Description

As part of the LISA team, in the Projects Department of the Science Directorate, you will report functionally to the LISA Project Manager.

LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) is a mission comprising a constellation of three spacecraft tasked with detecting and measuring gravitational waves with precision. It will become the first ever space gravitational wave observatory. It will deliver world-class science and will have significant public and strategic impact. The mission itself is hugely complex, involving 19 institutes from ten European countries as well as a significant involvement by NASA that will provide telescopes, lasers and electrostatic dischargers under a partnership agreement with ESA.

ESA is responsible for the mission as a whole, including the procurement of three spacecraft and of the launch vehicle, and the development of the payload and ground segment. For LISA, ESA will take additional responsibility, leading payload system design and programmatic, including performance, responsibility.

The role of the LISA Mission and Performance Manager is to manage the mission performance and ensure the establishment and tracking of all relevant development and operational interfaces within both the operations ground segment and the science ground segment.

You will manage a team composed of ESA staff and engineers and/or scientists from the LISA Mission Consortium seconded to ESA. You will liaise closely with the spacecraft and payload teams.

Duties

Your tasks and responsibilities will include:

• coordinating, with support from the spacecraft and payload teams, the devolution of the mission requirements into the requirements applicable at space segment, operations and ground processing level, ensuring their coherence and justification;
• acting as a custodian of the LISA mission requirements justification files;
• monitoring and assessing, together with the spacecraft and payload teams, the coherence of the technical and programmatic interfaces of all project segments, including their implementation and verification;
• monitoring all of the system budgets;
• developing and maintaining LISA performance simulators and performance models at different levels of accuracy and complexity to meet the various project needs;
• acting as the day-to-day project interface to the performance and operations group of the LISA Mission Consortium;
• defining and supervising the interfaces of the space segment with both the ESA Mission Operations Centre (MOC) and the ESA Science Operations Centre (SOC);
• monitoring the progress of the LISA ground segment software development, including ground data processing, relevant instrument simulators, quick-look systems, the call for proposal system and the mission planning system;
• monitoring and contributing to the ESA SOC-led ground segment test campaign up to launch;
• monitoring the progress of the MOC-based mission control system;
• ensuring the timely availability of all documentation, such as flight operation manuals, flight operations procedures and databases, as required to support the development of the operational part of the ground segment;
• managing the verification of mission performance requirements and budgets in close cooperation with the ESA scientist and with the support of the spacecraft and payload teams;
• contributing to the definition of calibration activities, both on-ground and in-flight, to ensure consistency and completeness;
• contributing to the end-to-end performance verification of the payload and the spacecraft;
• managing system commissioning of the overall mission with support from the spacecraft and payload teams;
• planning and implementing the mission-level reviews;
• contributing to the technical assessment of the project risks;
• supporting technical and scientific communication with the general public.

You will also be responsible for identifying, assessing, managing and reporting the health and safety risks in your area of responsibility.

Technical competencies

Behavioural competencies

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

Education

A master’s degree in engineering is required.

Additional requirements

A minimum of ten years of experience in space science.
Experience in the development of complex payload and/or the management of scientific consortiums is an asset.

You should further have:

• the potential to manage individuals or a team in a project setting;
• the ability to organise their activities and ensure a motivating work environment;
• strong leadership capabilities, with proven relationship management and communication skills;
• the ability to drive your team’s performance, developing your people by encouraging learning, delegating responsibility and giving regular and constructive feedback;
• strong problem-solving skills to deal with day-to-day operational challenges, together with demonstrated planning and organisational skills;
• strong results orientation with the ability to set priorities and present practical solutions both orally and in writing;
• the ability to manage challenging situations proactively and constructively and to be customer focused.
• people management experience is an asset, as is international experience, i.e. outside your home country, as well as experience in diverse functional areas relevant to ESA activities.