Internal Research Fellow in Strategic Foresight and Planning

Internal Research Fellowship Opportunity in the Director General's Services.

ESA is an equal opportunity employer, committed to achieving diversity within the workforce and creating an inclusive working environment. For this purpose, we welcome applications from all qualified candidates irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, beliefs, age, disability or other characteristics. Applications from women are encouraged.

This post is classified F2 on the Coordinated Organisations’ salary scale .

Location
ESA Headquarters, Paris, France  

You will be working for the Strategic Foresight Office (DG-5F) in the Director General’s Services and will be reporting to the Head of Office. The post will be based at ESA Headquarters in Paris, France.
The Strategic Foresight Office supports the Director General’s strategic thinking, discussions and planning, and decision-making on the future positioning of ESA and associated actions. It also contributes to strategic thinking at programmatic level and facilitates an ESA-wide coordinated approach to a global strategy. It looks beyond current expectations and develops a variety of plausible futures and scenarios to identify threats and opportunities, challenge current assumptions and increase ESA’s resilience and readiness throughout ESA’s strategy planning.

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

You will be mainly responsible for building the Futures Intelligence capacity of the Office. This role notably includes detecting, collecting, monitoring and flagging early signals in the ESA global environment (STEEPL-V), preparing briefs and reports on important signals for the Agency’s senior management, and feeding intelligence into foresight projects.

You will also participate in foresight projects, carrying out interviews and developing scenarios, as well as in designing, developing and managing research projects and studies that are procured by the Office.

Strong analytical and research skills

Excellent writing, drafting and communication skills

Ability to understand and cover a wide range of interdisciplinary issuess

Ability to structure large amounts of information in a clear, user-friendly way

Ability to transfer complex analytical content into short, high-level policy briefings

Ability to conduct research autonomously and efficiently

Ability to articulate research tasks with operational needs

Ability to deliver within short time frames, while adapting to evolving needs

Some knowledge of Strategic Foresight would be an asset

Communication
Self-Motivation
Problem Solving
Cross-Cultural Sensitivity
Results Orientation

You must have completed your PhD in a relevant field.

You must have had exposure to interdisciplinary issues.

The working languages of the Agency are English and French. A good knowledge of English is required for this post. Knowledge of other Member State languages would be considered an asset.

Other information

For behavioural competencies expected from ESA staff in general, please refer to the ESA Competency Framework .

For further information on the Internal Research Fellowship Programme please visit: Internal Research Fellowship

The Agency may require applicants to undergo selection tests.

In addition to your CV and your motivation letter, please add your proposal of no more than 5 pages outlining your proposed research in the "additional documents" field of the "application information" section.

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 at [email protected] .

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Please note that applications are only considered from nationals of one of the following States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Nationals from Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia, as Associate Member States, or Canada as a Cooperating State, can apply as well as those from Bulgaria and Cyprus as European Cooperating States (ECS).

According to the ESA Convention, the recruitment of staff must take into account an adequate distribution of posts among nationals of the ESA Member States*. When short-listing for an interview, priority will first be given to candidates from under-represented or balanced Member States *.

In accordance with the European Space Agency’s security procedures and as part of the selection process, successful candidates will be required to undergo basic screening before appointment conducted by an external background screening service. 

*Member States, Associate Members or Cooperating States.