Product Assurance & Safety Manager
Noordwijk
- Organization: ESA - European Space Agency
- Location: Noordwijk
- Grade: Mid level - A2/A4 - Grade band
-
Occupational Groups:
- Security and Safety
- Managerial positions
- Closing Date: 2025-08-17
Product Assurance & Safety Manager
Noordwijk, NL
Location
ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands
Description
The Product Assurance and Safety (PA&S) Manager* will be assigned to the Science PA&S Office, Quality Department, Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality. The Science PA&S Office provides support to the missions and activities of the Directorate of Science for PA&S management and coordination.
Upon joining ESA, you will take over the role of LISA PA&S Manager and will be part of the LISA Core Team. While reporting hierarchically to the Head of the Science PA&S Office, you will report functionally to the LISA Project Manager, Science Programme, Directorate of Science for the specific responsibilities and duties outlined below.
* PA&S covers safety assurance, reliability, availability, maintainability, quality assurance, components, materials and processes, planetary protection and software product assurance.
Duties
Your tasks and responsibilities will include:
- establishing and maintaining the PA&S requirements baseline in compliance with ESA policies;
- ensuring the implementation of PA&S requirements by industry and other supplying parties, such as CFI providers, supporting milestone reviews and participating in the process to verify compliance with requirements;
- monitoring the implementation of approved plans and specifications from industry and other supplying parties, such as CFI providers, ensuring that adequate resources are deployed for the execution of the PA&S programme;
- coordinating the technical aspects of relevant service support and acting as the primary point of contact between service functions and project teams;
- planning, coordinating and monitoring the support provided by the assigned PA&S workforce;
- participating in boards for the disposition of deviations from the requirements baseline (CCBs) and changes to the agreed design;
- representing ESA in the boards established for the disposition of non-conformances and anomalies and the definition and monitoring of relevant corrective and preventive actions (NRBs), for failure investigations, and for project technical reviews, such as MRRs, TRRs, PTRs and TRBs;
- ensuring the implementation of the reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS) programme, and the software assurance programme, including their support to design trade-off decisions and verification of requirements;
- monitoring the selection, procurement and use of electrical, electronic and electromechanical (EEE) components and materials, processes and mechanical parts (MPM);
- ensuring the monitoring of the manufacturing, assembly, integration and test activities through mandatory and key inspection points, test witnessing and quality assurance checks, for example;
- conducting the acceptance reviews of all contractual deliverable items;
- reviewing the safety data packages from industry and other supplying parties, such as CFI providers, as required, ensuring that they are made available on time to the relevant safety authorities, and supporting safety reviews and other key events for ground and launch safety;
- supervising PA&S activities during the launch campaign;
- performing any other PA&S tasks necessary to ensure a safe and successful mission.
- In carrying out these tasks, you will receive support from experts from the ESA Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality.
In addition to your project responsibilities, you will support the Head of the Science PA&S Office for improvement activities and cross-project coordination.
Technical competencies
Behavioural competencies
Result Orientation
Operational Efficiency
Fostering Cooperation
Relationship Management
Continuous Improvement
Forward Thinking
For more information, please refer to ESA Core Behavioural Competencies guidebook
Education
A master's degree in a relevant engineering or scientific domain is required for this post.
Additional requirements
Proven experience in the area of PA&S for space projects is required.
In addition, you should have:
- a proven ability to coordinate and motivate a cross-functional team of experts without direct reporting lines;
- a demonstrated ability to manage complex decision-making processes, especially under pressure and in the context of conflicting positions or priorities;
- a strong aptitude for reaching pragmatic, solution-oriented, fact-based decisions that maintain adequate standards of quality;
- excellent interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal.
Previous experience working with international partners, such as other space agencies, is an advantage.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness
ESA is an equal opportunity employer, committed to achieving diversity within the workforce and creating an inclusive working environment. We therefore welcome applications from all qualified candidates irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious beliefs, age, disability or other characteristics.
At the Agency we value diversity, and we welcome people with disabilities. Whenever possible, we seek to accommodate individuals with disabilities by providing the necessary support at the workplace. The Human Resources Department can also provide assistance during the recruitment process. If you would like to discuss this further, please contact us via email at contact.human.resources@esa.int.
Important Information and Disclaimer
In principle, recruitment will be within the advertised grade band (A2-A4). However, if the selected candidate has less than four years of relevant professional experience following the completion of the master’s degree, the position may be filled at A1 level.
Applicants must be eligible to access information, technology, and hardware which is subject to European or US export control and sanctions regulations & eligible to acquire the security clearance by their national security administrations.
During the recruitment process, the Agency may request applicants to undergo selection tests. Additionally, successful candidates will need to undergo basic screening before appointment, which will be conducted by an external background screening service, in compliance with the European Space Agency's security procedures.
Note that ESA is in the process of transitioning to a Matrix setup, which could lead to organisational changes affecting this position.
The information published on ESA’s careers website regarding working conditions is correct at the time of publication. It is not intended to be exhaustive and may not address all questions you would have.
Nationality and Languages
Please note that applications are only considered from nationals of one of the following States: Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Canada, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia.
According to the ESA Convention, the recruitment of staff must take into account an adequate distribution of posts among nationals of the ESA Member States*. When short-listing for an interview, priority will first be given to internal candidates and secondly to external candidates from under-represented Member States*.
The working languages of the Agency are English and French. A good knowledge of one of these is required. Knowledge of another Member State language would be an asset.
*Member States, Associate Members or Cooperating States.
Applications from non-qualifying applicants will most likely be discarded by the recruiting manager.