (covering subjects such as software verification and validation methods and processes, modern software architectures and frameworks, new generation processors and model-based engineering). 

The Section also participates actively in standardisation activities by influencing the evolution of the various applicable standards and ensuring their proper application in ESA projects.

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

Field(s) of activity/research for the traineeship

As a Young Graduate Trainee within the Flight Software Systems Section, you will participate in one or more of the following specific topics covered by the Section:

•    RISC-V in space – porting and validation of software building blocks: processors based on the RISC-V architecture are attracting strong interest in the space domain with developments already ongoing for multicore processors such as NOEL-V and GR765. Those processors will need to be supported by software ecosystems, i.e. software development environments, simulators and off-the-shelf building blocks such as operating systems, hypervisors and mathematical libraries. 

In this context, you will contribute to the porting and validation of essential software building blocks for future space missions, using existing and to-be-developed tools, and the definition of future activities in this domain.

•    Verification and validation of multicore-based systems and real-time operating systems: the trend in embedded systems used in the space domain is moving towards the use of multicore processors. The introduction of this multicore architecture requires new verification and validation methods, as well as the use of particular real-time operating systems and hypervisors.

Within this area, you will contribute to the definition of verification and validation activities targeting multicore systems, and also to the definition, modification and profiling of the software architecture used on top of these systems (e.g. real-time operating systems and hypervisors).

•    Flight software frameworks: several on-board software reference architectures are available to support the implementation of the flight software on board spacecraft (e.g. OSRA, TASTE, F-prime, cFS and Outpost). 
You will participate in the evaluation, improvement and porting of these frameworks across various hardware platforms.

The learning objectives of the traineeship are:

• Becoming familiar with hardware and software architectures used to implement the software on board ESA’s spacecraft;
• Becoming familiar with the software development life cycle;
• Becoming familiar with ECSS standards, in particular those applicable to the software domain;
• Gaining an understanding of spacecraft systems engineering.
   

Technical competencies

Behavioural competencies

Result Orientation

Operational Efficiency

Fostering Cooperation

Relationship Management

Continuous Improvement

Forward Thinking

Education

You should have just completed, or be in the final year of your Master’ s degree in computer science, electronics engineering, space systems engineering, telecommunications or a related discipline.

Additional requirements

You should have good interpersonal and communication skills and should be able to work in a multicultural environment, both independently and as part of a team.

Knowledge of and a background in real-time embedded software development, real-time operating systems (e.g. RTEMS VxWorks and real-time Linux), time and space partitioning (TSP) and RISC-V instruction set architecture and associated tool chains would be an asset.

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.

During the interview, your motivation and overall professional career goals will also be explored.