Internal Research Fellow (PostDoc) in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics

Our team and mission

This research fellowship will be carried out in ESA’s Advanced Concepts Team (ACT): a group of research fellows (post-docs) and ESA graduate trainees who originate from a broad variety of academic fields and are aiming for an academic career. Its task is to monitor, perform and foster research on advanced space systems, innovative concepts and working methods. It interacts externally almost exclusively with academia and operates as a truly interdisciplinary team bound to high scientific standards. Through its research, the team acts as a pathfinder to explore novel, potentially promising areas for ESA and the space sector, ranging from applied to fundamental research topics. An important task of the team is to communicate scientific trends and results, as input to the strategic planning of the Agency.

The team entered the field of computer science and applied mathematics in 2004, performing research related to discrete optimisation, distributed-parallel-GPU optimisation (e.g. pagmo2), Taylor-based numerical integration of ODEs (e.g. heyoka), differential algebra and high order automated differentiation (audi), quantum computation, and automated reasoning. 

Candidates are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the research done by the ACT (https://www.esa.int/gsp/ACT/), in particular in the field of computer science and the related open-source projects and competitions.

You are encouraged to visit the ESA website: https://www.esa.int/

Field(s) of activity/research for the traineeship

You will carry out research in the field of computer science and applied mathematics. Areas of research are partly chosen by you based on expert judgment, insights into trends and developments, and partly chosen by the team to follow the strategic directions of the Agency.

Potential areas include, but are not limited to:

• algorithmic engineering and high-performance computing;
• design and analysis of algorithms and data structures;
• discrete optimisation and operations research (e.g., integer linear programming and constraint programming);
• heuristics, meta-heuristics, and evolutionary computations;
• distributed and cloud computing;
• automated reasoning (e.g., formal and logic-based methods);
• non-standard computational models (e.g., quantum and bio-inspired computation);
• security and privacy (e.g., homomorphic encryption and anonymity);
• computational geometry, graph theory, and game theory.

Scientific responsibilities:

• Propose and conduct novel research in computer science and applied mathematics, collaborating where appropriate with universities in ESA Member States (through the Ariadna scheme: https://www.esa.int/ariadna).
• Develop and contribute to open-source projects, possibly building on past ACT projects (e.g., heyoka, pagmo2, audi, pykep, torchquad, obake, d-CGP). See: https://www.esa.int/gsp/ACT/resources/software.html.
• Organise and oversee competitions in computer science via the European Space Agency’s Kelvins platform (https://kelvins.esa.int) and optimize platform (https://optimize.esa.int).
• Coordinate the team’s participation in coding initiatives such as Google Summer of Code (GSOC) and ESA Summer of Code (SOCIS).
• Provide project support across all ACT scientific projects by proposing advanced computational paradigms, high-performance computing solutions, and advanced mathematical tools.
• Publish results in peer-reviewed journals and communicate findings to a broad audience inside and outside ESA.
• Guide and assist interdisciplinary projects with other ACT researchers.
• Support the maintenance and development of ACT’s IT infrastructure.
• Contribute to assessments on topics of strategic interest to ESA and provide in-house expertise for strategy development.

Technical competencies

Behavioural competencies

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

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

Education

You should have recently completed, or be close to completion of a PhD in computer science, mathematics, or informatics, with the subject of your thesis being relevant t the description of the tasks outlined above and be aiming to embark on an academic/research career. Preference will be given to applications submitted by candidates within five years of receiving their PhD.

Additional requirements

In addition to your CV and your motivation letter, please prepare a research proposal of no more than 5 pages. This proposal should be uploaded to the "additional documents" field of the "application information" section.

The position of Research Fellow at ESA’s Advanced Concepts Team (ACT) is similar to a regular academic Post-Doc placement, however with a few notable key differences:

1. ACT RFs have no teaching obligations. Nonetheless, they will likely be involved in the mentoring of ESA Graduate Trainees and stagiaires (student interns) within the team.
2. As the team does not have a professor-like position, ACT RFs are academically more independent than most post-docs. This implies more freedom but also more responsibility for their research directions and approaches.
3. ACT RFs join a diverse, changing and interdisciplinary research team embedded in a large space agency, in contrast to a more specialised, focused research group with close or similar competences.
4. ACT RFs need to actively reach out to other disciplines, to bring in their competences to interdisciplinary research projects and to encourage other researchers to join them in their core research projects (research at the intersections of disciplines). 
5. ACT RFs need to communicate their expertise and research results internally and externally, including potential implications and importance for ESA’s long-term strategy.

You should also have good interpersonal and communication skills and should be able to work in a multi-cultural environment, both independently and as part of a team. Your motivation, overall professional perspective and career goals will also be explored during the later stages of the selection process.