Archive Scientist

Archive Scientist

**Job Requisition ID**:18887**Date Posted**:16 September 2024**Closing Date**:7 October 2024 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 non-renewable post for a **limited duration **of 3 years.**Location**
ESAC, Villanueva de la Cañada, Spain**Description**
The European Space Agency 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 (SCI-S), within ESA’s Directorate of Science, hosts the scientists and engineers who oversee the space missions from study to the end of operations, develops the science operation systems for the missions and operates the missions in space, and archives and curates their data during operations and beyond. Its main objective is to maximise the scientific output of the missions for the benefit of humankind.

You will be assigned as Archive Scientist for ESA heliophysics missions under the direct responsibility of the Head of the Science Archives Development and Operations Section, also known as the ESAC Science Data Centre (ESDC), in the Data Science and Archives Division within SCI-S. You will have further functional reporting lines within the mission(s) you support.

**Duties**
You will be responsible for the definition and specification of the scientific archive for the supported ESA heliophysics missions and for the follow-up and monitoring of its implementation and operation with the goal of maximising the scientific return of the missions. You will work in close collaboration with the heliophysics mission project scientists, the other mission archives scientists, the ESDC Software and Data Systems Architect and the members of the Heliophysics Archives Users’ Group.

As Archive Scientist, your specific responsibilities will include:

- ownership of use cases and drivers for the mission archives, including:

- interfacing with the Project Scientist, the Science Operations Centre (SOC) team, other archive science leads and other archive scientists, as well as the external stakeholders, such as the instrument teams and the mission scientific community, to provide the science use cases that drive the mission archive and determine the priorities for implementation;
- providing scientific support and steering the development and operations of the archives for the supported ESA heliophysics missions, providing the ESDC development team with an archive user requirements document as a baseline for implementation;
- monitoring the implementation, testing and expected performance of the archive based on use cases gathered by the mission team and derived requirements; in particular, defining and performing the end user acceptance testing of the different archive versions prior to their release to the scientific community;
- with the help of the instrument operations scientists, supervising and coordinating the definition and provision of science data products and any higher-level data products from the community or instrument teams as needed, including liaising on submission schedules and content;
- liaising with any internal and external providers to ensure the completeness of all levels of data products with maximum science quality, contributing to the optimisation and refinement of the archive products when possible;
- encouraging and contributing to the science exploitation of the missions’ data products through archive usage;
- participating in archive scientist meetings and user groups and sharing ideas and proposals for the strategy and promotion of the ESA science archives;
- supporting the scientific community on archive
- and data product-related questions.

As a scientist in the Department, you will be required to actively pursue personal scientific research, publishing articles using archival data, and to actively participate in the Department’s research activities.

**Technical competencies**
Experience in science operations, preferably in the context of ESA missions
Experience in science data management and archiving systems
Broad knowledge of scientific disciplines, including strategic vision in the area of heliophysics
Experience in coordinating the scientific community and managing multiple interfaces at international level

**Behavioural competencies**
Result Orientation
Operational Efficiency
Fostering Cooperation
Relationship Management
Continuous Improvement
Forward Thinking

**Education**
A PhD in heliophysics is required for this post.

**Additional requirements**
The following will be considered assets:

- Experience in promoting science to the wider scientific community and general public;
- Experience in agile and DevOps methodologies, human factors engineering (UX design) and associated technologies and their use in moder