Scheduler Service (Set up and control a SCI Mission Baseline Schedule)

We are looking for an engineering professional to add to a Scheduler Service (Set up and control a SCI Mission Baseline Schedule) on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA) for their location in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, to join their Space Transportation Directorate. The selected candidate should show integrity and professionalism.

Please note, the successful candidate will be employed by ATG Europe (or one of its subsidiaries). Furthermore, upon selection, they will be subject to a general security screening performed by an external provider (further information will be provided at interview stage).

The successful candidate will be tasked with, but not limited to:

• Issue the preliminary Study Master Schedule;
  • Collect top-level requirements for planning and evaluate all relevant technical and programmatic documentation available at mission level;
  • Advise study management team where supporting information is lacking and proactively collaborate to generate it, in support of a realistic schedule build-up;
  • Evaluate all available master schedules throughout the industrial consortium (e.g. but not limited to: ESA, industrial primes, CFIs) and issue recommendations for improvement;
  • Work with discipline technical leads to define the network logic, interfaces, key milestones and need dates;
  • Proactively verify the consistency between the schedules of the Industrial Contractors and CFI providers with respect to those of their lower tier suppliers, if available, to identify potential problem areas and to propose relevant mitigation actions;
  • Attend meetings as requested;
  • Set up trend charts and templates for reporting mission progress, in line with agency best practices, tools and in close cooperation with mission management team;
  • Integrate and develop the study mission schedule in collaboration with the study management team and discipline technical leads: define work activities and milestones, define durations and assign dependencies, create calendars and network logic, consider schedule size and granularity, run risk assessments and allocate relevant margins;
  • Run critical path analysis, advise on schedule risks and runs schedule scenarios;
  • Assist in planning the project work-scope across multiple international teams (ESA, industrial primes, CFIs);
• Issue the Mission Baseline Schedule;
  • Monitor and control the preliminary mission master schedule: perform complex schedule analysis including metrics, critical path analysis, schedule risk evaluation, float summary and assess the schedule performance at mission level;
  • Determine the criticality of schedule activities, evaluate and recommend alternatives for schedule improvement to the study team for discussion and/or decision, run simulations and what-if scenarios in support of mission management and technical teams decision process;
  • Set up trend charts and templates for reporting mission progress, in line with agency best practices, tools and in close cooperation with mission management team;
  • Prepare reports documenting the analysis and communicate on the content to the study team as well as to external stakeholders via the working interface;
  • Support all project stakeholders in understanding the current status of the planning in their work domain and issue recommendations for improvement, with particular focus on payload follow-up for science missions due to its high importance in the mission;
  • Proactively verify the consistency between the schedules of the Industrial Contractors and CFI/Payload providers with respect to those of their lower tier suppliers, if available, to identify potential problem areas and to propose relevant mitigation actions;
  • Develop, integrate and update the study mission schedule in collaboration with the study management team and discipline technical leads: define work activities and milestones, define durations and assign dependencies, create calendars and network logic, consider schedule size and granularity, run risk assessments and allocate relevant margins to enable accurate critical path analysis;
  • Create and update on monthly basis mission trend charts;
  • Run regular schedule update meetings with the study team and issue updated versions of the Preliminary Mission Master Schedule, as per instructed frequency;
  • Attend meetings as requested;
• Contribute to technical reviews at study level;
  • Attend meetings as requested;
  • Evaluate the provided data pack as per assigned documents;
  • Run full schedule assessment, including, but not limited to: schedule build-up (network logic, durations, calendars, constraints etc.), critical and sub-critical path analysis, schedule risks evaluation, trend performance, schedule margins, contingencies and float analysis;
  • Raise RIDs and Action Items;
  • Evaluate the updated schedule data, provided by industrial stakeholders for RID and/or Action Items closure;
• Set up the mission schedule control environment;
  • Customise ESA existent templates and tool entries in line with mission requirements;
  • Set up trend charts and templates for reporting mission status and progress, in line with agency best practices, tools and in close cooperation with mission management team;
  • Define schedule monitoring, control and reporting metrics and templates, if requested;
  • Define cut-off dates for schedule update and reporting (flow down of ESA cut off dates to Prime Contractor and CFIs);
  • Attend meetings as requested;
• Define, monitor and control mission schedule portfolio;
  • Plan, schedule, monitor and control all mission schedule portfolio submitted by various mission stakeholders in line with contractual agreements (e.g. but not limited to: Agency Controlled Milestones, SoW, MARD);
  • Work with discipline technical leads to develop schedules, define key milestones, identify critical and subcritical paths, assess schedule risks, list deliverables and assist in planning the project work-scope across multiple projects and teams;
  • Aggregate and synthesize lower level schedule inputs from industrial consortium and CFIs into a Mission Master Schedule, with particular focus on payload follow-up for science missions due to its high importance in the mission;
  • Verify the consistency between the schedule of the project Prime Contractor and CFI providers with respect to those of their lower tier suppliers, to identify potential risk areas and to propose relevant mitigation actions;
  • Monitor and compare the aggregated Mission Master Schedule against the Mission Baseline Schedule and highlight regularly any deviation of potential critical activity that needs proactive mitigation actions;
  • Create and update trend charts and milestone registries on a monthly basis and in line with mission needs;
  • Run full critical path analysis, evaluate schedule risks and recommend alternatives for schedule improvement to the program team for discussion and/or decision, run simulations and what-if scenarios in support of mission management and technical teams decision process;
  • Perform complex program schedule analysis including metrics, critical path, trend chart analysis, float overview, and schedule performance at mission level, with focus on existing margins and contingencies;
  • Establish and maintain regular schedule reporting from all mission elements and aggregate and integrate the schedules into the Mission Master Schedule or any other report templates, cumulated with associated trend charts and critical path analysis, in line with Agency monthly, quarterly and bi/yearly reporting process and needs;
  • Support all project stakeholders in understanding the current status of the planning in their work domain, support their management decision process by highlighting the schedule risks and potential impact on the launch milestone and/or project final deliverable milestone;
  • Participate in and assist in leading continuous improvement efforts through project status meetings, industry splinters and workshops on site or remotely;
  • Help raising awareness on the importance of schedule management and control within the project team as well as with all external partners;
  • Attend meetings as requested;
  • Perform other duties in the frame of schedule planning, monitoring and control domain as assigned;
• Contribute to technical reviews at project level;
  • Attend meetings as requested;
  • Evaluate the provided data pack as per assigned documents;
  • Run full schedule assessment, including, but not limited to: schedule build-up (network logic, durations, calendars, constraints etc.), critical and sub-critical path analysis, schedule risks evaluation, trend performance, schedule margins, contingencies and float analysis;
  • Raise RIDs and Action Items;
  • Evaluate the updated schedule data, provided by industrial stakeholders for RID and/or Action Items closure;
• Close out the mission schedule environment;
  • Update all schedule active documents to reflect the mission status at launch (e.g but not limited to: trend charts, milestone registries, mission master schedule, schedule timelines and so on);
  • Archive, under the guidance of the configuration management officer assigned to the mission, all schedule related documentation;
  • Run benchmark analysis on actuals versus baseline planning data reflecting the Spacecraft and CFIs performance, in line with WBS and Product Tree breakdown;
  • Update, with actuals, the Mission Baseline Schedule;
  • Support any other Agency endeavours on optimising project timelines and cost, as requested, based on mission closeout schedule information;
  • Support the Agency lessons learned and knowledge management processes at project closeout;
  • Write a Schedule Close-out Report.

• Engineering degree in a relevant discipline;
• At least 4 years of relevant work experience;
• Experience in mission planning in Space;
• Microsoft Project Professional;
• Visio Professional;
• Office Timeline;
• Microsoft 365 Office Software;
• Fluency in English, both written and spoken.

Please submit your application in English via the apply button below. Applications submitted in other languages will not be considered.