Job Description:

Joining our Optical Instruments team in Ottobrunn (DE), we are seeking an

Optical Payload E/O Detector Characterization and Verification Engineer (d/f/m)

responsible for technical definition and development coordination of singe pixel as well as large format imaging sensors, including their assemblies and front-end electronics, planning their characterization, performance verification, and calibration according to the needs of novel optical instruments.

Airbus "Optical Instruments” is a leading European Large System Integrator LSI for the development of optical satellite payloads. We are structured as a transnational organization with sites in Toulouse, Munich, Friedrichshafen, and Portsmouth. Our portfolio covers all classes of optical instruments, from imaging spectrometers and passive meteorological sounders, to high resolution cameras, various types of LIDARs, and quantum optical sensors. These instruments are key payloads at the core of current and future space missions and systems, serving a broad variety of applications, such as climate monitoring, air quality tracking, meteorology, or Earth science.

Your responsibilities include the definition of the architecture of imaging sensors and /or its associated focal plane subsystem. You will contribute to the development and realization of purpose-built, focal plane assemblies FPAs, implemented in new optical instruments. You will be in charge to conceive and manage the calibration and characterization approach for the instrument’s detection chains: the sensor chip and the corresponding detector electronics. Calibration and Characterization is a crucial pillar in the end-to-end performance verification of the instrument, for which you will have system oversight and the responsibility for all aspects related to the focal plane sub-system. You will work in direct report to the payload system engineering manager and in close interaction with the entire payload engineering team to develop and implement a performance verification logic responding effectively to the customer requirements.

Tasks and Responsibilities

• Represent the project as authority for the detection chain architecture, also called focal plane assembly (FPA) or focal plane subsystem (FPS).
• Characterization, performance verification, and calibration of the payload sensorics. You will be the interface with the payload team, the customer, and other stakeholders within and outside Airbus.
• Contribute to analysis, budgeting, and mathematical modelling of the optical instrument performance. Support the development of a requirement breakdown that facilitates performance verification, and considers on-ground and in-orbit detector calibration. Contribute to related trade-off analyses.
• Define the approach for detector characterization, performance verification, and calibration. Identify and specify test setups and corresponding (optical) ground support equipment.
• Established detailed verification and calibration budgets, taking into account precision and accuracy of the employed test equipment and test concepts.
• Support the on-board calibration concept and harmonize the design of on-board calibration means with the payload engineering team, to ensure that the on-board calibration system and subsystems take into account the specific features and artefacts of the focal plane sub-system.
• Support specification, preparation, and execution of the payload performance verification and calibration campaign(s). Ensure a close exchange with the AIV and AIT team to utilize potential synergies between detector and instrument test campaigns
• Lead the subsequent detector data analysis and processing, resulting in formal verification against the customer requirements. Develop the "Algorithms Theoretical Baseline” (ATBD) for data processing.
• Maintain a close exchange with the science team to understand user needs and science requirements with respect to and impact on detector and FPA performance.
• Support the payload system engineering manager to assess and mitigate technical risks related to impacts from detector and its electronic to instrument performance verification & calibration.

Required Qualifications

You will be working in a dynamic multi-national environment with contact to a wide range of stakeholders within and outside Airbus, including space agencies, industrial partners, scientific communities etc. This will require excellent communication skills, high flexibility and agility, and a structured working style. The following assets and skills would be of particular relevance for this position:

• Academic Degree in Physics or Engineering (Master or PhD).
• Good cross-disciplinary understanding of physics, in particular semiconductor physics, optics, opto-mechanics, imaging sensors, and electronics. Good knowledge of methods and tools for optical metrology and precision measurement.
• Hands-on experience in development, setup, and operation of optical or photonic systems. A few years of experience in an optical / electro-optical lab would be beneficial.
• Experience in scientific data processing, analysis, and visualization, starting from raw measurement data up to the final data product. A background experience as user of scientific data products could be helpful.
• Proficiency in scientific computing (using Matlab, Python, etc.) is required. Experience in the control of E/O characterization procedures with LabView is an asset. Basic ability to employ optical design and engineering software is helpful (Zemax, CodeV).
• You are fluent in written and spoken English.

Regular international business travel is common in our environment and has to be expected for this position, so that you should be free and willing to travel at reasonable intervals, in complement to virtual or hybrid meeting formats.

This job requires an awareness of any potential compliance risks and a commitment to act with integrity, as the foundation for the Company’s success, reputation and sustainable growth.

Company:
Airbus Defence and Space GmbH

Employment Type:
Permanent
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Experience Level:
Professional

Job Family:
Sub-system development

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