The competitiveness of manufacturing companies fundamentally depends on faultless and efficient production processes. Digitalization, cross-linking of production data and maximal resource efficiency is essential in Industry 4.0/Smart Industry and necessary for a sustainability of a business.

The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and the UT share the importance of engineering research in intelligent manufacturing systems. Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, a German organization consisting of 69 institutes world-wide is a leading applied research organization in the field of advanced manufacturing and Industry 4.0/Smart Industry. In 2017 Fraunhofer Gesellschaft opened a Project Center at the University of Twente. The Fraunhofer Project Center at the University of Twente (FPC@UT) is an alliance between the Fraunhofer IPT (Institute for Production Technologies) in Germany, University of Twente and Saxion University of Applied Sciences. It is a young, fast growing environment fully focused on Industry 4.0/Smart industry technologies and solutions for production.

Our mission is to reinforce the competitive strength of the industry in a field of production and high-tech systems. Our customers are multinationals involved in developments of the next generation production processes and systems as well as smaller innovative, technology based companies. Our focus is on the practical solutions for the current production processes, production equipment, digital manufacturing and manufacturing value chain organization. We work in close collaboration with Fraunhofer Institutes and researchers from the University of Twente and Saxion.

We are looking for an enthusiastic research engineer who likes to work on multi-disciplinary projects in the field of e.g. modelling complex mechanical devices, simulation of nonlinear material behavior and processes, designing complex kinematics and production. Part of your job is to acquire projects, carrying out projects and manage your own portfolio of projects. The projects you will work on will vary in level of technology readiness and can range from short projects (order of months) to projects that run over a couple of years.

• You hold a Master/PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering (applied mechanics), Materials Engineering, Robotics or a related discipline;

• You can present yourself in a professional way, as you will be one of the visible faces of FPC@UT;

• You have a minimum of 3 years’ experience in one of the mentioned fields;

• You have experience in Finite element analysis related to manufacturing processes and product design in an industrial environment;

• You are fluent in English. Dutch and German language skills is a plus.

• You are enthusiastic to take up challenges outside his/her comfort zone: be flexible, able to simultaneously work on multiple projects, manage its own projects, and possess good communication skills;

• Affinity for experimental work is a plus; 

Information and application
For more information about this vacancy you can contact Dr.ir. V.T. Meinders, email: v.t.meinders@utwente.nl.

You can submit your application, including a recent CV and motivation letter, before 20 March 2018, using the link below.

We offer a very challenging position in an inspiring multidisciplinary industrial-academic environment, at a university that is continuously improving its cooperation with industry and startups.

• Fulltime position for a period of 1 year, with the possibility of extension (with max. 3 years);

• The gross monthly salary will range from € 2.984,- to  € 5.405,- (in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities) and will depend on experience and qualifications;

• A holiday allowance of 8% and a year-end bonus of 8.3%;

• Minimum of 29 holidays in case of fulltime employment;

• Facilities for professional and personal development.

The University of Twente. We stand for life sciences and technology. High tech and human touch. Education and research that matter. New technology which leads change, innovation and progress in society. The University of Twente is the only campus university of the Netherlands; divided over five faculties we provide more than fifty educational programmes. We have a strong focus on personal development and talented researchers are given scope for carrying out groundbreaking research.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability status. Because of our diversity values we do particularly support women to apply.

The Faculty of Engineering Technology (ET) is one of the five faculties of the University of Twente. ET combines Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering and Industrial Design Engineering. Our faculty has approximately 1800 bachelor and master students, 400 employees and 150 PhD candidates. The departments of the faculty cooperatively conduct the educational programmes and participate in interdisciplinary research projects, programmes and the research institutes: MIRA, CTIT, SBE and IGS.