CV: Consultant Operations Configuration Control (CC) Engineer

Personal information

Nationality

British

Date of birth

11 July 1958

Gender

Male

Work experience

Dates

02/2004 - present

Occupation or position held

Configuration Control Engineer

Main activities and responsibilities

Employed as a consultant Operations Configuration Control (CC) Engineer on the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) programme, multi-mission elements and EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS) programme. This role principally covers the IMPF, DADF, MPEF facilities (as previously covered and addressed below), and the MSG Computer Infrastructure Upgrade Project (MCIUP). Also, CC support is provided to various multi-mission elements such as Unified Meteorological Archiving and Retrieval Facility (UMARF), Comms, EARS, EUMETCast, EXGATE, EO Portal, GSICS, INGATE, IPPS, OIS, SNI and Multi-Mission Dissemination System (MMDS). Further, CC support is provided for the Meteosat Transition Programme (MTP). EPS support is provided mainly for the ARB meetings and for the reprocessing aspects. Sentinel-3 support is provided as back-up for general CC activities.

Performed administration tasks on the Configuration Management (CM) tool, such as creating new software and hardware items, updating of valid sets, mapping between the Anomaly Processing Tool and the CM tool.

Name and address of employer

EUMETSAT

Darmstadt (Germany)

Dates

06/2003 - 01/2004

Occupation or position held

QA Engineer

Main activities and responsibilities

Employed as a consultant ground segment facilities QA engineer on the MSG programme. In addition to the IMPF (as previously covered and addressed below), this role covers the Central Facility (CF), Data Acquisition and Dissemination Facility (DADF), and Meteorological Products Extraction Facility (MPEF).  Also providing software QA support to other facilities.

Name and address of employer

EUMETSAT

Darmstadt (Germany)

Dates

09/2001 - 06/2003

Occupation or position held

Software QA Engineer

Main activities and responsibilities

Employed as a consultant software QA Engineer on the Image Processing Facility (IMPF) of the MSG project. Also providing SQA support to other facilities.

Name and address of employer

EUMETSAT

Darmstadt (Germany)

Dates

04/1998 - 08/2001

Occupation or position held

PA Engineer

Main activities and responsibilities

Employed as a consultant Electronics and Software Engineer and then the PA Manager on the PROBA (Mini) satellite project. Also, employed as a consultant PA Manager EPU (Space Station Facility), and providing PA support to various projects and proposals.

Name and address of employer

Verhaert Design and Development NV

Antwerp (Belgium)

Dates

06/1997 - 03/1998

Occupation or position held

PA Specialist

Main activities and responsibilities

Employed as a consultant RAMS and Software PA specialist on the Plasma Wind Tunnel (Ground Facility Programme). I also worked on several proposals including TELEDESIC (satellite system).

Name and address of employer

LABEN

Milan (Italy)

Dates

01/1989 - 06/1997

Occupation or position held

Reliability and Safety Specialist

Main activities and responsibilities

Major Space Programmes included: -

COLUMBUS SPACE STATION (DMS, GNC AND POLAR PLATFORM - both options 'A' and 'B') 1989 - 91 and 1993 - 94 (Reliability and Safety)

DATA RELAY SATELLITE (Platform) 1989 - 90 (Reliability)

RHESUS (Spacelab Experiment) 1989 - 94 (Reliability and Safety)

RAMSES (Spacelab Experiment) 1989 - 93 (Reliability and Safety)

USMS (Spacelab Experiment) 1989 - 93 (Safety)

CNSR / ROSETTA (Comet Probe) 1989 - 90 (Reliability and Safety)

SILEX (Satellite Experiment) 1990 (Reliability)

SOLIDARIDAD (Satellite) 1991 (Reliability and Safety)

IML-2 BIORACK COOLER (Spacelab Experiment) 1991 - 93 (Safety)

HOT BIRD PLUS (4 satellites) 1993 - 97 (Reliability and Safety)

BONE DENSITOMETER (EuroMir Experiment) 1993 - 95 (Reliability and Safety)

INTELSAT K-TV (Satellite) 1996 (Reliability)

Name and address of employer

Matra Marconi Space

Toulouse (France)

Dates

01/1988 - 12/1988

Occupation or position held

PA Manager

Main activities and responsibilities

Employed as the Systems and Software PA Manager on the Sting Ray Torpedo Programme.

Name and address of employer

Marconi Underwater Systems

Watford (UK)

Dates

07/1982 - 12/1987

Occupation or position held

Reliability and PA Engineer

Main activities and responsibilities

Employed as a Reliability Engineer (07/82 - 05/87), then as a Software PA Engineer (06/87 - 12/87)

Major Space Programmes included:-

OLYMPUS (Satellite) 1982 - 84 and 1986 - 87 (Reliability)

SKYNET 4 (Satellite and Ground Station) 1984 - 87 (Software PA, some Reliability and Safety)

Classified (Satellite and Ground Station) 1984 - 86 (Software PA and Reliability)

Name and address of employer

British Aerospace, Space and Communications Division

Stevenage (UK)

Dates

01/1981 - 08/1981

Occupation or position held

HND Industrial Training

Main activities and responsibilities

Employed in sales promotion and market research for an electronic equipment hire company.

Name and address of employer

Livingston Hire Ltd

London (UK)

Dates

07/1979 - 01/1980

Occupation or position held

HND Industrial Training

Main activities and responsibilities

Employed as a college-based student involved with mathematical modelling of tides and estuaries.

Name and address of employer

Hydraulics Research Station

Wallingford (UK)

General PA/QA and Configuration Control Tasks

Preparation, issuing and processing of Requests for Approval (RFAs), Non-Conformance Reports (NCRs), Requests for Waiver (RFWs), Requests for Deviations (RFDs), Software Problem Reports (SPR’s), Software Modification Reports (SMRs), Software Change Requests (SCRs), Engineering/Enhancement Change Requests (ECRs), Configuration Change Requests (CCRs), Engineering Change Proposals (ECPs) and Engineering Tasks (ETs).

Organisation and conducting/administering Test Readiness Reviews (TRRs), Test Review Boards (TRBs), Anomaly Review Boards (ARBs), Material Review Boards (MRBs), Change Review Boards (CRBs) and Change Control Boards (CCBs). Support to the EUMETSAT GEO and Sentinel-3 OPS morning meetings (DOMs) by preparing and sending out the agenda, administrating the meeting, migrating or manually entering ARs with actions into the Serena Dimensions GDF after the meeting.

Performance of Software, Hardware and reporting Configuration Control activities else support to Configuration Control

Maintain Review Item Disposition (RID), SPR, SMR, SCR and Anomaly Reports (AR) databases, with allocation of numbers, updating, defining queries and reports etc.

Participation to incoming and outgoing inspection activities of hardware and software and provision of supporting inspection reports

Archiving of delivered and internally generated media (tapes, CDs, DVDs and diskettes), and COTS SW licenses, from installations and back-ups within the fireproof safe and cupboards (as appropriate)

Provision of inputs to SW Configuration databases (Access and Serena Dimensions) using details from Release Notes and implemented CCRs, ETs, ECPs, ECRs and installations

Follow-up and tracking of HW items and nodes for the HW Configuration database and use of SAP for asset management

Record and track SW items/installations on to given HW logical nodes either performed manually and traced by Word/Excel documents, or since 2006 directly using the Serena Dimensions tool

Assist in the design of Serena Dimensions database for multi-mission facility/system elements

Prepare/issue/review of Configuration Item Data Lists (CIDLs) and Configuration Status Lists (CSLs), and prepare/issue/review/support/maintain Configuration Status Account Reports (CSARs), either performed manually and traced by Word/Excel documents, or since 2006 directly from the Serena Dimensions tool

Review and signing off drawings and Purchase Orders

Follow-up of drawings to the HW Configuration database

Review, commenting upon and preparing PA inputs to proposals

Review and inspection of hardware and integration activities in Clean Rooms (class 100 000) and semi-Clean Rooms

Performance of and support to general PA and CC-related internal (facility) audits and inspections, and reviews/process audits of sub-contractors

Review of, commenting upon and providing inputs to checklists for tasks, reviews and general document preparation

Provision of monthly (facility, project) QA, RAMS and CC progress reports and regular attendance at project and QA/CM coordination team meetings with the related Technical Officer

Provision and maintenance of AR/NCR and ECP summary and trend analysis reports

Review and comment upon, track and follow-up facility/system supporting documentation, (User Guides/Manuals, Maintenance Manuals, Installation procedures, TM/TC lists etc.)

Maintenance and follow-up of use of logbooks (during AIT and facility activities etc.) and engineering notebooks

Review of, commenting upon and providing inputs to Work Instructions (WIs), Working Practices (WPs), Guidelines and PA/QA Procedures

Preparation and performance of general PA-related presentations (Final Inspection, TRRs and TRBs etc.) to company personnel

Providing assistance, support and training in general PA- and CM-related tasks (NCRs, SPRs, CCRs, ECPs, ETs, VTRs etc.) to engineers and users, and provide support to (team) PA and CC engineers. Perform regular Introductory CM and Advanced Dimensions tool training sessions to users and new CC team members.

Perform action tracking and follow-up for ARs, NCRs, CCRs, ECPs, ECRs and ETs

Follow-up compliance checks with recognised standards (ESA PSS/ECSS, ISO etc.) and EUMETSAT Directory of Instructions

Monitor Validation/Verification Test Records (VTRs) for processing in Serena Dimensions and check for the relevant design parts, details and CIs. Check that VTRs are provided and related to ETs for deployment on the operational environment.

Verify every incremental delivery in Serena Dimensions preparing and executing test scenario based on real CM data (ECPs, ETs, VTRs, Configuration Items, ...).

Familiarisation with basic concepts of software builds, packaging, deployment and installation as used at EUMETSAT. Perform witnessing of installations of new SW releases and patches on the IMPF and DADF facilities.

Familiarisation with basic concepts of Concurrent Versioning System (CVS), Subversion (SVN) and GitLab as used at EUMETSAT.

Perform visual inspection of batch scripts used for Serena Dimensions tasks – Request and Refresh delegation scripts. Testing of scripts for new Dimensions releases etc.. Perform some inspection of HTML scripts.

Review, update and follow publication of the As-Built CM Team Guidelines and the Product Breakdown Structure (PBS) documents.

Deputise for team colleagues, as appropriate, during their holiday and sickness absences.

Perform some administration tasks on the CM tool such as creation of hardware and software items, update of the associated valid sets and mapping of relevant data records between tool databases.

Reliability Tasks

Definition of project systems reliability activities.

Performance of Reliability Predictions and Allocations at System, Subsystem and Equipment levels.

Performance of reliability trade-offs.

Performance of Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analyses (FMECA's) and Critical Items Lists (CIL's) at System, Subsystem and Equipment levels

Performance of Contingency Analysis at System level, (covering various subsystems)

Attendance at design reviews and monitoring of in-house engineering and sub-contractors to ensure compliance with requirements on reliability, FMECA, CIL, Parts Stress Analysis and Worst Case Analysis

Performance of Maintainability Prediction at Subsystem level and LRU replacement analysis at equipment level

Performance of reliability audits/reviews of sub-contractors

Interface with industrial Customers and Space Agencies (ESA, NASA, CNES, EUTELSAT and CIRA)

Performance of Statements of Compliance to Customer requirements (for Statements of Work, PA Requirements, Specifications and support requirements)

Review and incorporation (as necessary) of updated and new reliability requirements (ESA PSS, MIL-HDBK-217, NASA NSTS etc.)

Evaluation and use of reliability software tools

Performance of Outage and Availability Analyses at System and Subsystem levels- Performance of Worst Case Analysis summary listing at System level      

Operation of ESA Reliability Design Notebook (RDN) system 

- Interface with the Quality Department

- Participation to Material Review Boards for flight hardware anomalies                                 

Review of hardware non-conformances and AIT problem reports for reliability aspects, (impact on failure modes and effects, SPF assessment etc.)

Review and incorporation (as necessary) of updated and new Reliability requirements (ESA PSS/ECSS)

Preparation and performance of RAMS-related presentations to company personnel

Providing assistance and training in RAMS-related tasks (FMECA etc.)

Software PA Tasks

Definition of project Software PA activities (PA Plans, Work Package Descriptions) and support to Software Engineering activities

Monitoring of project systems and software activities to ensure compliance with project requirements

Participating to systems and software Change Control Boards and Fagan inspections (of requirements, coding, and test plans and results)

Acceptance of software at Delivery Review Boards and Test Review Boards (on behalf of the User or Customer)

Attendance at design reviews and monitoring of in-house engineering and sub-contractors to ensure compliance with project Software PA and engineering requirements

Witnessing of software testing at module, integration, system and acceptance levels

Follow-up and witnessing of software builds and installation activities, with verification

Performance of Software PA audits/reviews of sub-contractors and in-house (to support the Quality Department)

Interface with UK Governmental Customers (Ministry of Defence, the Royal Navy, the Royal Aircraft Establishment)

Performance of Statements of Compliance to Customer requirements (for PA Requirements, Specifications and support requirements)

Review and incorporation (as necessary) of updated and new Software PA requirements (ESA PSS/ECSS, NATO AQAP, UK Defence Standard etc.)

Interface with the Quality Department

Review and disposition of software anomalies during the product, (satellite, ground station, ground segment, torpedo), AIT phases

Preparation and performance of Software PA-related presentations to company personnel

Safety Tasks

Definition of project systems safety activities (PA & Safety Plans, Work Package Descriptions, Costing)

Performance of NASA Safety Phase I, II and III documentation for Flight and Ground.

Performance of other safety documentation for Proposals etc.

Performance of Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analyses (FMECA's) and Critical Items Lists (CIL's) at System and Subsystem levels directed towards safety aspects

Review and inspection of Flight and GSE hardware for safety and ergonomic aspects      

Attendance at design reviews and monitoring of in-house engineering and sub-contractors to ensure compliance with requirements on safety, FMECA and CIL

Some witnessing and performance of verification testing and inspections) Involvement with verification requirements, definition and closure

Interface with industrial Customers and Space Agencies (ESA, NASA, CNES and CIRA)

Performance of Statements of Compliance to Customer requirements (for Statements of Work, PA Requirements, Specifications and support requirements)

Review and incorporation (as necessary) of updated and new safety requirements (ESA PSS, MIL-STD, NASA NSTS etc.)

Evaluation and use of safety software tools

Attendance and support to Spacelab IML-2 Mission Phase II Flight Safety Review. Support to other Spacelab Flight and Ground Safety Reviews (on D2, IML-2 and SLS-3 Missions)

Performance of (Russian) NPO/Energia Safety Phase I, II and III documentation for Flight and Ground

Performance of USAF and ARIANESPACE Safety Submissions for telecommunication satellites

Interface with the Quality Department

Support to IML-2 Mission astronaut training

Education and training

Dates

Principal subjects / occupational skills covered

Name and type of organisation providing education and training

  09/2017

   2-day training course for Data Analysis Fundamentals using Excel 2016

   Learning Tree International

   London (UK)

Dates

Principal subjects / occupational skills covered

Name and type of organisation providing education and training

  10/2016

   2-day training course for Serena Dimensions Admin Training

   EUMETSAT

   Darmstadt (Germany)

Dates

Principal subjects / occupational skills covered

Name and type of organisation providing education and training

  04/2016

   2-day training course for Serena Dimensions Configuration and Administration Training

   EUMETSAT

   Darmstadt (Germany)

Dates

Principal subjects / occupational skills covered

Name and type of organisation providing education and training

  12/2013

   4-day training course for Programming with .NET Introduction: Hands-On

   Learning Tree International

   London (UK)

Dates

09/2012

Principal subjects / occupational skills covered

4-day training course for SQL Server 2008. A comprehensive hands-on introduction.

Name and type of organisation providing education and training

Learning Tree International

London (UK)

Dates

11/1986

Principal subjects / occupational skills covered

One week Software Requirements, Specifications and Testing course.

Name and type of organisation providing education and training

Integrated Computer Systems Ltd

London (UK)

Dates

06/1985

Principal subjects / occupational skills covered

Life-testing and burn-in techniques course lasting one week. The course was organised by the George Washington University.

Name and type of organisation providing education and training

Imperial College

London (UK)

Dates

1984 - 1985

Principal subjects / occupational skills covered

Metrology module for entry to the Institute of Quality Assurance - as an evening class.

Name and type of organisation providing education and training

Stevenage College of Further Education

Stevenage (UK)

Dates

1982 - 1985

Title of qualification awarded

BTEC Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Principal subjects / occupational skills covered

Various modules as evening classes

Name and type of organisation providing education and training

Stevenage College of Further Education

Stevenage (UK)

Dates

1982 - 1983

Title of qualification awarded

City and Guilds Certificate

Principal subjects / occupational skills covered

Quality Control - as evening classes.

Name and type of organisation providing education and training

Stevenage College of Further Education

Stevenage (UK)

Dates

04/1983

Principal subjects / occupational skills covered

Space Technology course of two weeks duration.  The course was organised jointly between the University and industry (British Aerospace and Marconi Space)

Name and type of organisation providing education and training

Southampton University

Southampton (UK)

Dates

1982

Title of qualification awarded

Polytechnic Associateship 

(leading to a Graduate of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications)

Principal subjects / occupational skills covered

Mathematics

Name and type of organisation providing education and training

Sheffield City Polytechnic

Sheffield (UK)

Dates

1978 - 1981

Title of qualification awarded

HND

Principal subjects / occupational skills covered

Mathematics, statistics and computing

Name and type of organisation providing education and training

Sheffield City Polytechnic

Sheffield (UK)

Personal skills and competences

Mother tongue(s)

English

Other language(s)

French, Italian (basic), Dutch (basic), German (basic)

Computer skills and competences

Word, Excel, Access, Draw, DESIGNER, WINORG, Acrobat and extensive use of the Serena Dimensions tool (as a super-User and some Administration tasks).