Quality Assurance Competence Area Manager at EUMETSAT

Quality Assurance Competence Area Manager

EUMETSAT is Europe’s meteorological satellite agency. Its role is to establish and operate meteorological satellites to monitor the weather and climate from space – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This information is supplied to the National Meteorological Services of the organisation’s Member and Cooperating States in Europe, as well as other users worldwide.
EUMETSAT also operates several Copernicus missions on behalf of the European Union and provide data services to the Copernicus marine and atmospheric services and their users.
As an intergovernmental European Organisation, EUMETSAT has 30 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom).

EUMETSAT is now inviting well qualified candidates from its Member States to apply for the following post:

POST: Quality Assurance Competence Area Manager
LOCATION: Darmstadt, Germany
DURATION OF INITIAL CONTRACT: The initial contract will be of 4 years’ duration, with subsequent 5 year contracts being awarded thereafter, subject to individual performance and organisation requirements. There is no limit to the amount of follow-up contracts a staff member can receive up to the EUMETSAT retirement age of 63 and there are certainly opportunities to establish a long career perspective at EUMETSAT.
BACKGROUND: Within the Process Assurance and Management Support (PRS) Division, the Quality Assurance Competence Area Manager (QA CAM) will lead several teams of Quality Assurance engineers/specialists who provide support to the whole organisation

DUTIES: The responsibilities of the holder of this post are as follows:

• Establish and manage the Quality Assurance Competence Area (QA-CA), including securing the continued availability of Quality Assurance expertise and know-how;
• Deliver quality assurance to all departments, defined as a set of quality policy objectives and responsibilities, addressing management processes, products and services, that provide reasonable assurance that programmes/projects and routine activities will meet their assigned targets;
• Maintain and implement a Quality Assurance Framework, in line with the EUMETSAT Management System (EMS) maintained under the supervision of the Quality Management unit and relevant standards;
• Liaise with Directors, Head of Quality Management, and Programme Managers for all quality assurance matters;
• Support the maintenance of the EUMETSAT Management System;
• Establish and promote the use of a cross-departmental, coherent and harmonised suite of Quality Assurance working practices in line with specific programme/project needs, and establish/maintain related metrics;
• Ensure implementation of QA requirements in relevant contracts, identifying
  issues, risks, non-conformities and associated implications;
• Perform and/or support EUMETSAT internal quality audits, in coordination with the Quality Management unit;
• Organise and perform Quality Audits on Contractors in line with established contractual requirements and procurement needs;
• Support the risk management process at all levels in EUMETSAT;
• Organise and perform regular Quality Assurance training/awareness sessions in coordination with the Quality Management unit;
• Provide reporting to management, including performance indicators, analysis of deviations, and trends for supported programmes/projects and activities;
• Deputise as required for the Head of the PRS Division in his absence.

QUALIFICATIONS:

University degree in Engineering, Physics or Computer Science

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Extensive experience in Quality Assurance, particularly regarding the design, procurement, and IV&V of complex, software-intensive systems/products. Experience gained in the field of space programmes, preferably Earth observation would be a distinct advantage;
• Demonstrated experience leading large Quality Assurance teams, developing people, managing performance and ensuring long-term continuity of critical skills;
• Experience defining and implementing Quality Assurance policies, objectives, working practices, and procedures;
• Experience running, or supporting, investigation and incident review boards;
• Solid knowledge and practice of the following standards:
  o ISO 9000 series;
  o ECSS/EN standards series.
• Certification as a lead Quality Auditor;
• Sound problem solving/analysis and monitoring skills;
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with a proven ability to apply these to working within and across teams, as well as a customer oriented approach.

The official languages of EUMETSAT are English and French. Candidates must be able to work effectively in English and have some knowledge of French.
CLOSING DATE: 08 January 2018
Interviews are tentatively scheduled for week 08/2018

Read more and apply here.