PhD Position in Integrated Design and Optimization

About the role

EPFL offers a full-time (100%) PhD position in Integrated Design and Optimization within its STI IGM LAMD department in Neuchâtel. The work is part of the TurboImpact project, funded by Horizon Europe (MSCA-DN), which addresses the design, optimization, material selection and manufacturing of small-scale turbomachinery for heat pumps, fuel cells, organic Rankine cycles and gas turbines. The project builds robust design methods, an integrated manufacturing platform and multi-material joining techniques, involving a network of 14 doctoral candidates supervised by European universities and research-intensive companies.

Key responsibilities

• Take full responsibility for your own dissertation
• Carry out research in close collaboration with industry partners
• Design and run experiments, and analyze and interpret the results
• Write scientific articles for peer-reviewed journals and present at international conferences
• Take part in teaching and supervise student projects
• Develop reduced-order models for gas-bearing high-speed turbomachinery, a unified structure to optimize complex systems against competing metrics and uncertainty, and unified design guidelines for automated design and optimization

Required profile

• A two-year master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Materials Science, Computer Science, Data Science, Software Engineering or a similar field (equivalent academic level)
• Doctoral candidate status (not yet holding a doctorate) and eligibility under MSCA Doctoral Network rules, including the 12-month residence rule in the host country
• Eligible to enroll in a PhD program at EPFL

Required skills

• Model order reduction and surrogate modeling (ML/AI)
• Data-driven approaches, multi-objective and multi-disciplinary optimization, constraint handling and systems engineering
• Engineering background in energy conversion systems, dynamic systems, turbomachinery and fluid dynamics
• Knowledge of manufacturing processes

What we offer

• A three-year full-time position starting 1 February 2027, with a comprehensive financial package for MSCA Doctoral Candidates
• Competitive salary, paid leave and access to national social security schemes
• Mobility and family allowances where applicable
• Secondments of about 4-6 months at network or partner institutions, training and conference participation

Applications are submitted online as a single PDF with a motivation letter, CV, transcripts and diplomas, copies of the BSc and MSc theses, and three referees, by 30 November 2026. Shortlisted candidates must also apply separately to the EPFL PhD program.