Service Operations Engineer, IRIS2

IRIS2 is the new European Union secure satellite constellation. This project is the European Union's answer to the pressing challenges of tomorrow to provide secure connectivity services and enhanced communication capacities to the EU and its Member States as well as to governmental users, private companies and European citizens while ensuring high-speed internet broadband to cope with connec-tivity dead zones.

SES – together with other consortium partners and core members - was selected by European Commission to build and to operate the IRIS2 multi-orbit satellite constellation. 
The IRIS2 team enters the next project phase and there is a strong need for support for all the activi-ties around service provisioning and products that the system can offer in the future. 

ROLE DESCRIPTION 

You will be part of an agile project organization where a flexible way of working and an adaptive mindset is required.   

The Service Operations Engineer IRIS2 (Engineering & Process Definition) is primarily focused on designing, defining, and documenting the operational procedures and engineering frameworks that will guide the deployment, monitoring, and management of next-generation satellite-based services in the IRIS2 constellation. This role will create the blueprint—from terminal commissioning processes to OSS/BSS integration—ensuring that future Operations teams have robust, well-structured guidelines and standards to follow for reliable service delivery.

Strong synchronization with SES-internal departments, collaboration with consortium partners, and frequent exchanges with the institutional customer are of essence in the role. Agility in the production of internal and deliverable documentation is fundamental to achieve. 

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

Commissioning & Decommissioning Framework

• Contribute to the development of automated procedures and checklists for the onboarding (commissioning) and offboarding (decommissioning) of terminals, network elements, and associated infrastructure.
• Document best practices, technical workflows, and required tools that will enable efficient service provisioning.

Service Request Validation & Workflow Engineering

• Support the definition of criteria for assessing the feasibility of new service requests, including capacity checks, technical constraints, and compliance considerations.
• Create standardised workflows within OSS/BSS platforms to ensure requests are properly captured, reviewed, and approved by relevant stakeholders.

Monitoring & Control Methodologies

• Cooperate to design the approach for continuous monitoring of services, identifying key performance indicators (KPIs), thresholds, and escalation paths.
• Specify the integration points between monitoring tools and OSS/BSS systems, outlining data flows and reporting mechanisms.

Incident & Change Management Process Definition

• Develop structured processes for incident handling (root-cause analysis, remediation steps, documentation, correlation and learnt lessons) and change control, ensuring minimal disruption to critical services.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (Network Engineering, System Operations) and cross-organizational (Consortium partners, suppliers, and institutional entities) to finalize escalation paths and approval gates within the incident/change process.

Quality Assurance & KPI Documentation

• Contribute to defining performance metrics and KPIs, how they will be tracked, reported, and periodically reviewed for service improvements.
  Process Optimization & Continuous Improvement
• Recommend tooling and procedural establishment that streamline workflows, reduce manual tasks, and improve service reliability.

Technical Documentation

• Contribute to the production of comprehensive internal and deliverable documentation, along with the guidelines provided by the customer, as interpreted and assigned by the workstream lead.

COMPETENCIES

• Strong ability to work independently and without supervision in complex environments, e.g. project or matrix organizations
• Flexibility and adaptability in response to changing projects role, requirements and environments
• Ability to think strategically and align project goals with organizational objectives
• Excellent problem-solving and decision-making abilities
• Effective communication skills, both written and verbal
• Sound project management skills  
• Ability to work under pressure and manage multiple priorities
• Proactive approach, can-do mentality and ability to work autonomously
• Excellent ability to anticipate and to understand challenges and to find solutions
• Excellent understanding of Operations and Service delivery from a project as well as commercial perspective
• Customer focus and understanding of customers’ needs, concerns and problems
• Ability to compile, interpret and present information in a complex service operations working environ-ment

QUALIFICATIONS, BACKGROUND AND EXPERIENCE

• Master’s degree or equivalent experience in Information Technology, telecommunications and managed services
• Minimum of 10 years of relevant working experience, ideally working on large projects with EU or ESA level requirements
• Experience with industry monitoring and operational tools which includes strong understanding of technical troubleshooting skills and concepts
• A deep understanding on satellite technologies and applications
• Experience working in and managing project organizations is considered an asset
• Proven record in planning and building Operations teams and/or customer service activities
• Fluency in English (any other language being an asset)

OTHER KEY REQUIREMENTS

• The candidate must be eligible for a “SECRET” security clearance, in accordance with the “loi modi-fiée du 15 juin 2004 relative à la classification des pièces et aux habilitations de sécurité”, as well as EU/ESA/NATO equivalents
• Willing to work at least 60% onsite from office
• Travel as required for project realization purposes