In partnership with ESA and other international organisations, EUMETSAT contributes to the development of several Copernicus missions, for example Sentinel-3, Sentinel-6 and High Priority Copernicus Missions such as CO2M, in order to later assume the responsibility for routine operations. EUMETSAT also develops capability to process global ocean data from CRISTAL and CIMR polar regions monitoring missions. The EUMETSAT activities are funded by the EU Copernicus programme, under Cooperation Agreements with the European Commission, and by EUMETSAT ocean altimetry programmes, e.g. the Jason-CS programme.

Part of the Altimetry Team in the Copernicus Mission Development Division (CMD) and supported by a team of engineers, the Data Processing Ground Segment Manager is responsible for managing the procurements, and the technical coordination of internal developments, involved with the implementation of the data processing ground systems for altimetry missions under development (e.g. CRISTAL), including data access services (e.g. dissemination, archiving) and supporting also the integration, verification and validation activities and the transition of those ground systems and services into operations.

Duties

• Manage the technical baseline (requirements, design) of the relevant ground systems and its evolution until the transition to operations, including identification of technical trade-offs;
• Propose and maintain the relevant ground systems development plan, including procurements, internal developments, their acceptance, integration and transition into operations;
• Initiate and lead the procurement activities as technical officer of the relevant contracts until final acceptance;
• Coordinate the internal activities assigned to teams in the Technical and Scientific Support divisions at EUMETSAT and the integration of those elements with the procured elements;
• Support the integration of the data processing and data access ground systems with the rest of the ground segment elements (e.g. Earth terminals, mission control elements and interfaces with external entities);

• Support the system-wide verification and validation activities, including the performance of the end-to-end payload functional chain, from instrument acquisition to data access, against technical and mission performance requirements;
• Support the operations preparation activities, including handover of knowledge (training) and documentation to the operations and maintenance teams;
• Participate in other activities of the Programme Development Department, such as management of technical studies, participation in system and ground segment reviews and support to the preparation of future programmes.

Skills and Experience

• Experience in the development of Earth observation data processing chains;
• Experience in the specification, procurement and acceptance of ground segment Earth observation systems, applying established standards;
• Strong project management and system engineering background in ground segments, preferably for Earth observation satellite-systems;
• Experience in the operations and/or maintenance of Earth observation data processing systems would be an advantage;
• Independent thinking, ability to handle uncertainly and ambiguity and to negotiate successfully;
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with a proven ability to apply these to interact with management and working within, and across, teams.