Space System Database Engineer

Location: Madrid, Spain Location: Application deadline: 14 October 2024 Reference number: 2158
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Are you looking for a new opportunity to take your career to a higher orbit? To join an international group with a successful track record in Space Engineering? A job adapted to your career ambitions and in which you could have an impact for the years to come?

We are looking for a Space System Database Engineer to join our team at ESA’s ESAC premises in Madrid, Spain.

In this role, you will have the opportunity to contribute to the software engineering service that supports the development and maintenance of the Science Archives at the ESDC (ESAC Science Data Centre) for various space missions across the sub-areas of Planetary, Astronomy, Survey, Heliophysics, Human, Robotics, and Exploration.

You will also play a role in advancing the database technology evolution of the ESAC Science Data Centre to accommodate upcoming Petabyte-scale space missions, such as Euclid and Plato, over the next decade.

About the client and location

The European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) is the European Space Agency’s (ESA) base in Villanueva de la Canada, Madrid, Spain. ESAC is responsible for all of ESA’s research into astronomy and solar system exploration, as well as being the location of ESA’s space telescope. It is from here that archives are stored on ESA’s science missions, which are then made accessible for researchers all around the world.

Tasks and activities

The scope of work will include:

  • Assist in analyzing user requirements and contribute to the design and modeling of archive databases and data models.
  • Build, develop and maintain the archive data products databases (including DB administrative tasks).
  • Design, develop, deploy, operate and maintain any of the ESDC Science Archives and Virtual Observatory (VO) subsystems:
    • Archive Data ingestion and metadata extraction systems;
    • Archive application servers and middle tier services;
    • Archive Web applications;
    • Archive Data distribution systems;
    • Archive interoperability systems, or programmatic access, supported by VO standards;
    • Archive administration services (monitoring, statistics, reporting, user management…);
    • Archive data products on-line visualization (images, spectra) and analysis services;
    • VO tools and services;
    • Integration in and across all the ESDC archives of common infrastructure, tools and science data visualization, enabling the maximum exploitation of the data.
  • Software configuration control activities associated with archive development.
  • Unit and system tests associated with archive development.
  • Assist in preparing and maintaining essential documentation in accordance with engineering standards such as ECSS.
  • Engagement in working groups, workshops, conferences, and meetings focused on discussing science archives and virtual observatory standards and practices
  • Provide technical support to archives and VO services usage.
  • Interaction with the broader international community of astronomers and users through workshops and the helpdesk.
  • Interactions with ESA partners (such as Canadian and NASA teams, JAXA, etc.).

Skills and experience

The following skills and experience are mandatory:

  • Master’s degree in a relevant field, with at least 4 years of proven experience.
  • Proficiency in distributed databases (Greenplum, CitusDB, CloudBerryDB, CoakroachDB).
  • Experience in varied RDBMS (PostgreSQL, Oracle, MySQL).
  • Familiarity with no-SQL databases (MongoDB, Cassandra, ClickHouse).
  • Experience in JAVA, Javascript (Angular).
  • Competence in SQL and XML.
  • Desire to work both autonomously and as part of a team, in an international multicultural environment.
  • Solution oriented mindset, with a customer focused communication skill.
  • Fluent in English, both written and spoken.

The following experience would be highly desirable:

  • Experience in large-scale data storage solutions (AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure Blob Storage, Apache HDFS).
  • Proficiency in Docker, Kubernettes, OpenAPI or Microservices.
  • Familiarity with Web technologies (http, Apache, tomcat, Web services, etc.).
  • Experience with Spring and Apache Camel.
  • Experience in Unit, Integration, System and End to End testing (such as Junit, Jasmine, Cucumber, Selenium, Cypress).
  • Knowledge of software configuration control processes and tools (Ansible, Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD).
  • Experience with ESA Science Ground Segment software engineering processes, such as ECSS-E-ST-40C and ECSS-Q-ST-80C standards.
  • Familiarity with the OAIS standard.
  • Experience with Agile software development and continuous integration practices.
  • Knowledge of Virtual Observatory standards and protocols, working groups, working processes and environment.
  • Experience with Google Web Toolkit or Vaadin.
  • Proficiency in Python and Jupyter Notebooks/JupyterLabs..
  • Experience with Dockers.
  • Experience in Geographical Information System (GIS).
  • Experience in Massive Parallel Processing (MPP).
  • Experience with virtualisation technologies.

Why should you apply?

  • You will have the opportunity to work within leading space organisations across Europe.
  • We encourage everyone to think outside the box and to push the boundaries of traditional knowledge. This role is an opportunity to join a forward-thinking company and allows for a deeper understanding of the industry.
  • To be part of a company that values integrity, inspiration, care and collaboration.
  • Benefits include: competitive remuneration packages; unique career opportunities, including working in other countries; access to training and development programmes; flexible relocation support.

We welcome applications from people with disabilities, members of ethnic minorities, all genders, LGBTQ+ individuals and ex-service personnel.

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Questions? Contact

German Cingerli

Recruitment Manager

Interested in this job?

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