Product Assurance and Safety Manager - European Space Agency (Noordwijk)

About this position

The summary below is published by European Space Agency on the official vacancy notice. Our own analysis — salary realism, comparable openings, career trajectory, language profile — follows further down the page.

Key responsibilities

According to the vacancy notice, the role centres on the following duties:

• Define or support definition of programmatic and technical requirements in compliance with product assurance and safety requirements
• Review contractors' plans, specifications and effort for PA&S programme execution
• Guide and monitor implementation of PA&S requirements by contractors
• Participate in design and safety reviews
• Direct preventive or corrective actions
• Plan, coordinate and monitor PA&S support for project team
• Represent ESA on review boards for failures, tests, and non-conformance disposition
• Guide and monitor selection and procurement of electrical, electronic and electromechanical parts, materials and processes

Are you eligible?

Check these requirements from the notice before investing time in an application:

• Education: Master's degree in an engineering discipline
• Experience: Eight years of relevant professional experience in product assurance and safety
• Key skills: Knowledge of product assurance, quality assurance, and safety and quality management, Management and monitoring of industrial activities, Participation in reviews, Definition and application of product assurance and safety requirements baselines, tools and methods, PA&S technical domains, Space and commercial quality standards and their implementation
• Eligibility: Eligibility for security clearance and access to export control-related information

Contract and working arrangements

Contract duration: 4 years, extendable to indefinite.

Hiring unit: Resilience, Navigation and Connectivity (RNC) Product Assurance and Safety Section, Product Assurance Management Divisi….

Position details

Reference

1449912333

Last Verified

21 October 2026

Position overview

This is the official EU Careers listing for Product Assurance and Safety Manager at ESA based in Noordwijk (Other). The vacancy reference is 1449912333.

Job Requisition ID:21103

Date Posted:21 October 2026

Closing Date:11 November 2026 23:59 CET/CEST

Publication Method:Internal & External

Type of Appointment (learn more):4 years, extendable to indefinite

Directorate:Technology, Engineering and Quality

Location ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands

Description

You will be assigned to the Resilience, Navigation and Connectivity (RNC) Product Assurance and Safety Section, Product Assurance Management Division, Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality.

You will work as Product Assurance and Safety (PA&S) Manager to support projects in the Directorate of Resilience, Navigation and Connectivity. Under the coordination of the RNC Connectivity Team Lead, you will report hierarchically to the Head of the RNC Product Assurance and Safety Section and functionally to the project manager(s) of the project(s) you are assigned to. You will initially be assigned to support the SAGA project.

For the maintenance of professional standards, the implementation of ESA’s general Product Assurance and Safety policy and contributions to corporate tasks, such as reviews, standardisation, alerts and lessons learned, you will report to the Head of the Quality Department through PA&S line management.

Duties

Your specific responsibilities and duties will include:

- defining or supporting the definition of general and project-specific programmatic and technical requirements in compliance with the applicable product assurance and safety requirements, the RNC PA&S approach and ESA PA&S policy. RNC projects may involve public-private partnerships between ESA and the private sector, requiring the ability to engage with partners in accordance with ESA’s specific role; - reviewing contractors’ plans, specifications and effort proposed for the execution of the project PA&S programme; - guiding and monitoring the implementation of PA&S requirements by contractors in order to assess performance and effectiveness, participating in design and safety reviews and directing the necessary preventive or corrective actions; - planning, coordinating and monitoring any PA&S support for the project team; - representing ESA on boards established to conduct reviews, such as failure reviews and test reviews, and to determine the disposition of non-conformances and anomalies; - guiding and monitoring the selection and procurement of electrical, electronic and electromechanical parts, materials and processes and controlling implementation of applicable requirements; - ensuring the implementation of software PA requirements; - ensuring the preparation of design trade-offs, analyses and reports using reliability, availability, maintainability and safety data to support project decisions; - monitoring manufacturing, integration and test activities through quality assurance audits, mandatory and key inspection points, test witnessing and configuration inspections; - supporting the definition of acceptance requirements, as necessary, and participating in acceptance reviews of contractually deliverable items; - reviewing contractors’ PA&S analyses and safety data packages, ensuring that they are available by the planned dates to support safety review schedules, in coordination with the relevant safety authorities; - providing PA&S support for project assembly, integration and verification activities; - providing PA&S support during launch, validation, operation and service activities, as relevant. This may involve participation in launch campaigns; - supporting the identification and management of lessons learned and contributing to the quality management system as required; - supporting security activities as needed.

In the execution of these tasks, you will be supported by experts from the ESA Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality or service contractors.

Technical competencies

Knowledge of product assurance, quality assurance, and safety and quality management

Experience in the management and monitoring of industrial activities, including participation in reviews

Experience with the definition and application of product assurance and safety requirements baselines, tools and methods

Experience in the PA&S technical domains covered by the position

Experience with space and commercial quality standards and their implementation

Behavioural competencies

Education and professional experience

A master’s degree in an engineering discipline is required for this post together with, in principle, eight years of relevant professional experience in product assurance and safety.

Additional requirements

Significant experience as a PA&S Manager on space telecommunications or New Space projects is considered an important asset, particularly where this has involved working with institutional partners, industry and/or telecommunications operators and applying ECSS, other industrial and commercial standards, and Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) products.

Eligibility for security clearance and access to export control-related information.

Application timeline

This vacancy was first listed on 21 October 2026, today.

The application deadline is 11 November 2026, 20 days from today. Late applications are not accepted, so submit through the official EU Careers portal well in advance.

Last verified against the EU Careers feed on 21 October 2026.

Where to learn more

For headcount, mission, and other open vacancies at ESA see the ESA institution page; for the cost of living, correction coefficient, and other postings in Noordwijk see our Noordwijk location page.

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