Ground Stations Operations Engineer

Serco is a trusted provider of services to National Space Agencies and the European Space Agency (ESA), we have over 40 years' experience supporting the space sector and providing services for all stages of our customer's space missions. 

Serco has made significant contributions at EUMETSAT in Darmstadt, supporting a diverse array of meteorological satellite missions and projects. Serco provides essential engineering, technical, and management services, playing a crucial role in the operations and maintenance of satellite ground segments. Their expertise in satellite control, data processing, and system integration has earned them accolades, including 'Excellence in Service' awards from EUMETSAT. Serco's dedicated efforts ensure the reliable dissemination of vital weather and climate data, underscoring their commitment to innovation and excellence in the field of meteorological satellite operations. 

On behalf of our customer EUMETSAT, we are looking for a Ground Stations Operations Engineer. 

You would be working on-site at EUMETSAT's site in Darmstadt, with a generous distribution of working hours into the hybrid model. 

Your mission is to provide Routine Operations services for the operational ground stations for EUMETSAT Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) missions. You would also provide services for the evolution of operational ground stations for all EUMETSAT GEO and LEO missions. Additionally, you would provide services for the Operations Preparation of ground stations, their monitoring functions and test tools for future EUMETSAT GEO and LEO missions. 

Responsibilities: Routine Operations:

• Conduct and coordinate routine and special operations
• Monitor the performance and quality of the ground stations, report and investigate anomalies, participate in the correction of anomalies, and propose evolutions
• Create and maintain schedules
• Contribute to the preparation and maintenance of documentation to perform routine, non-routine, and contingency operations activities including operational procedures, working practices and user guides in accordance with EUMETSAT's document management and configuration control processes
• Contribute to the maintenance of statistics databases and monitoring systems
• Provide statistics and inputs for periodic OPS reporting as defined in the operations documentation
• Provide periodic inputs to mission Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• Contribute to the medium and long-term operations planning

Providing services for the evolution of operational ground stations:

• Contribute to the definition of evolutions, including requirements specifications and further development
• Evaluation of the technical requirements and assessment of their compliance with the relevant ground segment requirements
• Contribute to the operational validation of upgrades and the compilation of relevant operational validation reports
• Contribute to the operational validation activities of ground station evolutions, and to the compilation of relevant validation reports
• In coordination with the relevant TSS division (Technical and Scientific Support) department, define and implement procedures and tools for the monitoring of ground stations

Providing services for the operations preparation of ground stations, monitoring functions, and test tools for future missions:

• Contribute to reviews, particularly identifying system deficiencies, raising operational risks, and suggesting their potential resolution
• Contribute to workshops by providing ground stations expertise
• Contribute to the preparation and tracking of the status for configuration items validation and Operational Scenario Validation (OSV)
• Contribute to the definition of operations concepts, operations preparations, and commissioning activities
• Contribute to the integration, verification, and validation test campaigns with the relevant ground segments
• Contribute to the definition of transition plans
• Contribute to the generation of operational documentation

Profile:

• University degree or equivalent in an engineering or relevant scientific discipline 
• At least 5 years' experience in the operations of complex ground station systems (TT&C and Mission Data Acquisition) in support of multiple Geostationary (GEO) and/or Low Earth Orbit (LEO) spacecraft
• Experience in the verification and validation of complex ground station systems
• Ability to diagnose and correct first-line ground stations' hardware and software failures
• Document management and configuration control processes
• Strong experience in analysis, synthesis, and presentation skills
• Strong interpersonal, communication, and reporting skills and the ability to apply them to the interactions within the ground stations team and between the teams in a multi-disciplinary context
• Strong ability to learn and develop the needed skills and knowledge to contribute to the operations of this service
• Strong capability to write accurate, concise, focused, and consistent technical documentation and reports
• Fluent in English

Nice to have:

• Demonstrated experience in managing service teams
• Experience with the implementation of major upgrades or evolutions of operational ground stations and their operational validation
• Definition, verification, and validation of interfaces between ground stations and ground segments
• Preparation of requirements, design, interfaces, and testing documentation
• Definition of user interfaces for operations (HMI, reports, etc)
• Relevant technical standards (e.g,. ECSS, CCSDS)
• Baseband operation and configuration
• Dataminer,a  Monitoring and control tool
• Space Link Extension (SLE) operation and/or configuration

On Offer:

• Relocation allowance: including a one-way flight ticket, transportation from the airport to a temporary hotel, and one month of paid accommodation while securing permanent housing
• Hybrid working model
• 30% subvention on Deutschland ticket
• Gym membership discount
• Participation in pension and health schemes
• 30 days of holiday

Relocation: Darmstadt, Germany, offers a central location in Europe, making it an ideal base for travel and business within the EU. Major cities are well-connected by road, rail, and air, with Frankfurt Airport being one of Europe's busiest and most well-connected airports, facilitating easy international travel.

Serco GMBH offers relocation support for all EU passport holders that are planning to relocate to Germany and work for EUMETSAT.

DE&I: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Serco GMBH is based on a culture where every voice is heard, and every employee feels valued. Working together as one team, we can enhance the experience of our people and teams, improve the value of our solutions to better serve the missions of our customers, and make an impact in our world.About Serco:

Serco is a leading Space Services Provider with thousands of skilled resources that has supported over 50 space missions on behalf of more than 10 Space or Government agencies around the globe, including the likes of ESA, CNES, EUMETSAT, EUSPA, ASI and NASA.

We offer space capabilities across the full space lifecycle from satellite testing to Launch services, LEOP to spacecraft operations, space surveillance to data management, and supporting downstream application development. With over 55 years history in the space sector Serco is well placed to contribute to National strategies across Europe and the globe

We work within the heart of the space sector so understand the challenges our customers face. When it comes to recruitment we are experts in sourcing the very best talent within space engineering, earth observation, satellite communications and cyber security.

We have placed hundreds of people from post graduates through to C-suite executives into space agencies, satellite operators, manufacturers, system integrators, consultancies, earth observation/remote sensing, launch providers and much more.

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