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VN 26/12 Ground Station Systems Engineer

EUMETSAT is Europe’s meteorological satellite agency, operating a fleet of geostationary (GEO) and low earth orbit (LEO) satellites delivering weather and climate-related satellite data and images to our users worldwide; helping protect lives, property and industries.

To sustain and evolve its global network of operational ground stations across Europe and overseas, EUMETSAT is looking for a Ground Station Systems Engineer to join the Ground Stations Competence Area within the Satellite Ground Segment (SGS) Division.

In this hands-on role, the successful candidate will lead the end-to-end evolution of EUMETSAT’s ground stations, from system design and industrial coordination to testing and transition into operations. She/he will help shape future ground station architectures and drive harmonised, high-performance solutions across all EUMETSAT satellite systems.

Duties

  • Support to the development and upgrade of Ground Station systems and subsystems:
    • Lead the specification and requirements definition activities;
    • Contribute to the procurement and follow up contractors’ development activities;
    • Contribute to the definition, execution and follow up of the Verification &Validation (V&V) testing of new Ground Stations, or their evolutions;
    • Support the definition and implementation of adequate transition plans from development to operations.
  • Management service contract for ground stations engineering services;
  • Coordinate a small team of engineers;
  • Definition, coordination and execution of test scenarios aiming at verification of the end-to--end performance of ground stations;
  • Lead baseline documentation updates and evolutions of ground stations;
  • Support the Ground Stations Competence Area Manager in defining long term plans and roadmaps to harmonise Ground Station engineering maintenance and evolutions across all EUMETSAT satellite systems.
 

LOCATION

Darmstadt, Germany

QUALIFICATIONS

University Degree or equivalent in Telecommunications or Electronic Engineering.

LANGUAGES

Candidates must be able to work effectively in English and have some knowledge of French.

DEADLINE

27 March 2026

Duties

  • Support to the development and upgrade of Ground Station systems and subsystems:
    • Lead the specification and requirements definition activities;
    • Contribute to the procurement and follow up contractors’ development activities;
    • Contribute to the definition, execution and follow up of the Verification &Validation (V&V) testing of new Ground Stations, or their evolutions;
    • Support the definition and implementation of adequate transition plans from development to operations.
  • Management service contract for ground stations engineering services;
  • Coordinate a small team of engineers;
  • Definition, coordination and execution of test scenarios aiming at verification of the end-to--end performance of ground stations;
  • Lead baseline documentation updates and evolutions of ground stations;
  • Support the Ground Stations Competence Area Manager in defining long term plans and roadmaps to harmonise Ground Station engineering maintenance and evolutions across all EUMETSAT satellite systems.

Skills and Experience

  • Proven experience in ground stations engineering following well established engineering processes covering the full development lifecycle, and relevant technical standards (e.g. ECSS, CCSDS);
  • Expertise in RF (L/S/X/K-Band), Receiver/Baseband, modulation/demodulation of Telemetry, Telecommand and Ranging (TT&C) and Payload/Instrument data;
  • Conversant with ECSS standards and CCSDS recommendations for packet TM/TC, Ranging, RF coding and modulation and CCSDS Service Level Extension (SLE) services
  • Competence and in-field proven experience in the area of Ground Stations Verification &Validation (V&V) activities;
  • Experience in the coordination of international teams;
  • Sound experience of project management and international procurements;
  • Relevant experience in ground stations maintenance will be considered an advantage.

Employment Conditions

The initial contract will be of 4 years’ duration, with subsequent 5 year contracts being awarded thereafter, subject to individual performance and organisation requirements. There is no limit to the amount of follow-up contracts a staff member can receive up to the EUMETSAT retirement age of 63 and there are certainly opportunities to establish a long career perspective at EUMETSAT.
This post is graded A2/A4 on the EUMETSAT salary scales. The minimum basic salary for this post is EURO 7,553 per month (net of internal tax but excluding pension contribution and insurances) which may be negotiable on the basis of skills and experience. The salary scale provides for increments on the anniversary of taking up employment, and scales are reviewed by the EUMETSAT Council with effect from 1 January each year. In addition to basic salary, EUMETSAT offers attractive benefits. Further information, including salary details, is available on the EUMETSAT web site.

EUMETSAT is committed to providing an equal opportunities work environment for men and women.
Please note that only nationals of EUMETSAT Member States may apply. The EUMETSAT Convention requires that Staff shall be recruited on the basis of their qualifications, account being taken of the international character of EUMETSAT.

About EUMETSAT

EUMETSAT is Europe’s meteorological satellite agency. Its role is to establish and operate meteorological satellites to monitor the weather and climate from space - 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This information is supplied to the National Meteorological Services of the organisation's Member States in Europe, as well as other users worldwide.

EUMETSAT also operates several Copernicus missions on behalf of the European Union and provide data services to the Copernicus marine and atmospheric services and their users.

As an intergovernmental European Organisation, EUMETSAT has 30 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.)
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