Description

The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe's gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe's space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. ESA’s annual budget for 2025 is 7.7 billion Euro, with a workforce of 6449 comprising staff and contractors.

You will report to the Director General and will be responsible for contributing to ESA-wide management as a member of the ESA Executive Board, supporting the Director General in his responsibilities in the pursuit of ESA's overall objectives, fostering efficiency, and ensuring compliance with the applicable regulatory framework.

The Directorate of Navigation has a workforce of around 300 staff and contractors spread across various ESA sites and an annual budget of about €1 billion.

Duties

In the framework of the ESA matrix organisation comprising programme directorates and support directorates, and under delegation from the Director General, you will be responsible for the definition, planning and execution of the Agency’s Navigation programmes, consistent with ESA Strategy 2040 and taking into account the worldwide environment and its main actors: space agencies, manufacturing and service industry, science communities, satellite operators, public and private stakeholders, and customers, as well as the European Union and the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) as major partners and funding entities for navigation programmes.

This includes Galileo and EGNOS Development, Deployment and Support to Exploitation Phases and the Horizon Europe Programme as delegated by the European Commission and EUSPA to ESA in accordance with the applicable Financial Framework Partnership Agreement (FFPA).

Additionally, it includes the Navigation Innovation and Support Programme (NAVISP), the FutureNAV programme, and any other navigation-related activities at ESA such as those carried out in collaboration with other ESA programme directorates.

You will liaise with external entities (Member State delegations, European Commission), industry (space and non-space), academia, international partners, and other stakeholder organisations, as required.

You will actively work to ensure the well-being, motivation, training and career progression of your Directorate workforce, incentivising a spirit of initiative, transparency, information flow and coordination with other directorates.

You will also be responsible for identifying, assessing, managing, and reporting the health and safety risks in your area of responsibility.

Technical competencies

Behavioural competencies

Forward Thinking
Result Orientation
Operational Efficiency
Fostering Cooperation
Relationship Management
Continuous Improvement

For more information, please refer to the ESA Core Behavioural Competencies guidebook

Education

Applicants for this post should have at least a master’s, preferably in a technical or scientific subject.

Additional requirements

Key qualities required for the post are an innovative spirit and a strategically oriented mind, a proven capacity to lead change and manage people and teams, excellent relationship management, negotiation skills and the ability to influence high-level decisions.

In addition, you should have:

• the ability to provide strategic direction to the individuals and teams and to relate team objectives to the overall, evolving organisational goals and context;
• demonstrated excellent leadership, relationship management and communication skills;
• the ability to anticipate problems, solve complex issues and relate situations to their context;
• the ability to reach solution-oriented, pragmatic and timely decisions of a high standard and with integrity as well as to support others (team members, upper management, other stakeholders) in this process.