Archive Scientist

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Closing Date: 6 November 2026 23:59 CET/CEST

Directorate:
Human and Robotic Exploration

This is a fixed-term appointment with an initial duration of 4 years. Depending upon performance and organisational needs, the appointment may be extended up to a possible maximum duration of 8 years.

The Directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration Programmes (D/HRE) is a programme directorate within the ESA matrix structure. Through a partnership between humans and robots, D/HRE is dedicated to exploring destinations in space where humans are already living and working —– or will live and work in the future —– for the purpose of scientific research, economic development, international cooperation and public inspiration.

The Science Operations Department (SCI-S), within ESA’s Directorate of Science (D/SCI), hosts the scientists and engineers who oversee the space missions from study to the end of operations, develops the science operation systems for the missions and operates the missions in space, and archives and curates their data during operations and beyond. The Department provides support to D/HRE in the curation, archiving and dissemination of data from its planetary missions, such as the Rosalind Franklin Mission (RFM) and other Mars or lunar experiments.

Its main objective is to maximise the scientific output of the missions for the benefit of humankind.

You will be assigned as Archive Scientist for ESA planetary missions under the direct responsibility of the Chief Exploration Scientist reporting functionally to the Head of the Science Archives Development and Operations Section, also known as the ESAC Science Data Centre (ESDC) in the Data Science and Archives Division within the Science Operations Department (SCI-S).

You will have further functional reporting lines within the mission(s) you support, initially the ESA Exo Mars RFM and Comet Interceptor.

You will be responsible for the definition and specification of the scientific archive for the supported ESA planetary missions, initially the ESA Exo Mars RFM and Comet Interceptor, and for the follow-up and monitoring of its implementation and operation with the goal of maximising the scientific return of the missions. You will work in close collaboration with the planetary mission project scientists, the other mission archive scientists, the ESDC Software and Data Systems Architect and the members of the Planetary Science Archive User Group.

As Archive Scientist, your specific responsibilities will include:

• ownership of use cases and drivers for the mission archives, including:
  • interfacing with the Project Scientist, the Science Operations Centre (SOC) team, other archive science leads and other archive scientists, as well as the external stakeholders, such as the instrument teams and the mission scientific community, to provide the science use cases that drive the mission archive and determine the priorities for implementation;
  • providing scientific support and steering the development and operations of the archives for the supported ESA planetary missions, providing the ESDC development team with an archive user requirements document as a baseline for implementation;
• chairing and coordinating a mission-level Data Archive Working Group (DAWG);
• monitoring the implementation, testing and expected performance of the archive based on use cases gathered by the mission team and derived requirements; in particular, defining and performing the end user acceptance testing of the different archive versions prior to their release to the scientific community;
• with the help of the instrument operations scientists, supervising and coordinating the definition and provision of science data…