Payload Electronics Lab Technician, meoSphere

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

meoSphere is SES’s next-generation Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite constellation, designed to deliver secure connectivity services to government agencies, enterprises, and commercial customers. It will also provide high-speed broadband internet to eliminate global connectivity dead zones.

To accelerate development timelines, reduce costs, and ensure quality, SES is internalizing a critical segment of the satellite supply chain: the final integration of partner satellite platforms with SES’s software-defined payloads, all within a cutting-edge manufacturing and test facility.

Role description summary

The Payload Electrnics Lab Technician is the primary point of contact for payload engineering and its related spaces. The role keeps the laboratory organized, safe, stocked and ready for engineering model and flatsat campaigns, and defines the policies that govern how it is used.

Alongside lab ownership, the role provides hands-on technical support to the payload engineering team: specifying and manufacturing test harnesses, reworking boards and building test setups.

It is deliberately a hands-on, generalist position. The successful candidate will work with their hands in the laboratory every day and will be trained in new disciplines, including space-grade harness manufacturing and rework standards, if needed.

In your first twelve months, you will set up the laboratory's organization, inventory and policies from the ground up, and support the integration and test of a complete payload comprising all the different subsystems of a satellite payload. Within two years, hardware you have helped build, wire and test will have flown in space.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES / KEY RESULT AREAS

Laboratory organization and policy

• Serve as the primary point of contact for the payload engineering laboratory and related spaces.
• Define, document and maintain the laboratory policy: access rules, bench allocation across concurrent campaigns, ESD-protected areas, housekeeping, and segregation of flight-representative from non-flight hardware.
• Keep the laboratory clean, tidy and organised, and enforce adherence to ESD protocols.
• Administer laboratory access and coordinate inductions and training on lab rules and instrument handling.
• Keep laboratory documentation current and compliant with health and safety standards, including risk assessments and safety data sheets.
• Ensure proper storage, labelling and handling of chemicals, consumables and equipment.

Inventory, stock and consumables

• Own the calibration programme: intervals, recall scheduling, coordination with external calibration houses, and retention of certificates traceable to national standards.

• Prevent use of out-of-calibration equipment through labelling, quarantine and register status, and maintain the associated records as verification evidence.

Equipment maintenance and calibration

• Track schedules and perform preventive maintenance and calibration of instruments, coordinating with external calibration houses and retaining certificates traceable to national standards.
• Prevent use of out-of-calibration equipment through labelling, quarantine and register status, and maintain the associated records as verification evidence.

Harness Manufacturing & Hands-On Test Support

• Specify test and EM harnesses from interface requirements, selecting wires, connectors, backshells and accessories.
• Produce and maintain harness drawings, wire lists, pin-outs and BOMs under configuration control.
• Manufacture, modify and repair test and EM harnesses to controlled drawings, wire lists and BOMs.
• Perform continuity, insulation resistance and pin-out acceptance testing before first mate and record the results (training provided).

Board rework and engineering support

• Rework and repair electronic boards: component replacement, through-hole and SMD soldering, modifications and inspection.
• Build and maintain test setups for engineering and AIT campaigns, including fixtures, adapters and break-out boxes.
• Provide hands-on support to assembly, integration and test activities.

Qualifications Background and Experience

• Technical diploma, apprenticeship, HND/BTS or Bachelor's degree in Electronics, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics or Electromechanical Engineering, or equivalent demonstrable experience.
• Minimum of 2 years of relevant experience in a laboratory, workshop, integration, test or production environment.
• Proven hands-on soldering and board rework skills, including SMD components.
• Practical harness skills: crimping, connector assembly, cable routing and labelling.
• Ability to read schematics and work instructions, and to read and produce harness drawings, wire lists and BOMs.
• Experience organizing a laboratory or workshop: stock and consumables management, housekeeping and working to safety rules.
• Disciplined approach to documentation, inventory and traceability, with a methodical, process-oriented mindset and a genuine appetite to learn new disciplines on the job.
• Fluency in English, both written and spoken.

Nice to have

• Space-grade workmanship certification (ECSS-Q-ST-70-08, ECSS-Q-ST-70-26, IPC J-STD-001, IPC-7711/7721 or IPC/WHMA-A-620); training will be provided.
• Experience with an electrical CAD or harness design tool (e.g. SolidWorks Electrical, Zuken E3.series).
• Knowledge of ESD control programmes (e.g. IEC 61340-5-1) and of safe storage and handling of chemicals.
• Experience of calibration management, inventory control, or cleanroom and contamination control.
• Experience of drafting laboratory procedures or policies.
• Familiarity with workshop equipment such as 3D printers or CNC machines.
• Any other European language.

Other key requirements / comments

• Eligibility for ESA/EU SECRET personnel security clearances is essential. Candidates must be prepared to undergo a security clearance procedure, as this position may require holding such clearance
• This is a fully onsite, hands-on role based at the payload-dev laboratory in Luxembourg
• Willingness to travel occasionally within Europe to suppliers, radiation testing premises and training providers.

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