Intern in the Mission Operations Dept., Mission Operations IT & Operations Control Centre Section
Darmstadt, DE
Location
ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany
Our team and mission
Under the direct authority of the Director of Operations, the Mission Operations Department is responsible for the preparation and conducting of flight operations for all ESA missions. For this purpose, the Mission Operations Department is the primary interface of OPS towards the Programme Directorates. In addition to operational support to ESA customer missions, the Department is responsible for the support to missions of external customers and, in particular, to missions of other space agencies. Operational activities include both spacecraft and related ground segment operations.
The Mission Operations IT and Operations Control Centre team is devoted to providing essential infrastructure and platform services for mission operations. The team ensures that control rooms and the related IT infrastructure remain fit for purpose and that they continuously evolve to meet current and future needs. The managed physical and virtualized computing, storage, and communication systems provide the backbone for ESA’s operations capabilities, spanning ESOC and ESA’s network of antenna stations.
Candidates interested are encouraged to visit the ESA website: http://www.esa.int
Field(s) of activity for the internship
Topic of the internship : Power Up ESA Ground Communications with Next-Gen SDWAN
Why This Matters
At ESA, we’re levelling up our global ground station network by rolling out SDWAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) – a game-changer in wide-area networking. Unlike our legacy setup that only ensures availability, SDWAN unlocks smarter link management and bandwidth aggregation across multiple connections. This isn’t just IT evolution – it’s the future of ground communications.
What You’ll Dive Into
You’ll help research, hands-on configuration and testing, as well as tool scouting to supercharge ESA’s ESTRACK network. Your mission: uncover SDWAN features, use cases, and open-source tools that boost resource efficiency, reliability, and performance.
Pick Your Adventure
Choose one of these cutting-edge focus areas and make it your own:
- monitoring: build dashboards and alerts that keep ground stations in sync.
- automation: script workflows and self-healing processes for zero-touch operations.
- federation: connect ESA-IT with CNES, NASA, SSC and create a seamless SDWAN fabric.
- security Controls: design robust policies to protect space-critical data.
- disaster Recovery & Business Continuity: architect fail-safe configurations for zero downtime.
- network Management: optimize control planes, policies, and performance tuning.
- bandwidth Aggregation: unlock full link potential across multiple connections.
What You’ll Gain
- real-world experience with Cisco SDWAN – a skill sought after by leading tech and space orgs.
- collaboration with global teams and exposure to cross-agency best practices.
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 must be a university student, preferably studying at master’s level. In addition, you must be able to prove that you will be enrolled at your University for the entire duration of the internship.
Additional requirements
The working languages of the Agency are English and French. A good knowledge of one of these is required. Knowledge of another ESA Member State language is an asset.
During the interview, your motivation for applying to this role will be explored.
For this position you should have:
- computer Science / Network Engineering.
- cisco SDWAN (or interest in learning this).
- interest or experience in Network engineering:
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- general network concepts (i.e TCP/IP, VPN, WAN, MPLS, QoS, Bandwidth aggregation).
- dynamic routing (we currently use OSPF and BGP).
- software Defined Networks - SDN (i.e. Cisco ACI).
- security fundamentals (Symmetric vs Asymmetric encryption, Hashing, Signing, certificates, CIA, AAA, policies vs procedures, etc.).
Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness
ESA is an equal opportunity employer, committed to achieving diversity within the workforce and creating an inclusive working environment. We therefore welcome applications from all qualified candidates irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious beliefs, age, disability or other characteristics.
At the Agency we value diversity, and we welcome people with disabilities. Whenever possible, we seek to accommodate individuals with disabilities by providing the necessary support at the workplace. The Human Resources Department can also provide assistance during the recruitment process. If you would like to discuss this further, please contact us via email at contact.human.resources@esa.int.
Important Information and Disclaimer
During the recruitment process, the Agency may request applicants to undergo selection tests.
The information published on ESA’s careers website regarding internship conditions is correct at the time of publication. It is not intended to be exhaustive and may not address all questions you would have.
Nationality
Please note that applications are only considered from nationals of one of the following States: Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Applicants from Canada as a Cooperating State can apply as well as those from Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Malta as European Cooperating States (ECS).
