Digital Equipment Engineering for RF Payloads

Telespazio Belgium can count on more than 45 years of experience in the field of Space Operations Service & Engineering activities. We provide a significant contribution to the most major Space programs of the European Space Agency, EUSPA and other Telespazio Groups. Our core business is to work on the ground to build bridges into space, contributing to the success of ambitious missions. The European Space Agency is our biggest client and we provide highly qualified employees to many sites of ESA but mainly for ESTEC in the Netherlands, and we provide a permanent contract with great benefits, a good salary, a relocation package along with genuine support to our employees. Telespazio Belgium has an on‑site service at ESTEC in the Netherlands, and we are looking for a highly skilled Digital Equipment Engineer for RF Payloads to work there. Candidates must be eligible for a security personal clearance from an EU Member State national security administration What is expected from you: Contribution to the engineering work in the field of Digital equipment for RF payloads in support to ESA Projects, which includes: Providing expertise to support Projects (and Studies) throughout all project phases, performing and documenting all relevant analyses and contributing to meetings and reviews; Supporting and performing “in-house” design and trade-offs, carrying out computer simulations for the assessment of end-to-end performance, to support project specific technology developments; Providing hands-on Digital Equipment modelling and testing to support projects, which will require proper coordination with the corresponding Laboratory Service; Identification, implementation, validation, and operation of the relevant section tools for the purpose of supporting Projects or ESA R&D activities, in particular: Participating in the development, validation, deployment and maintenance of relevant internal software tools and databases; Liaising with Technical Responsible for the proper configuration of software / hardware either developed in the service itself or originating from external activities; Support to Staff in the implementation of R&D activities in the technical domain. This includes: Providing technical inputs to the definition of technology roadmaps and contributing to relevant reviews and meetings with Industry / Academia; Monitoring applicable scientific and technological trends and maintaining state of-the-art expertise in Digital equipment for RF Payloads; Contributing to the definition of technical requirements and statements of work for the tasks to be performed by industry from early conceptual studies to full hardware development; Reviewing output from industry / academia and providing inputs to the ESA Technical Officer. This includes – when relevant – the conduction of software or of hardware tests in a Divisional laboratory, which will require proper coordination with the corresponding Laboratory Service; The candidate will need to demonstrate recognised expertise and experience in RF Digital Equipment, including: Architectural definition, design, development, characterisation and performance evaluation of RF Payloads/Instruments Control, Data and (Digital) Signal Processing Units (e.g. telecom digital transparent and regenerative processors, digital signal generation and signal processing units, etc.), Payload Signal and Data Processing, including advanced techniques (e.g. digital beamforming, Machine Learning/Al techniques, etc.) supporting instrument operation and operative modes, Payload Data Compression and Encryption, RF Payloads/Instruments related Devices (e.g. ASIC, FPGA, DSP) specification/ validation, in close cooperation with other divisions/sections of the Agency. What you offer: University Master’s degree in Telecommunications, Electronics or Computer Science Engineering. Several years of experience in the design and development of Digital Equipment for RF Payloads, including simulation and programming tools Very good knowledge of Digital Processing Systems and Technologies, including architectures for RF systems and SDR, main functional blocks and internal/external interfaces, together with associated technologies and components, such as Input/Output Interfaces, High-speed data conversion (A/D and D/A), DSPs, FPGAs, CPUs. The following are considered important assets: Experience on Design and development of digital processing architectures for RF systems, and definition of key parameters and budgets in the context of different RF system application domains (e.g. RF payloads for Earth Observation, Telecom, Navigation or other relevant ones), Experience on Design and validation of algorithms and techniques such as modulation, digital beamforming, machine learning/artificial intelligence, forward error correction, filters, data compression and cryptography, etc., Experience on evaluation of algorithms and techniques figures of merit, such as implementation complexity and performance, and optimizations to fit the system constraints, such as power, latency, etc., Experience on Digital System Design, including ASIC/FPGA/IP Core usage and development & verification processes and languages (such as VHDL, Verilog) What we offer: A competitive salary 30 days of paid annual leave, plus the days ESTEC is closed including public holidays (~12 days) based on a 40-hour working week; Hybrid working scheme (3 days in the office and 2 days remote in the Netherlands) Flexible working hours; you are in charge of your own agenda respecting core working hours Fully paid collective extensive health insurance scheme; A good pension scheme with no personal contribution; A career development (Coursera membership + training budget); Travel allowance; Extensive relocation package Where: You will be working within ESTEC, the European Space Agency’s offices in the Netherlands as a contractor for Telespazio Belgium. We don’t expect the employees to be on-site full time however you will still have to relocate to the Netherlands for this position . Check out the ESTEC site here: esa.int/About_Us/ESTEC When Deadline to apply: ASAP Please note that interviews will be held via Teams. We look forward to receiving your application for this position!