RF System Engineering

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 to ESA in the domain of PLT – RF Systems Payload and Technologies.
Happiness of our employees has proven key to obtaining excellent results and a client who also regards us highly for excellent service.

Overview

We are looking for 3 FTE’s to support the Radio Navigation Systems & Technology Division (TEC-ES). Tasks will cover the following:

Support and expertise to ESA activities enabling GNSS in safety-critical verticals / applications:

• Support and provide expertise to ESA in the frame of Working Groups, standardisation bodies, etc., survey and report to ESA the state-of-the-art and its evolutions.
• Support monitoring of industrial and R&D activities (participate to reviews, support the preparation of those activities, etc.).
• Analyse and simulate performance, solutions and concepts to enable GNSS in critical applications perform and participate to field campaigns, experiments, etc.

Support and expertise for PVT assurance activities:

• Expertise to analyse, define, design and test concepts, technologies and solutions (existing or innovative) in the field of Position Velocity Timing (PVT) assurance using GNSS and other Position Navigation Timing (PNT) technologies.
• Support ESA initiatives in this area with the update and/or development of SW, User Equipment algorithms, simulation tools (system, algorithms, etc.) and testbed involving software.
• Testing of commercial solutions using laboratory tools and field trials.

Support and expertise relating to cybersecurity of RF systems:

• Expertise to analyse, define, design and test concepts, technologies and solutions in the field cyber security for Radio Frequency (RF) systems, covering transversally all application and scientific domains.
• Support ESA initiatives in this area with the update and/or development of algorithms, simulation tools (system, algorithms, etc.) and testbed.

Support ESA in engineering activities, associated with the development and updates of engineering tools including but not limited to the following areas:

• RF system performance analysis and Service volume simulation.
•  Digital signal processing and user algorithms, including simulation of environment impairments, use of RF Constellation Simulator (RFCS) and Software-Defined-Radios (SDRs), etc.
• Navigation and sensor fusion algorithms involving GNSS, Precise Point Positioning (PPP), Real Time Kinematic (RTK), etc.
• Concepts and techniques for High Accuracy GNSS, PPP and PPP-RTK positioning.
• Assessment of associated integrity concepts (system performances, algorithms and software for network processors and computation of the corrections, user algorithms, etc.)
• Analysis relating to the use of space receivers (visibility analysis, system performances, testing of space receiver in the laboratory) and update of associated tools.
• Security algorithm and techniques design and testing.
• Telecom and data dissemination techniques and protocols.
• Physical, data, network layer techniques and simulations.
• Link budget analysis and simulations.

Technical support to maintenance, evaluative maintenance and operations of TEC-ES laboratories:

• Technical support for the RF System Division laboratories.

Specific qualification requirements

• Master Degree in Telecommunication Engineering with particular emphasis on digital communication system and sub-system. techniques, high-speed processing techniques for communication via satellites with at least 4 years of relevant experience.
• Expertise in one of the above mentioned fields with working experience in the other two is desirable.
• Knowledge of satellite communication architectures and techniques.
  Experience in analysis and design of modern digital communication systems, coding and synchronization issues.
• Familiarity with modern communication system and sub-system simulation techniques, as a minimum Matlab and C/C++ program languages.
• Knowledge of modern prototyping and testing methodologies for digital communication sub-systems is also preferred.
• Fluency in English (both written and spoken) is mandatory; knowledge of another European language is an advantage.
• Candidates must be eligible to obtain an EU personal security clearance as requested by ESA.

Legal and Security Requirements

• All applicants must be legally allowed to work in The Netherlands
• 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.
• 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.

Location

The work will be performed at the European Space Technology and Research Centre (ESTEC) at Noordwijk, The Netherlands.

Contract

• The selected candidate will receive good remuneration  in line with ESA Job Class.
• Will be registered for both social security and tax in the Netherlands.
• The standard working hours are 40 per week. There are 12 public holidays and an additional 30 annual days holiday.
• Training to improve efficiency and provide strength for future career are of course included.
• Aurora assist with relocation both with support and financially.
• Aurora contributes to a company pension scheme.

To be considered for this Position

Please apply via our Job Application form prior to 3 July 2020 quoting reference TEC-PLT-609 (RT-S/TEC-ES/00609).

Aurora will agree conditional employment terms and conditions with candidates before presenting them by 6 July 2020, 13.00 hours.

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