Our team and mission

This position is based at the ESA HQ – Paris, France

The Director General and Council Support Division within the Director General’s Cabinet is responsible for providing all necessary support to the day-to-day work of the ESA Director General, in particular:

• Supporting the Director General’s operational activities in coordination with the Director General’s Office;
• Maintaining relations with ESA Member States, including pre-Council consultations, as well as meetings and visits of the Director General. This responsibility includes maintaining briefing notes and up-to-date dossiers on each Member State and ensuring ESA-wide coordinated preparation;
• Preparing the Director General’s internal meetings, providing in particular the secretariat of the Executive Board and organising bilateral meetings with Directorates;
• The Director General’s correspondence, speeches, presentations, reporting and contributions to publications;
• The protocol service, in particular maintaining a diplomatic network and managing the VIP participation to launch events with the support of the communication services;
• Monitoring subsidies granted to third parties and memberships.

Candidates interested are encouraged to visit the ESA website: http://www.esa.int

Field(s) of activity for the internship

Topic of the internship: Member States Relations

You will put into practice the knowledge acquired during your studies, while supporting the activities of the DG Support and Members States Relations Section within the Director General’s Cabinet.

The main tasks will be, in coordination with the other interns of that team, to support the daily tasks of the team and in particular:

• continuous monitoring of space activities and trends, political developments, and policy-related topics of selected ESA Member States;
• contributing to the weekly updating and distribution of the Member States observatory and associated products;
• supporting the preparation of background input for meetings of the Director General with ESA Member States;
• supporting the preparation of presentation material for engagements of the Director General;
• ad-hoc tasks in support of the team’s activities.

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 in your final or second-to-last year of a university course at Master’s level and you need to remain 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 Member State language would be an asset.

Knowledge and background in the areas of political or social science, international relations, space law, policy, and/or related fields is an asset. A short written test might be conducted as part of the selection process.