Measurement Physicist

MAGNOTHERM builds refrigerant-free magnetocaloric cooling systems. Its STELLAR programme scales this technology to superconducting field strengths, and its biggest open questions are experimental rather than theoretical: how much a magnetocaloric regenerator delivers in a high field, and what losses cycling it induces. MAGNOTHERM is building a dedicated high-field test bench to answer that, in partnership with a national research lab’s magnet facility. This hire leads the work end to end, designing and building the bench, running the measurement campaigns, owning every error bar, and handing the design team the numbers every product decision rests on.

Key Responsibilities

• Redesign and build the single-regenerator low- and high-field test bench, covering mechanical layout, thermal management, sensor placement, and the full instrumentation and data-acquisition chain, then later upgrade it with an in-house superconducting coil
• Plan and execute the measurement campaign series, including temperature span, specific cooling power across field strengths and operating points, and the loss-under-cycling measurements addressing the programme’s largest open uncertainty
• Run calorimetric measurements at decision-grade precision: sensor calibration, error budgets, systematic-effect hunting, and honest uncertainty quantification
• Work directly with the simulation team to correlate models against measurements, define what gets measured next, and deliver structured, documented datasets to the design team on a continuous basis
• Lead the bench as its project manager, planning and scheduling work against programme milestones, tracking budget and material spend, and running bench hardware procurement
• Report progress, risks and slips into the programme’s sprint and design-review rhythm, coordinate assigned cryogenics and simulation support, and own the day-to-day relationship with the partner facility

Requirements

Essential: PhD or equivalent research experience in experimental physics or a closely related engineering field, having designed, built and operated a precision measurement setup end to end; precision thermal measurement experience, including calorimetry, temperature and heat-flow metrology, and thermal-management design of an experiment; instrumentation and DAQ competence, including sensor selection and calibration, signal conditioning, and acquisition systems; rigorous uncertainty analysis capability, including error budgets and systematic versus statistical effects; hands-on lab craft, comfortable building, wiring and troubleshooting an experiment around cryogenic systems and strong magnetic fields; data analysis fluency in Python or similar; project management experience on a multi-month experimental campaign, including milestones, budget, procurement and stakeholder reporting; English (C1+) and German (C1+).

Desirable: magnetism experience and knowledge of high-field magnet systems and superconductivity, including LTS/HTS and quench behaviour and protection; operational experience running superconducting magnets and their cryogenic environments; AC-loss or magnetization-loss measurement experience on superconductors or magnetic materials; campaign experience at a large-scale research facility such as a magnet lab or beamline; test-automation and measurement-software depth, including LabVIEW or Python-based instrument control; formal project-management exposure; a publication or open-data record demonstrating measurement quality.