Intern in the Mission Management and Ground Segment Department

Our team and mission

This position is based at the ESA Centre for Earth Observation (ESRIN) - Frascati, Italy 

Under the direct authority of the Director of Earth Observation Programmes, the Head of the Mission Management and Ground Segments Department is responsible for the management of the EO missions handled by ESA in their Phase E2, and for the design, development and operation of the related Payload Data Ground Segments (PDGS) as well as the related data management.

In executing these functions, the Head of Department is supported by the:

• Mission Management and Product Quality Division (EOP-GM);
• Copernicus Ground Segment and Data Management Division (EOP-GC);
• ESA Ground Segment and Data Management Division (EOP-GE);
• Project Control and Management Support Office (EOP-GP).
   

Candidates interested are encouraged to visit the ESA website: http://www.esa.int

Field(s) of activity for the internship

Topic of the internship: Development of service performance monitoring tool

Background
Rapid Response Desk (RRD) is a service funded by DG-DEFIS of the European Commission under Copernicus Contributing Missions (CCM) program, responsible for maintaining the system for satellite data delivery to the Copernicus Users. The RRD service, recently awarded by ESA as an innovative, user-friendly, efficient, API-based one-stop shop interface for Copernicus Users to access EO data on-demand from CCM, is expected to be operational in October 2024. As part of its responsibilities, RRD service will provide ESA with regular performance reports, monitoring dashboards as well as direct access to the raw service house-keeping parameters. While the evaluation of information provided by ESA industrial partners is the basis upon which operational performances are assessed and their impact on concerned users is measured, an ESA-internal, independent analysis of relevant parameters and information could provide additional, useful insight on how to increase user satisfaction and user uptake, anticipating possible patterns of requests, identifying gaps in the data portfolio or data providers and proposing possible service improvements in response to specific enquiries from the Copernicus Services user community.
 

Objective
The objective of the internship opportunity is to develop an ESA-internal monitoring tool based on technical and operational parameters of the Copernicus Contributing Missions and fully independent from the industrially deployed monitoring tool, with a view at identifying possible system improvements to increase user satisfaction and user uptake. This activity has the potential to provide useful insight to  both the RRD service management and the Copernicus Contributing Mission Entities (CCMEs) operations management.

How
The intern’s interfaces are ESA employees and possibly the industrial engineering teams involved in CCM operations.

• You will initially familiarize with the context, including basic concepts of service management, and then you will apply such knowledge to the RRD and CCMEs’ services;
• You will assess the parameters and information necessary to set-up and feed a monitoring tool, based on technical and operational information from CCMs;
• You will develop a monitoring tool for independent analysis, with a focus on:
  • defining the indicators on the end-2-end operational efficiency of data delivery to the Copernicus users to achieve full users satisfaction;
  • including in the tool the possibility to identify users request patterns, hence anticipating users needs;
  • testing the developed tool against representative operational scenarios and demonstrating the tool's ability to generate regular statistics and/or trend analyses of on-demand data delivery for Copernicus services i.e. Emergency Services and Security Services.
• Based on the tool characterization, you will also identify gaps in the data portfolio and/or data providers and propose possible improvements;
• You will produce a final report of the obtained results.

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

You must be a university student, preferably in your final or second-to-last year of a university course at Master’s level and you need to remain enrolled at your University for the entire duration of the internship.

Additional requirements

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.

Knowledge and background as following: 

• Fair/good programming (e.g. scripting) skills and/or data management skills;
• Knowledge of Power BI or equivalent tools for data analytics is an asset;
• Basic experience or knowledge of project/service management.