COAV Developer

Job Introduction

Serco is a trusted partner of European Institutions and International Organisations, providing ICT services and Contact Centre management across Europe. Our expertise ranges from information systems support to consultancy services delivered under governmental frameworks, supporting key entities such as the European Commission and its Executive Agencies. As a leader in Service Integration and Management, we ensure the seamless delivery of services across multiple platforms, reflecting our strong commitment to quality and operational excellence.

We are currently seeking a COAV Developer to join our team supporting the EuroControl in Maastricht, Netherlands, as well as in other locations across Europe. 

Background

The time-based support for software developer will be embedded in the Innovation (SII/ADI/INNO) team which is a specialised team dealing with next-generation systems, exploring new technologies and paving the path towards their implementation in a safety-critical environment. Within this context, the requested time-based support will work in the COAV (Contrail Avoidance) project and help design, implement, and evolve the required software components and associated technical documentation to enable timely experimentation and delivery of project outcomes. 

Tasks will include maintaining and evolving the COAV ecosystem, including related dashboards and statistics. New developments will focus on deploying a ground-based camera network to cover the MUAC area, implementing the backbone server and image storage, and further developing the AI components for contrail detection and flight attribution. These data will be correlated with multiple weather forecasts and intersected with flight trajectories. There will be scientific reporting about findings.

In addition, the existing COAV server and its contrail-avoidance algorithms will be enhanced, visualisations will be developed, and initial integrations will be carried out in the non-vital operational partitions of the MUAC flight data systems. This system needs to run at high availability and feeds a to-be-enhanced dashboarding for climate metrics. There will be AI-generated documentation about the system.

The proposed candidate may be either (i) a software developer with strong data science and machine learning skills, or (ii) a data scientist with strong software development and software engineering skills, provided all mandatory requirements in this specification are met.

Education Requirement

Mandatory:
Bachelor’s degree in computer science or information technology, with a focus on Software Engineering, or equivalent professional knowledge. In the absence of a diploma, the proposed candidate shall demonstrate minimum 4 years of relevant professional experience in Software Engineering.

Language requirement

Mandatory:
The Tenderer shall confirm that the proposed candidate has ability to Listening-Reading-Writing-Speaking in English at level C1/B2/B2/C1 (the English skill levels may be further evaluated during an interview).

Technical/Professional qualification

The candidate must present evidence of relevant technical and professional expertise, including the creation and upkeep of comprehensive technical documentation throughout the development process, as well as the ability to work collaboratively within delivery teams and engage effectively with internal stakeholders in innovative or prototyping contexts. Equivalent experience with alternative technologies will also be considered, and minimum years of experience should be specified for all requirements. The candidate must have practical experience with modern web UI development, microservices and container platforms, Python programming and key libraries, neural networks, image segmentation, AI-assisted development, agentic approaches, and hands-on familiarity with cloud and data science environments. The candidate will be evaluated on basis of the following mandatory and desirable requirements
Mandatory:

• Minimum 1 year experience with Web UI development using Vue, React, or Angular.
• Minimum 1 year experience with Node.js development.
• Minimum 1 year experience with Microservices / container platforms, such as OpenShift, Docker, or equivalent.
• Minimum 1 year experience with Python-based services, e.g. Pandas, FastAPI, Polars, NumPy, Flask.
• Minimum 1 year experience with Data platforms / cloud environments, preferably Azure.
• Minimum 1 year experience with Data Lakehouse technologies, preferably Databricks.
• Minimum 1 year experience with drafting high-quality technical documentation and communication, including specifications, design notes, test descriptions, and user or operational documentation, using tools such as Confluence and Jira.

Desirable:

• Minimum 1 year experience with Web UI development using Vue, React, or Angular.
• Minimum 1 year experience with Node.js development.
• Minimum 1 year experience with Microservices / container platforms, such as OpenShift, Docker, or equivalent.
• Minimum 1 year experience with Python-based services, e.g. Pandas, FastAPI, Polars, NumPy, Flask.
• Minimum 1 year experience with Data platforms / cloud environments, preferably Azure.
• Minimum 1 year experience with Data Lakehouse technologies, preferably Databricks.
• Minimum 1 year experience with drafting high-quality technical documentation and communication, including specifications, design notes, test descriptions, and user or operational documentation, using tools such as Confluence and Jira.

Other requirement(personal charachteristics)

• Ability to identify, analyse and solve problems and to present key issues and possible/recommended solutions in a clear, structured and concise way (the longer the relevant experience, the better).
• Experience in working as a team player and desire to work in a multi-cultural team, positive and open minded, committed to getting a job done.
• Experience in acting as a business analyst where required for example to seek missing information and clarify requirements in a pro-active way. 
• Hands-on-approach