Our team and mission

This position can be based

• At the ESA HQ – Paris, France
• At the EBO – ESA Brussels Office

The Director General and Council Support Division is responsible for

– providing all necessary support to the day-to-day work of the Director General, in particular:

• supporting the Director General’s operational activities in coordination with the Director General’s Office;
• 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;
• 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;
• monitoring subsidies granted to third parties and memberships.

– the preparation and functioning of the ESA Council and coordination of its subordinate bodies, in particular:

• the Council secretariat, including support to the Council Chair;
• supporting the Council and subordinate bodies and delegations;
• managing the practical organisation and operation of the meetings of the ESA Council at ordinary and ministerial level, including Space Council meetings, and coordinating with all relevant services to ensure a smooth running of these meetings;
• establishing the calendar of Council and subordinate body meetings;
• the effective decision-making process, by ensuring proper coordination and harmonisation of the working methods of Council and its subordinate bodies, together with the respective Chairs and Secretaries.

The Head of the Director General and Council Support Division is deputy to the Head of the Director General’s Cabinet and is responsible for the quality management and risk coordination of the Cabinet.

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

Field(s) of activity for the internship

You can choose between the following topics:

1) Topic 1: ESA Member States National security policy and capabilities’ review in support of DG-OS daily work as well as in preparation of CM25

Security from Space aims at defining space contributions to mitigate security challenges on Earth (the impact of Climate Change on land, sea and air and how this affects local populations including but not limited to human migration, human trafficking, illegal activities, border control, etc.). Space supports civil security crisis response.

You will support the Office to identify national policies of European states and their allies, the EU, as well as competitors with respect to civil security/safety/protection; monitor existing national space capabilities and their link to security applications and if and how they can network together in support of the Civil Security from Space programme and Rapid and Resilient Crisis Response Accelerator. This entails the identification of capability gaps.

2) Topic 2: EU Space Law Monitoring/Adequacy with ESA Member States space regulations

The European Commission has been preparing the European Space Law for over a year (twice postponed).The upcoming European Space Law (most certainly a “Regulation”) should focus on three pillars: safety; stemming risk of collision from space debris, sustainability; calculating and reducing the impact of space activities, and resilience; mainly related to protection against cyber threats. The Space Law is a step towards rules harmonization between member states and will have an impact on ESA policies and activities. Currently, 11 EU countries have their own national space laws, each with their specific scope, sophistication, and requirements, and the number could increase.

You will follow all development towards the adoption of the EU Space Law, examine potential security-related impacts and potential challenges with national space laws as well as with relevant ESA internal regulations. You will also analyse how such an EU Law could affect the space and security industry as well as European and national security space programmes.

3) Topic 3: Space systems and Dual-Use: the case for ESA and commercial companies

The commercial sector both in the US and in Europe is successfully developing solutions that were previously only pursued by government. this has led the US Space Force to work on fully integrating commercial solutions into the national security space architecture to maintain the US’s competitive advantage in the sector.

How could ESA contribute to creating European commercial space champions in support of European space security and defense for Europe to leverage the use of commercial space solutions in a new “hybrid” architecture?

How could the US Space Force Commercial Space Strategy be translated into the European context?

4) Topic 4: Coordination and Cooperation with partners

ESA has a long-standing relationship with EU partners in the field of security, and especially the European Defence Agency (EDA). Under the close scrutiny if the Principal Security Strategy Officer, based in the ESA Brussels Office (EBO), you will contribute to monitoring EDA’s space activities, and following/assessing opportunities for further dialogue and/or cooperation / coordination. Residency in the EBO may be necessary for effective task handling.

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 Space, Security and Defense, EU institutions, Space Law is an asset.