Student Internships

ESA offers student internship opportunities from three to six months to students in their final or second-to-last year of a Master's degree in technical and non-technical domains. Learn everything you need to know in this article.

Who can apply?

To be eligible for a student internship at ESA:

• You must be a student, preferably in your final or second-to-last year of a university course at Master’s level. You must have student status and be enrolled at university for the entire duration of the ;
• You must be a citizen of one of the ESA Member States, Associate Members, certain European Cooperating States (the full list of eligible countries is provided in each vacancy notice) or Canada as a Cooperating State.

What do we offer?

• An enriching and highly valuable experience that could open doors to a career within Europe’s space sector, renowned research institutes or, of course, ESA itself.
• An international, multicultural and friendly working environment.
• A placement lasting between three and six months at an ESA establishment.
• Internships are unpaid, however a monthly allowance of €800 for non-residents and €500 for residents is granted. A non-resident is defined as someone living more than 50 km from the relevant establishment. The non-resident allowance will also be granted to students with special needs, irrespective of their residency status.

Useful information

• Students usually complete one internship placement during their studies. This may, exceptionally, be split into two parts if requested by the student’s university, provided that the total duration does not exceed six months.
• Student interns are responsible for their own health insurance, accident insurance and travel expenses.
• Student interns are responsible for finding their own accommodation.

Internship disciplines

• Mechanical engineering (optical, propulsion, thermal, mechanisms, structures, materials, robotics)
• Electrical engineering (RF, power & data systems, antennas, microelectronics, EMC, components)
• System engineering
• Telecom and integrated applications
• Software engineering
• Ground segment systems and operations
• Product/quality assurance and safety
• Applied mathematics
• Earth observation and environmental science (geophysics, meteorology, climatology)
• Planetary and space science (astronomy, astrophysics, solar physics)
• Life and material sciences
• Law (contracts, procurement, international public law)
• Finance (project control, cost analysis, auditing)
• Communications and public relations
• Human resources
• Information technology
• Facility management