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GAIA Instrument Operations Scientist
2017-12-14 11:16:27| Space-careers.com Jobs RSS
Aurora is an established supplier of skilled manpower to ESA and in particular at ESTEC and ESAC. Aurora has the opportunity to expand our support within ESAC. Overview On Gaia the leader of a Coordination Unit CU fulfils a role equivalent tothat of a PI on an observatory type mission, while the CU itself, as adiscipline, can be seen as the equivalent of an instrument. In this contextthe service will provide support to CU7, coordinated by a scientist whowill be the liaison to CU7. The Instrument Operations Scientist works within the Science Operations Centre SOC with responsibilities that may include Acting as interface between the SGS and a certain number of PI Teams which may require deep knowledge about specific instrument functionality, performance and operations. Track the science capabilities of an instrument during its development phase by participating in instrument team meetings, reviewing documents e.g. EIDBs Users Manuals and assuring completeness and validity, applying and running instrument modelssimulations, etc.. Coordinating of the calibration efforts by the ESA IDTs and the instruments principal investigator teams, the latter being spread across different institutes and universities across Europe and supported by national funds. Provide support to the Instrument Teams in the preparation execution of AIV activities and calibration campaigns ISTs. Understand the functionality of the instrument data to be archived and support the definition of the instruments Archive data products in coordination with the Archive Scientist and in the data pipeline development. Support the provision of SPICE kernels e.g. Instrument specific, orbit attitude, as required. Organise and maintain uptodate all information concerning the instruments which is deemed necessary for future knowledge preservation. Contribute to the SGS preparation activities including Definition of operations plans procedures and preparation of training activities. Contributing to SGS requirement specification and design, by assisting in the definition of user requirements for the SGS. reviewingassessing completeness and adequacy of the system being designed and implemented. This may include exploration of new technologies. Testing and providing feedback on implementations. Contribute to the preparation of the Science Activity Plan SAP document. Contribute to the compilation of the Science Traceability Matrix TMX and to its further development into the Observations Catalogue. For Observatory class missions, provision of instrument expertise in support of the scientific community and operational activities. Contribute postlaunch to the SOC systems tuning and its operational maintenance and as required to the validation and improvement of the Science Analysis software. Including Contribute to the maintenance of the overall system, including configuration control and versioning. Installation, testing and validation of SOC tools and analysis software. Raising problem reports on tools as well as suggested improvements. Following up the correct fixing of any problems with the implementers. Follow procedures and operate systems as required. Assist in automation of SOC procedures. Concerning instrument operations tasks include Generating and validating payload operations requests and other operational products for transmission to MOC. Aid in analysing and correcting anomalous situations and instrument behaviours onboard Support the Operational Constraint Analysis. Monitoring instrument health and scientific performance in support of calibration and real time decision making. Performing calibration activities for the scientific instruments, following priorities as agreed internally with the Mission and following the advice and recommendations made by the Users Group through the PS. Contribution, if required, to the scientific mission planning, scheduling and reaction to ToO alerts. Provide support to the Project Scientist as required. Cooperate with other projects on operational matters e.g. promote the exchange of information with missions where appropriate In order to enhance the capability to support the user community, if other tasks permit, up to 20 of the work under this RT may involve original science research. Specific tasks relevant Instrument Operations for Gaia Interact appropriately with and support the algorithm providers. Aid in optimising onboard parameters and overall operational strategies in the interest of maximising Gaias scientific return. Interface between MOCAirbus DS and SOC and aid in maintaining the part Specific qualification requirements Masters degree or PhD in engineering,physics andor astronomy. Solid background in the analysis ofspectral and time domain data acquired on variable stars. Experiencewith miscellaneous time domain analysis methods and knowledge of theanalysis methods used by CU7 is a must, examples are classificationengines, using miscellaneous variability classification methods, andtechniques like random forest classification and unsupervised learning. Experience in designing, coding and testing the resulting science analysissoftware using JAVA is required. A general knowledge of Gaia, itsobjectives, operations principles and data analysis approach used by theData Processing and Analysis Consortium DPAC is a plus. Experience in working in a large consortium andhave experience in conflict solving in a context without direct hierarchicalrelationships. A high level of written and spokenEnglishis essential. Legal and Security Requirements All applicants must be legally allowed to work in Spain without the need to obtain a work visa. Only European Union citizens can be employed by Aurora in Spain. Applicants are required to provide a copy of their passport and degree certificate. Aurora will validate the Degree with the issuing University and provide evidence to ESA. In line with ESAs security requirements, prior to issuing a letter of employment the applicant shall provide to Aurora a recent official document declaring that they are of good conduct from the country where currently resident, and Aurora will validate your employment history. Location It is expected that the work will be performed at the ESAC, the European Space Astronomy Centre, at Villafranca del Castillo, near Madrid, Spain. Contract You will be registered for both social security and tax in Spain. The standard working hours are 40 per week. There are 12 public holidays and an additional 30 annual days holiday. In addition to public health services Aurora provides private medical insurance in Spain. Training to improve efficiency and provide strength for future career are of course included. Aurora can assist financially and provide recent experience information for relocation. To be considered for this Position Provide prior to 9 January2018a summary of why you are a good candidate for the position together with a complete and detailedCandidate Proposal Formor CV and Motivation Letter toMr. Davide Starnone, at emaildavide.starnoneaurora.nlquoting referenceSCO144. Aurora will agree conditional employment terms and conditions with candidates before presenting their detailed technical proposal and candidates to ESA by 15 January 2018, 1300 hours.
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