Junior Professional in Digital Manufacturing

Junior Professional in Digital Manufacturing

Job Requisition

Closing Date: 28 July 2026 23:59 CET/CEST

Directorate:
Technology, Engineering and Quality

This post is part of ESA’s Junior Professional Programme. We are looking for enthusiastic candidates with up to 3 years of relevant professional experience after their Master's degree to join ESA for a four-year assignment. During this time, you will be actively working and learning on the job and will benefit from valuable mobility and developmental opportunities that will prepare you for a successful career ject to performance, it is therefore the intention to offer you an indefinite contract which will start at the end of the four years.

Recruitment will take place at the A1 grade on the Coordinated Organisations’ salary scale. At the end of the fourth year and if you are offered an indefinite contract at the end of your Junior Professional assignment, you will be upgraded to the A2 grade.

ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands or other site, as required.

Developmental assignments form an integral part of the Junior Professional Programme and may entail a temporary relocation to another ESA establishment or other location.

The Structures Mechanisms and Materials Division is the Agency’s centre of competence for all areas related to spacecraft and launcher structures, mechanisms, tribology and pyrotechnic devices, as well as materials and processes. A non-exhaustive list of the domains covered includes spacecraft and launcher lightweight structures, stable structures, advanced and traditional materials and processes for all spacecraft and launcher system and subsystem manufacturing, structural dynamics, damage tolerance, deployable structures/booms, active structures, hold-down and release devices, electrical motors for space mechanisms, launcher and re-entry vehicle hot and cold structures, landing attenuation systems, seals, valves, parachute systems, separation systems, solar array drive mechanisms, reaction wheels, pointing mechanisms, pyrotechnics, bearings and tribology aspects.

Within its area of competence, the Division provides engineering support to all ESA missions, and is responsible for the implementation of technology development programmes to enable future missions.

To meet its objectives, the Structures, Mechanisms and Materials Division is equipped with world-class computational facilities and has direct access to ESTEC’s world-leading Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory, covering the full spectrum of material characterisation testing capabilities and failure investigation. Moreover, the Division operates the Mechanisms Hands-On Laboratory for space mechanisms and micro-vibration characterisation and modelling.

Thanks to its highly interdisciplinary nature, the Structures, Mechanisms and Materials Division very much fosters and maximises cross-fertilisation opportunities offered by digitalisation, artificial intelligence, computational materials engineering and digital twinning across all engineering and technology domains.

You will work in a multi-disciplinary function both within the Division and with industrial interfaces. In particular, you will:

• develop microstructural models/analyses, materials and process modelling/verification frameworks, and mechanism modelling and testing, with a clear focus on the state of the art and evolution opportunities in the digitalisation environment;
• define all currently adopted digital twin, artificial intelligence and machine learning practices in the three above-mentioned areas;
• foster cooperation between materials and process engineering, mechanical engineering and mechanism development where a digital twin and virtual testing application will provide the highest benefit (with clearly identified figures of merit in terms of design and performance improvement, lead time and cost reduction);
• develop digital models for those three case studies and define/perform a verification test campaign for each of the three elements, targeting a well-identified spacecraft/launcher qualification test campaign;
• develop a virtual test campaign, to be performed in a fully virtual…