(Senior) Scientist Mechanical Actuation Technologies (m/f/d)

At ABB, we help industries run leaner and cleaner—and every person here makes that happen. You’ll be empowered to lead, supported to grow, and proud of the impact we create together. Join us and help run what runs the world.

This position reports to:

Research Team Manager - Mechanisms & Actuators

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The work model for the role is: hybrid #LI-Hybrid

Key responsibilities

At ABB, we help industries outrun - leaner and cleaner. Here, progress is an expectation - for you, your team, and the world. As a global market leader, we’ll give you what you need to make it happen. It won’t always be easy, growing takes grit. But at ABB, you’ll never run alone. Run what runs the world.

This position reports to:

Research Team Manager

Your role and responsibilities

At ABB Corporate Research, we explore novel technologies and innovative methods to enhance the core business strengths of ABB, a company with a long history in innovation and technology. Closely aligned with the needs of our business areas and divisions, we collaborate and foster creative solutions to practical engineering challenges. Our accomplishments significantly influence technology trends and future products, and they are highly visible to the global research community.

Our research team “Mechanisms and Actuators” drives innovations in the field of advanced dynamic actuation systems. We not only research novel actuation solutions, but we also improve existing products and support our divisions with our deep expertise. Our research directions include concept creation, mechanism synthesis, advanced simulation-based development, and validation through hardware prototyping and testing. To maintain ABB's technology leadership, we continuously monitor academic research, competitive landscape and our own product portfolio to identify high-impact research opportunities that drive innovation and growth.

By joining us, you will help define and drive our research activities, and together we will shape the future of a wide range of ABB products that enable robust, smart, and sustainable industrial solutions. In cross-functional teams, you will cooperate with other researchers and apply your expertise to ideate, demonstrate, and validate novel ideas. Cutting-edge technology demonstrators that you develop jointly will serve as starting points for subsequent product development. In addition, you will partner with our divisions to address complex technical challenges and accelerate their development cycles.

We look forward to seeing your strong motivation, team spirit, positive approach, and creative ideas that help address today’s and tomorrow’s challenges.

Your main responsibilities include

• You develop novel, future-ready mechanical actuation systems for a wide and versatile range of ABB’s products together with our industrial research team.

• You conceptualize, model and simulate fast-moving mechanisms and novel actuation systems, considering both dynamic and structural mechanical performance.

• You experimentally validate research results, including the design of test rigs, selection of sensors and data acquisition systems, defining and/or running the tests and analysis of measurement results.

• You lead R&D projects and/or work packages with cross-functional teams and in close cooperation with ABB divisions, end customers and universities.

• You identify new trends through observation of market, competition and university research.

• You come up with innovative solutions and secure intellectual property.

• You assess new technologies in terms of cost and benefit.

• You present research results to stakeholders in ABB, to customers and at scientific conferences/journals.

Your profile:

• You hold a PhD in mechanical engineering, mechatronics or a related field. Exceptional candidates with a MSc and relevant experience are also welcome to apply.  

• You have a proven ability to identify, structure and evaluate industrial innovation challenges in the area of mechatronic systems and a strong interest in the versatile industrial application of innovative actuation systems.

• You bring demonstrable experience in mechanics research for industrial systems with solid knowledge in mechanism kinematics and dynamics, covering both analysis and synthesis of mechanisms.

• You have substantial theoretical knowledge of multi-body dynamics simulation tools, and hands-on experience with at least one of Adams, RecurDyn, Simpack (or similar). Similar knowledge and experience with transient analyses in structural mechanics simulation tools such as ANSYS, ABAQUS, or COMSOL are a strong plus.

• You are experienced in practical mechanical design considering manufacturing engineering aspects, including related IT skills (e.g. in SOLIDWORKS, Creo).

• Your passion and affinity for research are also underlined with your track record of scientific publications.

• You are well acquainted with laboratory work, including selection of appropriate testing methods, development of test setups, and execution of tests following best practices for safety and quality. LabView proficiency is a plus.

• You show a collaborative, creative and solution-oriented mindset, and you are curious to explore new fields of research and technology outside own field of expertise.

• You are fluent in English; proficiency in German is a plus.

Benefits

• Canteen

• Flexible Working Practices

• Parental Leave Program

• Retirement Plan

Please note: in the case of equal suitability, people with severe disabilities and their equals are given preference.

ABB AG

+49 (0) 621 381 3500

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