Esa Graduate Trainee in Space Transportation Strategy, Market Analysis and Engineering

ESA Graduate Trainee in Space Transportation Strategy, Market Analysis and Engineering

**Job Requisition ID**:20182

**Date Posted**:1 February 2026

**Closing Date**:28 February 2026 23:59 CET/CEST

**Publication**:External Only

**Type of Appointment**:ESA Graduate Trainee

**Directorate**:Space Transportation

**Workplace**:Paris, FR

**Grade Band**:F1 - F1

**Location**
- ESA Headquarters, Paris, France

**Our team and mission**
The position is located in the Space Transportation Policy and Communication Office reporting to the Head of Space Transportation Strategy and Institutional Launches responsible for:

- supporting the formulation of the European space transportation sector strategy;
- drafting decision documents for the ESA Council and its delegate bodies, in particular agreements, declarations and programme proposals for Ministerial Council decisions;
- coordinating the Directorate’s relations with Member States, EU institutions and other spacefaring States, conducting
related negotiations and coordinating joint events;
- assessing the value of ESA’s space transportation activities to Europe’s citizens and contributing to ESA socio-economic studies and to life cycle analysis;
- assessing the evolution of the worldwide space transportation supply and accessible demand providing regular analysis;
- coordinating the Directorate’s contributions to corporate action plans and advising on matters dealt with by the Executive Board at Director General level;
- leading the ESA Collective Launch Service Procurement and providing mission users with an end-to-end service on all launch service aspects, from mission design definition up to launch;
- acting as focal point for the Directorate’s interface with space transportation service providers;
- coordinating the Directorate’s assessment and coherent implementation of the governance for the new launch system development and exploitation phases;
- leading implementation of the Boost programme;
- leading the Directorate’s communication activities across sites and establishing the rolling communication plan for the Directorate’s external communication.-
**Field(s) of activity/research for the traineeship**
You will perform interdisciplinary research and comprehensive analysis on specific topics relevant to the global payload market for space transportation services (transport into, in and return from space), the set-up of and developments in the global space transportation sector and related market intelligence activities.You will learn about and be involved in the following activities:

- Monitoring, collecting and reporting on technical and strategic information related to payload market demand, space transportation systems and services, including micro-launcher developments worldwide.
- Analysing business trends and cases in the space transportation sector.
- Reporting regularly on and performing comprehensive analysis of space transportation systems and spaceports worldwide and keeping related catalogues up to date.
- Supporting systematic approaches for the collection, processing and analysis of market-related information through dashboards and other information tools and coordination of internal users.
- Helping maintain and harmonise up-to-date databases on the forecasting of worldwide payload market demand for space transportation services as well as on actual launches performed worldwide, including technical and financial information, and contributing to the setting up of new supplementary databases as required, including on topics such as space tugs and engines.
- Contributing to the continued implementation of a market intelligence tool, including the definition and processing of queries and maintaining of collected information.
- Performing comprehensive analysis of (i) public policy and strategy for the development and exploitation of launch systems in selected countries, and (ii) launch service provider strategies and trends in space transportation.
- Supporting relevant socio-economic impact assessments and proposing indicators.
- Performing detailed technical analysis of satellite and launcher system characteristics as well as launch service requirements for specific cases (e.g. satellite on-board propulsion, injection strategies, launcher performance, mapping of launcher subsystems).
- Supporting the preparation of Directorate documents for ESA's decision-making bodies related to the above, mainly for the Space Transportation Programme Board.
- Providing support to related communication activities.
- Helping the with other tasks, as required.

**Technical competencies**
Knowledge of relevant technical/functional domainsRelevant experience gained during internships, project work and/or extracurricular or other activitiesGeneral knowledge of the space sector and relevant activitiesKnowledge of ESA and its programmes/projects**Behavioural competencies**
Result OrientationOperational EfficiencyFostering CooperationRelationship ManagementContinuo