Estonian National Graduate Trainee in Advanced Materials and Process Engineering

Location: Harwell, GB

Estonian National Graduate Trainee in Advanced Materials and Process Engineering

Job Requisition ID:

20894

Date Posted:

15 September 2026

Closing Date:

13 October 2026 23:59 CET/CEST

Publication:

External Only

Type of Appointment (learn more):

National Graduate Trainee

Directorate:

Technology, Engineering and Quality

Workplace:

Harwell, GB

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Grade Band (learn more):

F1 - F1

The ESA National Graduate Trainee (NGT) Programmes offer recent Master’s graduates the opportunity to gain practical, hands-on experience at ESA across a range of space-related disciplines. The programmes are essentially similar to ESA’s own Graduate Trainee Programme, notably in offering the same employment conditions. They however differ in one important respect: each NGT Programme is funded by an individual ESA Member State or Associate Member under a bilateral partnership agreement concluded with ESA. As a result, a representative of the sponsoring State participates in the selection process. In addition to assessing candidates against the requirements of the position, the selection may also include an evaluation of their background and knowledge of the space policies and related activities of the sponsoring State.

Location

ECSAT, Harwell, United Kingdom

Our team and mission

The Structures, Mechanisms and Materials Division is the centre of competence of the Agency in all areas related to spacecraft and launcher structures, mechanisms, tribology and pyrotechnic devices, as well as materials and processes. This encompasses spacecraft and launcher lightweight structures, stable structures, advanced mechanical materials applications, structural dynamics, damage tolerance, deployable structures/booms, active structures, hold-down and release devices, electrical motors for space mechanisms, launcher and re-entry vehicle hot- and cold structures, landing attenuation systems, seals, valves, parachute systems, separation systems, solar array drive mechanisms, reaction wheels, pointing mechanisms, pyrotechnics, bearings and tribology aspects. It provides support to projects, preparatory programs and technology programs.

In order to achieve its objectives, the Materials, Manufacturing, and Assembly Section, located at ESTEC (Noordwijk, NL) is also managing the Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory at ECSAT (Harwell, UK) whose objective is the performance evaluation and feasibility assessment of emerging manufacturing processes such as additive manufacturing and advanced joining techniques and to explore the benefit of utilising additional capabilities available through the Harwell campus.

The work proposed will be carried out at ECSAT in close cooperation with the Materials and Processes Section at ESTEC. The general activities performed within the remit of the Materials and Processes Section, covering also activities at ECSAT include:

the qualification for space flight of all advanced metallic and non-metallic materials, structural ceramics and glasses as well as all related manufacturing and surface treatment processes for all ESA spacecraft and launchers programme;

the development of revolutionary materials and innovative manufacturing technologies both internally and in cooperation with other space agencies and research organisations;

the failure investigation of materials and processes underperforming and impacting ESA space missions;

the development, certification and support of new European industrial capabilities, manufacturing processes and manpower skills training related to space applications of materials and components;

the establishment and implementation of requirements and standards for the development and the procurement of space grade materials and manufacturing processes;

the development, maintenance and improvement of the European Space Materials Database, storing all relevant data generated for materials and processes intended for Space use.

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

Field(s) of activity/research for the traineeship

The Advanced Manufacturing Cross-Cutting Initiative captures the opportunity of adopting revolutionary manufacturing capabilities, advanced materials and associated processes and creates sustainable competitive advantage for European space industry in the global market. In its latest revision of activities, emphasis is given to smart manufacturing, i.e. the use of interconnected digital technologies in industrial production, that enable new and more efficient processes and which in some cases yield new goods and services.

The current space missions are often limited in their performances and scientific achievements by the traditional manufacturing processes/concepts. Though Advanced Manufacturing technologies are readily available in the current European industrial landscape, these can be adopted for next generation space hardware manufacturing. This will enable new and highly innovative spacecraft and launchers designs, with significantly reduced manufacturing constraints (including costs and lead-time) and tremendous performance improvement.

Complementing this initiative, the following activities are currently targeted through the advanced manufacturing laboratory:

identifying, investigating and performing pre-assessment of emerging materials and processes, investigating and use of advanced non-destructive inspection (NDI) techniques in support of, or even replacing, experimental destructive laboratory verification activities;

optimising the performance of metal based additively manufactured parts by investigating the relation between raw material quality and part performance;

performing testing to determine fundamental properties of powders;

providing assistance in the design and production of test coupons;

performing material related tests on 3D-printed test structures (e.g. tensile testing, fatigue testing, defect analysis) and correlating