Product Assurance & Safety Manager
Job Requisition ID: 19729
Date Posted: 9 July 2025
Closing Date: 17 August 2025 23:59 CET/CEST
Publication: Internal & External
Type of Contract: Permanent
Directorate: Technology, Engineering and Quality
Workplace:Noordwijk, NL
Grade Band: A2 - A4

DESCRIPTION

The Product Assurance and Safety (PA&S) Manager* will be assigned to the Science PA&S Office, Quality Department, Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality. The Science PA&S Office provides support to the missions and activities of the Directorate of Science for PA&S management and coordination.

Upon joining ESA, you will take over the role of LISA PA&S Manager and will be part of the LISA Core Team. While reporting hierarchically to the Head of the Science PA&S Office, you will report functionally to the LISA Project Manager, Science Programme, Directorate of Science for the specific responsibilities and duties outlined below.

• PA&S covers safety assurance, reliability, availability, maintainability, quality assurance, components, materials and processes, planetary protection and software product assurance.

EDUCATION

A master’s degree in a relevant engineering or scientific domain is required for this post.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

Proven experience in the area of PA&S for space projects is required.

In addition, you should have:

• a proven ability to coordinate and motivate a cross-functional team of experts without direct reporting lines;
• a demonstrated ability to manage complex decision-making processes, especially under pressure and in the context of conflicting positions or priorities;
• a strong aptitude for reaching pragmatic, solution-oriented, fact-based decisions that maintain adequate standards of quality;
• excellent interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal.

Previous experience working with international partners, such as other space agencies, is an advantage.

DUTIES

Your tasks and responsibilities will include:

• establishing and maintaining the PA&S requirements baseline in compliance with ESA policies;
• ensuring the implementation of PA&S requirements by industry and other supplying parties, such as CFI providers, supporting milestone reviews and participating in the process to verify compliance with requirements;
• monitoring the implementation of approved plans and specifications from industry and other supplying parties, such as CFI providers, ensuring that adequate resources are deployed for the execution of the PA&S programme;
• coordinating the technical aspects of relevant service support and acting as the primary point of contact between service functions and project teams;
• planning, coordinating and monitoring the support provided by the assigned PA&S workforce;
• participating in boards for the disposition of deviations from the requirements baseline (CCBs) and changes to the agreed design;
• representing ESA in the boards established for the disposition of non-conformances and anomalies and the definition and monitoring of relevant corrective and preventive actions (NRBs), for failure investigations, and for project technical reviews, such as MRRs, TRRs, PTRs and TRBs;
• ensuring the implementation of the reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS) programme, and the software assurance programme, including their support to design trade-off decisions and verification of requirements;
• monitoring the selection, procurement and use of electrical, electronic and electromechanical (EEE) components and materials, processes and mechanical parts (MPM);
• ensuring the monitoring of the manufacturing, assembly, integration and test activities through mandatory and key inspection points, test witnessing and quality assurance checks, for example;
• conducting the acceptance reviews of all contractual deliverable items;
• reviewing the safety data packages from industry and other supplying parties, such as CFI providers, as required, ensuring that they are made available on time to the relevant safety authorities, and supporting safety reviews and other key events for ground and launch safety;
• supervising PA&S activities during the launch campaign;
• performing any other PA&S tasks necessary to ensure a safe and successful mission.
• In carrying out these tasks, you will receive support from experts from the ESA Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality.

In addition to your project responsibilities, you will support the Head of the Science PA&S Office for improvement activities and cross-project coordination.

Upon joining ESA, you will take over the role of LISA PA&S Manager and will be part of the LISA Core Team. While reporting hierarchically to the Head of the Science PA&S Office, you will report functionally to the LISA Project Manager, Science Programme, Directorate of Science for the specific responsibilities and duties outlined below.

• PA&S covers safety assurance, reliability, availability, maintainability, quality assurance, components, materials and processes, planetary protection and software product assurance