Describe a typical day at your jobThere are always internal meetings planned with the technical officer and contract officer to review and assess the proposals received from the European space industry. In parallel I have to take care of the implementation of the financial parts of the proposals where industry was selected to make sure that every administrative aspect is in force so they can start their activities and get the payments once the technical work has been achieved. On a weekly basis we also have team meeting with all the other Project Controllers to exchange on our challenges and best practices.
The variety of the tasks and of the proposals we have to review and assess make that every day is different. It is also very interesting to collaborate with the project manager and contract officer to ensure that we support space industry in their development of new products and technologies.
As in every job there is an administration part that we are trying to automate as much as possible with the latest modern IT tools and dashboards.
I have been working for 10 years at ESA and wanted to start a new challenge in my career so I applied internally via our HR platform. It was an open competition since the position was open internally and externally to candidates so I had to be well prepared to answer the questions from the interview panel.
The change of the space industry with the presence of new actors and the complementarity between public and private funding. Modernization of IT tools and use of AI will probably speed up our procurement processes, but the human contact will always be required to assess and negotiate the proposals made by the space industry.
At high school I took a specialization in mathematics and science which was very beneficial for my education at university. I have a master in business administration from Solvay Brussels School which cover all the different skills in Finance, marketing and Management. Learning 3 languages (French, Dutch and English) has been a great asset to start an international career.
In Project controlling we are part of team to assess the proposals made by the space industry together with the technical officer and the contract officer who are respectively reviewing the technical content and the legal part of the proposals. Teamwork and ability to assess the most important parts while being able to compromise on some details are key elements for success. Being well organized and define your priorities is also required to achieve your goals in a timely manner.
Starting my career in the banking sector was a great opportunity to learn several negotiations techniques and being in the lead position to make the business opportunities of the SME grow in Europe by providing the appropriate credit and financial solutions.
The possibility to change environment from private to public sector and the great opportunity to combine those professional experiences in my current position at ESA. The possibility to change jobs from banker to accountant to corporate and project controller made the last 20 years very challenging and exciting. Meeting people from all over Europe is very inspiring since we all come with different culture and background, so you need to adapt and find a common way of working together.
Even if it could sound like a “cliché” my current job is my dream job since I can put into practice all the technical and soft skills I have learnt in the past 20 years of professional experience in Finance and Controlling positions.
Being open to new challenges and take some risks to explore new challenges outside of your comfort zone. Being very well organized and keen to learn new skills and tools. Finally cooperation between people and team work is a key element to success.
