Our team and mission

The Future Engineering Division, in support of the program directorates, is responsible for developing and providing the right Engineering Expertise, Tools, Methods and Standards for the development of future projects. The role of the Division’s AI and Data Science Section is to lead the Agency’s centre of excellence for Artificial Intelligence (AI). The section supports the development and exploitation of future space missions focusing on Artificial Intelligence technologies and techniques, development and verification methods for AI systems, data science technologies and development methods, identification of future applications of AI, and monitoring evolutions of advanced technologies (such as quantum computing) to explore their suitability for space applications.

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

Field(s) of activity/research for the traineeship

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being integrated into a wide range of applications relevant to space systems and all space domains. Some AI techniques like machine learning are now well established and provide results in many domains. Generative AI, large language models (LLM) and agentic workflows, have emerged recently and are evolving at a breathtaking pace. Applications of these latest approaches to the domain of space are considered very promising.

The objective of the activity is to prototype a multi-purpose decision support application for engineers, operators and astronauts that:

• Provide real-time, data-driven insights to support critical decision-making processes;
• Improve Collaboration: Facilitate seamless communication and collaboration between engineers, operators and astronauts;
• Increase Efficiency: Optimise spacecraft development, mission operations and exploration through predictive analytics and automation;
• Ensure trustworthiness: Provides reliable, interpretable and accountable outputs.

During the proposed activity, you shall:

1. Specify the requirements after analysis of the existing applications, consultation with experts from different domains (e.g., engineers, operators and astronaut training team);
2. Identify and characterise the most appropriate AI techniques and required data sources;
3. Define the overall architecture design considering existing infrastructure and services available at ESA;
4. Develop the core functionalities and associated models;
5. Verify and validated the prototype, evaluating the system’s performance under different conditions/for different applications;
6. Potentially update and optimise the models to improve performance and trustworthiness.

Technical competencies

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 should have just completed, or be in the final year of your master’ s degree in Artificial Intelligence or Computer Science.

Additional requirements

You should have good interpersonal and communication skills and should be able to work in a multicultural environment, both independently and as part of a team. Previous experience of working in international teams can be considered an asset. Your motivation, overall professional perspective and career goals will also be explored during the later stages of the selection process.

You should also be familiar with several of the following aspects:

• artificial intelligence techniques: Supervised Learning, Unsupervised Learning, Reinforcement Learning, Self-supervised Learning, Natural Language Processing, Transformers/LLMs, Symbolic AI;
• applications of AI techniques: Virtual Assistants, Text Processing, Speech Processing, Expert Systems, Recommender Systems;
• trustworthiness of AI, verification, validation of applications;
• security aspects specific to artificial intelligence.