Description

Software Product Assurance Engineer in the Software Product Assurance (PA) Section, Quality, Dependability and PA Support Division, Product Assurance and Safety Department, Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality.

The Section provides functional support to ESA projects and is responsible for the development, implementation and maintenance of software PA expertise and standards. It carries out technological research (R&D) in software PA requirements, techniques, methodologies and tools. It also collaborates on standardisation and training activities. 
 

Duties

You will report to the Head of Section and, within the technical fields described above, your main tasks and responsibilities will include: 

•    providing expert technical support and consultancy to ESA projects, which includes involvement in major project reviews and, where applicable, boards and panels;
•    supporting projects in monitoring contractor software PA programme execution to ensure compliance with software PA requirements;
•    preparing and implementing general programmatic and technical software PA requirements in line with Agency standards and specifications;
•    establishing project-specific programmatic and technical software PA requirements based on the ESA PA baseline;
•    supporting projects in evaluating contractor documentation and efforts proposed for the execution of software PA programmes;
•    evaluating proposed concepts, designs and operations for compliance with defined software PA requirements in order to include the performance of associated audits;
•    defining, initiating and managing R&D activities (software PA requirements, techniques, methodologies and tools) covering long- and short-term needs;
•    supporting and, at the line management’s request, participating in the Directorate’s competence domain activities;
•    auditing contractors and their in-house standards for compliance with ESA requirements, assessing the maturity of their software processes;
•    liaising with related engineering and PA specialists regarding overlapping areas of activity; 
•    monitoring applicable scientific and technological trends and maintaining state-of-the-art expertise.

Your duties may also include supporting other activities within your field of competence. You will also act as the Section’s focal point for security assurance matters.
 

Technical competencies

Behavioural competencies

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

Education

A master’s degree in computer science, mathematics or software engineering is required for this post.

Additional requirements

Experience in at least three of the following areas is required: software product assurance in critical real-time applications, software engineering, software configuration management, dependability assessment of software-intensive systems, software development and maintenance, software process assessment and auditing, and software security assurance.

Some knowledge in the following areas would be considered an asset for this position:
- Agile practices
- Quality assurance for machine learning models
- Big data software architectures and life cycles
- Data quality assurance
- Hands-on experience of static code analysis and tools
- Alternative software development life cycles, continuous integration and tools
- Security assurance and security best practices
- System security analysis, design and associated tools
- Security accreditation and certification methodologies and processes