Science Operations System Engineer for Cloud Platform
**Job Requisition ID**:19769
**Date Posted**:5 September 2025
**Closing Date**:26 September 2025 23:59 CET/CEST
**Publication**:Internal & External
**Type of Contract**:Fixed-Term
**Directorate**:Science
**Workplace**:Villanueva de la Cañada, ES
**Grade Band**:A2 - A4
- This is a post for a **limited duration**of three years.
**Location**
ESAC, Villanueva de la Cañada, Spain
**Description**
ESA maintains a world-leading Science Programme with missions in heliophysics, planetary science, astrophysics and fundamental physics. Its mission is to “empower Europe to lead space science”. The Department of Science Operations hosts the scientists and engineers that oversee the space missions, from study to end of operations. It defines and develops the science operation systems for the missions and operates the missions in space, as well as archiving and curating their data during operations and beyond. Its main objective is to maximise the scientific output of ESA’s space science missions for the benefit of humankind.As Science Operations System Engineer for Cloud Platform development, you will be tasked with supporting the extension of the existing ESA Datalabs platform into a hybrid multi-cloud setup providing access to petabytes of data to scientists worldwide, leveraging the capabilities of both European cloud providers and partnering academic institutions. As the platform serves as a foundation for machine learning use cases, in particular for scientific machine learning projects aimed at increasing return on science, your role will define and provide the respective components of the platform for MLOps, pipeline orchestration and load balancing, for example, jointly with suppliers from industry.**Duties**
Within the Data Science Section, you will be responsible for:
- defining and formalising the ESA Datalabs system architecture down to the level of individual functionalities, including ensuring that the process and tools exist to capture, de-conflict and implement all associated requirements;
- supporting the design, implementation and testing of platform modules based on corresponding development plans;
- promoting multiple types of use cases on the platform, such as data science, citizen science and science operations;
- contributing to the Department’s data science strategy in close collaboration with the ESAC Science Data Centre and the science missions;
- acting as Technical Officer for industrial services and external contracts supporting the activities of the Section;
- Supporting the Head of the Data Science Section on any relevant Section matters;
- supporting the management of interfaces to other ESA directorates and to partnering space agencies, including platform federation activities.
**Technical competencies**
Strong background in computer science or software engineeringKnowledge of relevant technology and architectural concepts for on-premise and cloud-based platforms, for example object storage and KubernetesKnowledge of best practices in DevOps engineering and related tools, such as Jira, Bitbucket, Harness CI and SonarqubeKnowledge of best practices in high-performance computing**Behavioural competencies**
Result Orientation
Operational Efficiency
Fostering Cooperation
Relationship Management
Continuous Improvement
Forward ThinkingFor more information, please refer to ESA Core Behavioural Competencies guidebook**Education**
A master’s degree in a relevant domain is required for this post. A PhD is desirable.**Additional requirements**
Additional assets for this position are:
- experience in machine learning engineering and related tooling;
- experience with European cloud providers, as well as market-leading hyperscalers;
- experience developing large-scale data warehousing systems;
- experience working with or at supercomputers and computing centres;
- experience working on European supercomputing initiatives such as PRACE or EuroHPC;
- experience in science operations in the context of space missions, for example;
- experience in managing contracts relating to R&D;, for example;
- experience working with and coordinating interdisciplinary and intercultural teams;
- experience in supervising or advising students and junior researchers and developers.
**Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness**Important Information and Disclaimer**-
- 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**- 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.
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