Ground Stations Operations Engineer

Job Introduction

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

We are looking for an experienced Ground Stations Operations Engineer for our Ground Stations Operations Service in EUMETSAT, responsible for the routine operations and operations preparations of EUMETSAT and External Ground Stations.

Key Responsibilities

Routine operations for Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) missions

• 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 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 operations documentations,
• Provide periodic inputs to mission Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) at the frequency requested by EUMETSAT TO,
• Contribute the medium and long-term operations planning
• On-call support, as required
• Prepare and provide training, through written materials, practical demonstrations and presentations, to other parties (including controllers, analysts and engineers).
• Liaise and coordinate as required with other Contractors and other teams working at EUMETSAT to ensure the continuity of mission operations and optimisation of the ground segment.
• Liaise and coordinate as requested with external engineering partners for anomaly investigation and reporting of issues that might affect those partners

Operational evolutions

• Contribute to the definition of evolutions including requirements specifications and further development,
• Evaluate the technical requirements, and assess their compliance with the relevant ground segment requirements,
• Contribute to the operational validation of upgrades, and to the compilation of the relevant operational validation reports,
• Contribute to the operational validation activities of ground stations evolutions, and to the compilation of the relevant validation reports,
• In coordination with the relevant division from the Technical and Scientific Support (TSS) department, define and implement procedures and tools for the monitoring of the ground stations
• Participate in the coordination meetings for Engineering Change Proposals (ECPs) and projects as requested
• Participate in technical evolutions and implementations meetings for operational systems as requested

Operations preparations

• Contribute to reviews, particularly identifying system deficiencies, raising operational risks and suggest their potential resolution,
• Contribute to workshops with 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 within the relevant ground segments,
• Contribute to the definition of transition plans,
• Contribute to the generation of operational documentation
• Support to Launch and LEOP, as required, including shift support

Skills and Experience

Required

• A university degree (or equivalent) in an engineering or scientific discipline relevant to the job profile (e.g. telecommunications, electronics, radio frequency or equivalent.) or proven experience in ground stations (TT&C and Mission Data Acquisition) in a real-time 24/7 spacecraft operations environment, ideally in an Earth Observation environment.
• At least five years’ experience in the operations of complex ground stations systems (TT&C and Mission Data Acquisition) in support of multiple Geostationary (GEO) and/or Low Earth Orbit (LEO) spacecraft, and experience of verification and validation of such systems.
• Very good strengths in analysis, synthesis and presentation skills.
• Very good interpersonal, communication and reporting skills and an ability to apply these to the interactions within a team and between teams in a multi-disciplinary context.
• Ability to learn and develop the needed skills and knowledge to contribute to the operations of the service, including the ability to rapidly absorb, and make use of, information presented in written and oral communications in a dynamic context.
• A systematic approach to work, be able to plan their work and to cope with tight schedules and multiple tasks.
• Ability to work effectively under pressure and to manage complex tasks with minimum supervision.
• Capability to write accurate, concise, focused and consistent technical documentation and reports.
• The working language is English and therefore the candidate must be able to work effectively in this language.

Desirable

• Demonstrated experience in managing service teams
• Major upgrades or evolutions of operational ground stations
• Definition and implementation of verification and validation activities of ground stations,
• Definition, verification and validation of interfaces between ground stations and ground segments,
• Diagnosis and correction of first-line ground stations’ hardware and software failures,
• Preparation of requirements, design, interfaces and testing documentation,
• Document management and configuration control processes,
• Definition of user interfaces for operations (HMI, reports, etc.),
• Relevant technical standards (e.g. ECSS, CCSDS),
• Baseband operation and configuration,
• Dataminer, Monitoring and control tool,
• Space Link Extension (SLE) operation and/or configuration

Package Description

• Relocation allowance (flight to Germany, airport transport, one month paid accommodation).
• Hybrid working model for flexibility. 
• 30% discount on the Deutschland ticket for easy travel.
• Subsidised Wellpass – access to 12,500+ fitness and wellness options across Germany.
• Pension and health schemes.
• Corporate Benefits discounts
• 30 days of holiday for balance and exploration.