Startdate
From 01.11.2026 onwards.
What you will be doing here
MAGNOTHERM builds refrigerant-free magnetocaloric cooling systems.
The step that turns them from a promising technology into an industrial product is field: our next-generation core replaces permanent magnets with a high-temperature superconducting coil, operating dry at cryogenic temperature inside a machine that ships to customers. That magnet is the single most demanding piece of hardware in the programme and the item its schedule is built around. You are the person who knows the conductor. You specify the coated-conductor tape — second-generation high-temperature superconductor, REBCO — and choose who makes it, you design how it is wound and impregnated, you own the quench-protection concept that keeps a few hundred kilojoules of stored energy from destroying the coil, and you stand at the dewar when it is cold-tested for the first time. From a reel of tape to a mapped field.
What you'll own:
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Conductor specification & supplier selection. Write the tape specification — width, substrate and stabilizer, copper plating, critical current with its field and angle dependence at operating temperature, mechanical limits, delivery form, piece length, and the acceptance criteria we will hold a supplier to. Run the evaluation across the global coated-conductor producers, order and test sample reels, and turn that into a sourced, qualified conductor. This is a multi-hundred-thousand-euro, several month lead-time purchase on the developments critical chain.
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Incoming conductor qualification. Critical-current and n-value measurement, joint resistance, mechanical and thermal-cycling checks, piece-length mapping and lot traceability. Nothing goes into a coil that has not been characterized.
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Coil design with the magnet-simulation team. Our magnet simulation is in house. You bring the conductor reality to it: winding topology and turn count, critical-current margin — against both the strength and the angle of the field the design demands — screening currents, AC loss, mechanical stress in the winding pack, and the joint and termination concept. Field homogeneity over the regenerator bed is a controlled interface — you help hold it.
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Winding & impregnation. Set up the winding capability from scratch: formers and fixtures, tension and alignment control, insulation, co-wound instrumentation, and the impregnation process. You design the process and the trials.
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Quench protection. The protection concept for a coil carrying houndreds of amps: detection (voltage, co-wound fibre, or otherwise), validation time, dump path and dump resistor sizing, hot-spot temperature limits, and the interface to the power supply and control system. You define it, you specify what the electronics team has to build, and you prove it works.
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Cold test & field mapping. Cool-down, energization, training, critical-current and quench-current verification, and field mapping — in house and at our partner high-field facility. You run the campaign and interpret the data that either confirms or corrects the magnet design for the full-capacity machine.
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The parallel commercial path. We are running a coil manufacturing route with partners alongside the in-house build . You write the specification for it, technically evaluate the vendor’s offer and its acceptance test, and learn everything the delivered hardware can teach us.
What you would ideally bring to the table
Must-have skills & experience
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Degree in physics, electrical engineering, materials science or mechanical engineering (M.Sc. or Ph.D.) with applied superconductivity in your thesis or your working life.
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Hands-on work with second-generation high-temperature superconductor (REBCO coated conductor) — you have handled the tape, measured it, and know how it fails: delamination, bending and strain limits, joint quality, degradation from over-current and over-heating.
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Superconducting coil experience: winding, insulation, impregnation, terminations and joints — or coil design close enough to the shop floor that you know what the winder is up against.
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Quench physics and protection: normal-zone propagation, hot-spot and energy-deposition limits, detection schemes, dump circuits.
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Cryogenic measurement practice: cool-down, energization, critical-current and n-value determination, instrumentation of a cold coil, and reading data from a magnet that is telling you something is wrong.
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Numerical competence: finite-element field and mechanical analysis, AC-loss estimation, and the scripting to go with it (Python or equivalent).
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Supplier interface: writing a conductor specification, running the technical side of an RFQ, and holding a manufacturer to acceptance criteria.
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Working style: rigorous with data, careful with first-of-kind hardware, willing to build the capability rather than expect it to exist.
English language skills (C1+), German language skills (C1+).
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Nice to have
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Direct experience with a specific coil architecture — no-insulation, metal-insulation, or fully insulated pancake stacks.
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AC-loss measurement or modelling under time-varying field.
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Cryogen-free (dry) magnet systems: conduction cooling, thermal contact and cold-mass mechanics, hybrid current leads.
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Familiarity with the coated-conductor supplier landscape.
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Magnet safety in an industrial setting: stray field and keep-out zones, forces on ferromagnetic material, working near a high field machine.
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Publication or patent record in applied superconductivity; collaboration with a high-field research institute.
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Experience transferring a laboratory magnet process to something repeatable in production.
What makes this role unusual
- Specification, procurement, process, build and test are one scope. You choose the conductor and then you find out — with your own hands and your own measurements — whether you chose well.
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First-of-kind by construction. A cycling magnetocaloric regenerator moving inside a dry HTS magnet is not a configuration you can look up.
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In-house winding capability, built by you. The winding line, the fixtures and the process are set up here and you decide how it is done.
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Not a research post. The magnet is a product component with a supply chain, a cost target, a schedule and a customer at the end of it — applied superconductivity aimed at hardware that ships, backed by a high-field research partner and a materials advisor when the physics gets hard.
What you will get from the job
- Flexible hours and 30 days of vacation.
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Compensation aligned with startup standards, with room to grow as the company scales.
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A team that's sharp, interdisciplinary, and doesn't take itself too seriously.
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The chance to pioneer technology that actually helps the planet.
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Ownership, responsibility, and a culture where learning from mistakes is expected.
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A front-row seat as a deep-tech company scales.
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Memes. Good ones. And lots of them.
PS: We are a big fan of cover letters. They don't need to be long, but getting the general idea of who you are and what motivates you helps in the application selection. A portfolio of work you can share externally is also welcome.
About us
We believe in science; we believe in facts. Climate change is speeding up more than ever and we need to do something about it. We are convinced that we need better technologies to overcome this tremendous challenge – or more precisely: this tremendous threat to humanity. We are on a mission to decarbonize the refrigeration industry and reduce its contribution of 7% to global greenhouse gas emissions.
Support us in making our vision a reality – join us!
We are material scientists, chemists, physicists, a lot of engineers as well as product and graphic designers. We are an agile team of bright minds with diverse and international backgrounds. We love hanging out together, we argue about new technologies, politics, the best sport, and food trends. Basically, we are human.
MAGNOTHERM is an equal opportunity employer. We embrace diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We are open to all groups of people without regard to age, color, national origin, religion, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital status, or any other legally protected characteristics.
Do I need to meet all the requirements to apply?
Studies by several different sources have shown that, on average, men will apply for a job if they meet 60% of the application requirements. In contrast, women/non-binary people will seek to match a much higher percentage of the requirements before applying.
We encourage everyone to apply and give us a chance to evaluate your skills and experience. We are all learning on the job, and although the listing above has been carefully compiled, we are also open-minded and interested to hear about the value you can bring to the role and MAGNOTHERM.
How can I demonstrate that I have particular needs in the application process?
For people living with disabilities, chronic illnesses, or neurodiversity, adjustments and support can make a decisive difference in the application process. If you need any specific accommodations (tools, time, etc.) and feel comfortable disclosing this, please let us know.
