All the highlights from ESA Careers Week

This was the first time that a full week was dedicated to careers at ESA and it was fantastic to see attendees tuning in from all over the world for panel discussions, Q&A sessions, interviews with staff members, a careers fair and more! You can now catch up on the events you may have missed or want to double back to – scroll down to catch up on the action.

Day 1

The Future of Careers at ESA
ESA’s Director General, Josef Aschbacher, introduces the Careers Week, and hands over to ESA’s HR experts for a panel discussion of ‘The Future of Careers at ESA’. This conversation addressed the transformative effect of the ongoing recruitment wave at ESA combined with the impact of Covid-19 on working life.

Meet the Optical Engineering Team
Dive into Optical Engineering and hear about the projects, goals, challenges and work environment from ESA staff.

Meet our People: Life in an ESA Project
Experts working in the Ariel satellite project team explain the incredible team effort required to bring this complex project from early inception to a successful launch that paves the way for exciting scientific discoveries. Ariel is one ESA’s science missions that will be launched in 2029 and will discover the composition of exoplanets by examining their atmospheres.

Day 2

Meet the IT Team
Members of ESA’s IT team give a look behind the scenes and discuss what it is like to work for the IT Department at ESA.

Meet our People: Preparing ESA Projects 
Research and development plays a key role as part of ESA’s mission to share the development of Europe’s space capability and to keep European industry at the leading edge of technology development. In this session, ESA experts working in the Concurrent Design Facility, Phi-Lab and the ARTES Programme talk about their activities and how these contribute to the overall ESA mission.

Meet our People: Launching and operating ESA projects
Once the preparatory work has been completed, and the satellite developed and manufactured, the next step is launch and operations with a view to ensuring that it fulfils its original mission objectives. For this roundtable discussion, ESA experts working in launchers, operations, mission management and scientific data processing share their insights into the final phases of a mission, when all the planning and development comes to fruition.

Day 3

Ask HR
We asked our followers on social media to send in questions they would like to ask the ESA HR Department. Tune in for an in-depth look at careers and recruitment here at ESA!

Entry-level Programmes
This session covers the programmes ESA offers to young professionals who are either still studying or are at the beginning of their career. Find out about the range of programmes from their coordinators plus other colleagues and programme participants.

ESA Academy
ESA Academy is ESA's overarching programme for undergraduate to PhD level students, offering opportunities that enrich and complement their education, from training courses to the manufacturing of satellites. Check out the video to learn about these opportunities, how to get involved and what the future of ESA Academy looks like.

Day 4

Meet the Navigation Team
Dive into our navigation activities and hear about the projects, goals, challenges and work environment from ESA staff working in the Navigation Directorate and the Directorate for Technology, Engineering and Quality.

Careers Fair
ESA Careers Week culminated in an online careers fair, which included one-on-one meetings with ESA representatives, HR workshops and presentations on projects at ESA. If you would like to meet up with ESA representatives at future events, you can keep up to date on the upcoming careers events that ESA will attend – find the schedule here.

Careers at ESA

Working life at ESA

Want to learn more about working at ESA? Take a look at our pages on life at ESA and work-life balance. For more information about the different ESA sites, check out ESA establishments.

Join us

Browse our current vacancies on our recruitment site and set up a job alert to stay informed of new positions that match your skills and experience profile.

Learn more about ESA’s programmes and missions

Still have questions? Head to our FAQ page.