The DLR Institute of Planetary Research of DLR performs research programs on extrasolar planets and the planets in our solar system, including their moons, asteroids, and comets. The institute works in close co-operation with other German and foreign research facilities, including ESA and NASA.

PLATO is the third of the M-class missions in the Cosmic Vision Programme of ESA. PLATO is Europe's next large-scale space mission to detect and characterize exoplanets. The primary goal of the mission is to look for Earth-like planets up to the habitable zone of solar-like stars. The aim is to determine the radius, mass and age of exoplanets with unprecedented accuracy.

Applicants shall contribute to the work in the department of Extrasolar Planets and Atmospheres and take part in the implementation of the PLATO mission and the preparation for the scientific exploitation of the data. This is a part of the existing PLATO system team. The department has leading positions in PLATO, CHEOPS, ground-based transit survey NGTS, and is involved in the exploitation of data from NASA's Kepler, K2 mission (KESPRINT collaboration), and ESO facilities.

Applicants shall have experience in the implementation of space projects or large ground-based astronomical instrument projects, including the activities of calibration, characterization, and operation of scientific instrumentation (optical payloads). Experience in the field of extrasolar planets and related instrumentation is beneficial.

Your tasks:

• development and validation of Flight Operational Procedures (FOP) with the associated ground segment equipment (EGSE)
• specification of requirements and definition of complex software (like Flight Operational Procedures: FOPs) for the operation of scientific payloads, including validation and calibration activities.
• planning and supervision of the in-flight calibration of scientific instruments in space missions, in particular during the commissioning phase.
• test and analysis of the test results according to the provided specifications.
• documentation of results according to ESA/ECSS standards