Lead Project Controller

VN 24 / 33 Lead Project Controller

EUMETSAT is Europe’s meteorological satellite agency, operating a fleet of satellites delivering weather and climate-related satellite data and images to our users worldwide;

helping protect lives, property and industries.

Within our Project Planning and Control Competence Area (PPC CA), the Lead Project Controller is responsible for financial, budget, cost planning and control activities for two Departments - Technical and Scientific Support (TSS) and the Operations and Support to Users (OPS).

In this role, the successful candidate will be supported by a small team of talented Project Controllers and will be collaborating closely with our core technical teams across the organisation.

She / he will lead all activities that ensure that budget and financial planning activities for maintenance and operations are correctly performed, and will act as main responsible for budget implementation and control.

Duties

• Deliver Project Planning and Control services to the TSS and OPS departments, following documented processes, and manage the Project Control team allocated to these tasks;
• Consolidate the planning assumptions for those satellite programmes that are in their operational phase and analyse the schedule of activities for consistency with the cost planning;
• Provide TSS and OPS departmental inputs to the overall budget and financial planning of EUMETSAT, including maintaining a financial profile for the programmes in their operational phase and coordination of inputs with the Programmes development department as regards development programmes for next generation satellite systems;
• Provide cost-at-completion and analysis of margins for programmes in their operational phases, by establishing and maintaining cost baselines and related cost scenarios;
• Define and provide progress reporting to management, including performance indicators and analysis of deviations and trends;
• Coordinate and consolidate the outcome of the OPS and TSS human resource planning, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of its impact to the overall OPS and TSS budget and financial planning;
• Support the Project Planning and Control Competence Area Manager and contribute to the overall harmonisation and improvement of project planning and control processes, standards and methodologies, working practices and tools.

LOCATION

Darmstadt, Germany

QUALIFICATIONS

University degree in Engineering, Economics or equivalent in a relevant discipline.

LANGUAGES

The official languages of EUMETSAT are English and French. Candidates must be able to work effectively in English and have some knowledge of French.

DEADLINE

26 September

Duties

• Deliver Project Planning and Control services to the TSS and OPS departments, following documented processes, and manage the Project Control team allocated to these tasks;
• Consolidate the planning assumptions for those satellite programmes that are in their operational phase and analyse the schedule of activities for consistency with the cost planning;
• Provide TSS and OPS departmental inputs to the overall budget and financial planning of EUMETSAT, including maintaining a financial profile for the programmes in their operational phase and coordination of inputs with the Programmes development department as regards development programmes for next generation satellite systems;
• Provide cost-at-completion and analysis of margins for programmes in their operational phases, by establishing and maintaining cost baselines and related cost scenarios;
• Define and provide progress reporting to management, including performance indicators and analysis of deviations and trends;
• Coordinate and consolidate the outcome of the OPS and TSS human resource planning, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of its impact to the overall OPS and TSS budget and financial planning;
• Support the Project Planning and Control Competence Area Manager and contribute to the overall harmonisation and improvement of project planning and control processes, standards and methodologies, working practices and tools.

Skills and Experience

• Relevant experience, preferably in an engineering environment with multi-years projects, in project planning and control activities and in managing resource allocation;
• First experience of team management, including planning and monitoring of activities and keeping critical skills up-to-date;
• Proven knowledge and practice of administrative processes based on ERP systems (e.g. SAP) and strong MS Excel ability;
• Proactivity and strong capability for analytical thinking and seeing the big picture while maintaining a focus on details;
• Very good interpersonal, written and oral communication skills, with a proven ability to apply these to interact with management and stakeholders as well working within, and across, teams;
• Experience working in a matrix-based organisation would be an advantage.

Employment Conditions

The initial contract will be of 4 years’ duration, with subsequent 5 year contracts being awarded thereafter, subject to individual performance and organisation requirements.

There is no limit to the amount of follow-up contracts a staff member can receive up to the EUMETSAT retirement age of 63 and there are certainly opportunities to establish a long career perspective at EUMETSAT.

This post is graded A2 / A4 on the EUMETSAT salary scales. The minimum basic salary for this post is EURO per month (net of internal tax but excluding pension contribution and insurances) which may be negotiable on the basis of skills and experience.

The salary scale provides for increments on the anniversary of taking up employment, and scales are reviewed by the EUMETSAT Council with effect from 1 January each year.

In addition to basic salary, EUMETSAT offers attractive benefits. Further information, including salary details, is available on the EUMETSAT web site.

EUMETSAT is committed to providing an equal opportunities work environment for men and women.

Please note that only nationals of EUMETSAT Member States may apply. The EUMETSAT Convention requires that Staff shall be recruited on the basis of their qualifications, account being taken of the international character of EUMETSAT.