PhD Position in Aerodynamic Design of Small-Scale Turbomachinery

About the role

EPFL offers a full-time (100%) PhD position in the Aerodynamic Design of Small-Scale Turbomachinery, within the STI IGM LAMD group in Neuchâtel. You will join the TurboImpact project, funded by Horizon Europe (MSCA-DN), which designs, optimizes, selects materials and manufactures small-scale turbomachinery for heat pumps, fuel cells, organic Rankine cycles and gas turbines. The project builds a network of 14 doctoral candidates working in synergy, supervised by experts from European universities and research-intensive companies.

Key responsibilities

• Take full responsibility for your own dissertation and research in close collaboration with industry partners.
• Design and run experiments, analyze and interpret results, and write scientific articles for peer-reviewed journals.
• Present at international conferences and take part in education and supervise student projects.
• Develop and apply multi-objective topology optimization to balance structural integrity and heat-transfer resistance.
• Develop internal cooling concepts for hollow hub and blade structures and integrate them with a robust design and optimization framework.

Required profile

• Doctoral candidate (not yet holding a doctorate) eligible under MSCA Doctoral Network rules; must not have lived or worked in Switzerland for more than 12 months in the 36 months before recruitment.
• Two-year master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Materials Science, Computer Science, Data Science, Software Engineering or a similar field.
• Applications must be submitted online as a single PDF by 30 November 2026, including a motivation letter, CV, transcripts and diplomas, copies of BSc and MSc theses, and three referees.

Required skills

• Topology optimization and multi-objective optimization methods.
• Multi-disciplinary design optimization frameworks.
• Heat transfer fundamentals, structural mechanics and integrity assessment, coupled thermal-structural analysis.
• Robust design methodologies and uncertainty quantification.

What we offer

• A three-year full-time position starting 1 February 2027, with a financial package in line with MSCA Doctoral Network rules.
• Competitive salary, paid leave, mobility and family allowances (where applicable), and full social security coverage.
• Enrollment in a PhD program, access to state-of-the-art facilities, training, workshops, conferences and secondments of 4-6 months at partner institutions.