Within the User Support and Climate Services Division of the EUMETSAT Operations and Services to Users Department, a dedicated first-line team consisting of ca. 20 experienced operations engineers, archive operators and user support experts, coordinates and operates the EUMETSAT data access services and the Data Centre Archive. These services provide the performant discovery, search and pull access for EUMETSAT’s satellite data and products as well as their permanent and secure storage (Long-Term Data Preservation).

With more satellite missions under development and an exponential increase of data volumes ahead, EUMETSAT is evolving a “data-centric” approach using cloud-based data technologies and solutions for providing Earth observation Data as a Service (DaaS).

The Manager will lead the first-line operations team comprised of staff and service contract personnel, responsible for the monitoring, controlled operation, incident handling and user support for the various pull data services and of the Data Centre Archive, in close coordination with the second–line EUMETSAT engineering experts who maintain and evolve these services. She / he will ensure a state-of-the-art online data access user experience and data management approach and the permanent and secure archiving of all mission data, encompassing EUMETSAT’s current and future as well as selected third-party satellite missions. The Data Services and Archive Operations Manager will also be responsible for managing the implementation of upgrades to the operational data services resulting from the new generations of EUMETSAT’s satellite systems and the evolving needs of the current and future user communities.

Duties

The main duties for this vacancy are:

• Lead and manage the operations team, ensuring the optimal usage of team resources:
  • Empower, guide, develop and assess the team’s staff members;
  • Effectively manage the various service contracts;
  • Report on service status and advise the management board and delegate bodies on future needs of data services.

• Ensure effective and orderly operations and user support for the online data access services and the long term data preservation (LTDP):
  • Engage with the team in providing an optimal user support including communication, documentation and relevant tool provision for all online data access services;
  • Maintain continual and secure data archive operations, guaranteeing the LTDP of the EUMETSAT Data Centre Archive (volume at present ca. 15 PB);
  • Engage in the EUMETSAT user feedback management process as stakeholder for the services;
  • Supervise the incident and change processing concerning the operational services and their infrastructure;
  • Oversee the scheduling of all operations and maintenance activities.

• Contribute to the data access strategy of EUMETSAT:
  • Maintain the mid-term evolution roadmap of the online data access services, considering technological market developments as well as evolving community trends and standards;
  • Lead the requirements process for enhancements of the data access services;
  • Drive the development and implementation of data and metadata management concepts aiming at e.g. providing reliable forecasts of online data storage needs or harmonised metadata across all EUMETSAT operated existing and future satellite missions;
  • Oversee the new mission data product integration, including products from the EUMETSAT Satellite Application Facilities (SAF) into the online data services;
  • Engage in strategic and tactical discussions of technological advancements fostering easy, performant and application ready user access to data.

• Cross-organisational liaison with EUMETSAT stakeholders and teams maintaining and evolving data access services to cover existing and new application needs such as for AI/ML.
• Ensure smooth data services and archive operations for future satellite programmes.
• Chair regularly operations review meetings and contractual meetings.
• Support EUMETSAT contributions to standardisation activities such as Data Interoperability with partner organisations (e.g. WMO/EUMETNET, ECMWF, ESA etc).

Skills and Experience

• Proven team leadership with strong management and interpersonal skills;
• Experience in working in an operational environment related to high-availability (24/7) of applications and systems;
• Experience in evolving data access services from the user end along major lines of evolving technology (cloud services, data cubes, etc.);
• Proven experience in efficient mass data access, preservation and data management;
• Ability to derive and ingest well conceived user requirements into evolution projects, and managing technological change towards users;
• Experience in working in a Unix / Linux based system environment;
• Experience of working in an international environment;
• Excellent organisation and communication skills as well as strength in analysis, synthesis, and presentation.

Experience in the following would be advantageous:

• Basic knowledge of Satellite Remote Sensing;
• Knowledge of Web Service technologies (e.g. APIs, OGC standards);
• Excellent troubleshooting and problem-solving skills;
• Knowledge of Long-Term Data Preservation and data retention concepts;
• Experience in working with Earth Observation data, formats (e.g. netCDF, HDF, BUFR, GRIB), or data arrays (e.g. ZARR).