About this job

Serco Europe is recruiting a Planning and Scheduling Officer to work on our Customers Site (ESA-ESTEC).

Serco is a trusted provider of services to National Space Agencies and the European Space Agency (ESA), we have over 40 years’ experience supporting the space sector and providing services for all stages of our customer’s space missions.

ESA missions are at the forefront of human and robotic exploration. Building on a strong heritage in human spaceflight and the successful ISS and ATV programmes, ESA in collaboration with its international partners have turned their gaze to deep space and have laid the foundations for the journey to Mars. The ExoMars and Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign will expand our understanding of Martian history, potential for life and environmental conditions.

ESA has developed several key capabilities for robotic Mars exploration: The Rosalind Franklin Mission (RFM) will perform a search for past and present life, geochemistry measurements and imaging once deployed on the Mars surface. The Sample Transfer Arm (STA) will be capable of retrieving tubes of Martian soil samples and transfer these to an orbiting sample capsule. The Earth Return Orbiter (ERO) performs a round trip to Mars, to collect those samples from Mars orbit and return them to Earth. This will be the first spacecraft to complete the Earth-Mars-Earth roundtrip, giving Europe leadership in this aspect of Mars Robotic Exploration technology. The final goal is to build the experience and confidence to eventually send humans to the surface of Mars.

Responsibilities

• Provide schedule support in major tender evaluations of the projects.
• Provide support to, and/or participate in, contractual and technical negotiations for schedule aspects.
• Provide schedule support to the major technical reviews of the main projects in the Directorate to ensure schedule objectives are met.
• Support the projects in their scheduled interactions with our international partners.
• Assist the projects in the day to day schedule monitoring and control of its industrial consortium against the baseline schedule.
• Conduct specific ad hoc schedule analysis of project activities as needed.
• Support the schedule and risk management process of the projects.
• Assist the HRE Project Control section in the design and implementation of new schedule control / progress monitoring techniques.
• Scheduler tasks will bring the candidate in contact with our project’s industrial consortia and with the international partner organizations.

Profile

• Master’s degree in engineering or equivalent University degree from a recognized institution of secondary studies or equivalent qualification in Business Administration, with relevant experience.
• 4 years of relevant work experience.
• Demonstrated expertise with the use of modern schedule software tools (at least both MS Project, Primavera).
• Expertise with the techniques that allow the use of such software tools to provide active schedule management and best scheduling practice.
• Experience with the schedule peculiarities of spacecraft development is an asset.
• Proactivity, good communication skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to interact effectively with the technical personnel in our projects and colleagues of different backgrounds (engineering, management, legal).
• Capability to summarize and present complex information to colleagues and senior management in a concise and clear manner.
• Capability to work autonomously and at the same time be able to work effectively as part of a team.
• Comfortable with working in a diverse and multinational team environment.
• Excellent interpersonal skills are needed, together with a high degree organizational and communication abilities.
• Proficient in the English language, both written and spoken.
• Knowledge of another EU member state language is an asset.
• Candidates must be eligible to work in the EU.