Meeting with Sylvain D'Hoine
Could you tell us about CS GROUP’s activities and business lines?
CS GROUP is an innovative mid-sized company undergoing a major transformation. We are now moving to a larger scale, particularly in the space sector, with the integration of HE SPACE last January, which will enable us to strengthen our positions in this sector in Europe; but also by integrating the Sopra Steria group, which we will be joining on 1 March 2023. By combining our strengths, we are creating a European leader in digital services and critical systems in the defence & security, aeronautics, space, energy and cyber security sectors.
In the space business that I represent, we act as a link between institutional customers or prime contractors and new players in the space sector, offering them innovative space applications or systems. The sector’s traditional players have complex requirements and specifications, and we respond to these very precise specifications. On the other hand, for New Space, our teams are more focused on products or services. CS GROUP has the capacity to serve this world of New Space and traditional players thanks to its 40 years of experience in the field, which is what we call Smart Space!
Finally, CS GROUP embarked on an open source approach at a very early stage. For the past 10 years, it has been offering products based on components developed by a communitý of engineers, researchers, industrialists and startups in the sector, and which are now being massively adopted by major industrial and scientific players in the space sector both in the context of studies and operational systems. Examples include OREKIT, the most widely used space mechanics library in the world, and OTB for image processing.
Why did you decide to sign a partnership agreement with ISAE-SUPAERO?
First of all, ISAE-SUPAERO has a strong link with our two core businesses of aeronautics and space, and the Institute’s teaching in these two fields is widely recognised!
We have a lot of managers and employees who come from the school and we wanted your students to get to know our company better and what it can offer them. It’s less natural for them to turn to us than to large organisations, even though we create systems that are at least as complex on exciting projects, and there are great career opportunities within CS GROUP. The average age is 31, and it’s important for us to train and support young graduates. There’s a good mix between junior and more experienced employees, and the notion of passing on knowledge is vital.
What are your expectations and objectives in this partnership?
We want to increase our recruitment and integration capacity, but also widely distribute the open source heritage I mentioned earlier.
CS GROUP is characterised by its dual technical and business skills and a strong culture of innovation. We’re looking for people with IT development skills, and the teams will specialise in the business areas as they gain experience.
We are looking for engineers with IT development skills in our various business areas, who will be able to work on systems integration and operational procedures, and progress to technical manager or architect positions.
