Vacancy No. 509/2025

Researcher (f/m/d) in Computer Science "Machine Learning for Materials Science and Chemistry"

with the opportunity of pursuing a PhD

Job description

As a successful candidate, you will work on the development of machine learning methods in the AI for Materials Science (AiMat) group of Prof. Dr. Pascal Friederich.

Your responsibilities will include:

  • Development of machine learning methods in collaboration with partners of the DFG Excellence Cluster “3D Matter Made to Order,” with a focus on ML potentials for complex atomistic simulations of laser 3D printing processes
  • Research in the areas of accelerated atomistic simulations, universal ML potentials, and model distillation
  • Collaboration with experimental partners in the 3DMM2O project to apply and validate the developed ML potentials
  • Preparation of scientific manuscripts and presentation of research results at workshops and conferences

In addition to scientific work, there is the opportunity of pursuing a PhD.

Personal qualification
  • A Master’s degree in Computer Science or a Natural Science from an internationally recognized academic institution
  • Theoretical and practical experience in the fields of machine learning and deep learning Experience in applying machine learning methods in an interdisciplinary context is an advantage
  • Experience in the field of machine-learned potentials and/or molecular dynamics simulations and/or density functional theory is an advantage
  • Experience in developing and training large models or performing simulations on high-performance computing systems is desirable
  • Ideally, practical research experience as well as experience with publications in relevant scientific fields
  • Experience in programming with Python, especially with libraries such as PyTorch
  • Fluent English skills
  • Strong communication and presentation skills
Organizational unit

Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen (and Karlsruhe)

Starting date

01.02.2026

Salary

Salary category 13 TV-L, depending on the fulfillment of professional and personal requirements.

Contract duration

2 years

Application up to

31.12.2025

Contact person in line-management

For further information, please contact Prof. Dr. Pascal Friederich: pascal.friederich@kit.edu or +49 721 608-44764.

Application

Please apply online using the button below for this vacancy number 509/2025 .
Personnel Support is provided by 

Ms Gemeinder
phone: +49 721 608-25011,
Institute of Nanotechnology (INT)

We prefer to balance the number of employees (f/m/d). Therefore we kindly ask female applicants to apply for this job.
Recognized severely disabled persons will be preferred if they are equally qualified.