Villafranca del Castillo, Madrid
Description:
Instrument Operations Engineer/Scientist, Planck Science Office, based at European Space Astronomy Centre, Madrid, Spain. For our activities in the European Space Agency, we are looking for an Engineer/Scientist with a PhD in astronomy to support the Planck Science Office. The main tasks of the Planck Science Office (PSO) are:
Detailed specification (in collaboration with the DPCs and the Planck Science Team) of the data products to be generated from the mission
Monitoring of the proper implementation of the data reduction activities carried out at the DPCs. In particular verification that the level of coordination between the two DPCs is sufficient to guarantee an integrated final set of data products.
Full responsibility in the requirement specification and implementation follow-up of the Planck Legacy Archive (PLA)
Release of the PLA to the Scientific Community and provision of Help-Desk services
Deliverables Overview:
Support to the mission planning activities of the PSO
Scientific reporting on instrument operations
Preparation and maintenance of the Instrument Calibration Handbook, documenting the instrumental signature on the Planck data and the step-by-step procedures that are required to calibrate them
Preparation and maintenance of the Instrument Data handbook specifying the general lay-out of the instrument data, the content and structure of the data products, from the raw TM to the final high level products generated by the pipeline processing SW, and summarising the corresponding processing steps applied to the data
Day-to-day interface between the DPC and the PSO for all that concerns data reduction and calibration of the instrument.
Active participation in technical and scientific working groups
Participation in the specification of reduction and/or calibration algorithms required to optimise the processing of instrument data. This activity will probably entail the actual prototyping of SW that will be ported later on into the pipeline environment by SW engineers (e.g. routines for OBT/UTC conversion)
Understanding of all aspects of the development and operations of the scientific data processing pipelines, in order to gain deep knowledge of the interactions between scientific processing (e.g. map-making, component separation, etc) and data calibration.
Analysis of calibration data with a view to refine and upgrade the calibration files used to pipeline-process all Planck data.
Contribution to the preparation of the Archive ICD, focusing on the HFI instrument data products to be ingested in the Planck science archive (Maps, Timelines, HK data, etc)
Coordination of DPC-to-DPC data exchange
Definition and maintenance, together with the DPC, of the systematic Quality Control procedures to be applied to all instrument data
Support the validation of the products to be ingested into the Archive (e.g. contribute the validation, develop automatic script)
Assessment of product quality and archival of scientific products and other deliverables
Cooperation with the Archive Scientists in the Archive implementation activities
Support to the Archive Acceptance testing and any related validation activity (e.g. PLA load test)
Contribution to the preparation of the Planck Legacy Archive Explanatory Supplement
Support the Planck legacy Archive Help Desk
Requirements:
Applicants require a PhD in Astronomy, or equivalent, together with a number of years work in a scientific support environment.
An understanding of the Plank mission targets
Space experiments, testing, operation, and calibration of scientific instruments,
Development of data analysis software programs,
Strong communication and co-ordination skills,
Comfortable working with a team of people, taking a proactive leadership role as necessary,
It is considered a requirement that an active involvement in astronomical research in one of the areas within the scientific objectives of Planck is fulfilled.
As an applicant you will be comfortable in an international working environment and be fluent in English, one of the official languages of ESA and be willing to travel.
If you think you have the skills and experience required for this post please make your application via our e-Recruitment site
If you have any questions regarding this opportunity please address them to our recruitment team at space.careers@serco.com
Application closing date: 01 August 2012
Start date: 01 September 2012
Duration: Until 31 December 2014
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