Postdoc Position (2 years) in Manufacturing Technology & Industrial Management

The Department of Technology and Innovation (ITI) at University of Southern Denmark (SDU), section of Engineering Operations Management , invites applications for a 2-year position as Postdoc in Manufacturing Technology & Industrial Management. The position is open from December 1, 2026, and the job location is Odense, Denmark.

Job description

Successful candidates will drive internationally competitive research, collaborate in and across disciplines, work closely with industry and attract competitive external research and innovation funding in collaboration with senior researchers. The candidates will play a key role in providing outstanding education, supervise students, and develop junior research staff.

We offer

We offer a vigorous international research environment with a balance of male and female researchers, excellent facilities, including the new Robotics and Additive Manufacturing Laboratories at University of Southern Denmark, a long-term strategic initiative created to support research, teaching, and industrial collaboration and experimentation. SDU expects to increase its’ collaboration with industrial companies and associations in the coming years.

This position will imply collaboration with industrial partners in the Renewable Energy Sector. Examples can be vendors of wind turbines, electrification solutions, electrolyzers, biogas equipment, carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies etc. It can also be major owners / operators of renewable energy plants, as offshore wind turbine park operators, green hydrogen / methanol / ammonia plants etc.

Research will be done to support DK and EU in realizing ambitions for production of green energy at off-take prices competitive with energy from fossil fuels via scaling and industrialization, whether the energy is in the form of green electricity or green fuels for industry and transport. There will be specific emphasis on research into the interplay between business strategy, product design, manufacturing systems design, manufacturing technology choices and scenarios or plans for industrial scaling. In addition to that, the position offers the opportunity to shape our educational and research and innovation programs by contributing to teaching and supervision in areas of Manufacturing technologies of the future and Industrial Management to benefit from new developments in research fields, approaches and content.

We expect

Candidates must have a relevant PhD.

Commensurate with the seniority of the position applied for, the candidates must ideally have:

• An excellent standing in research and innovation
• Documented experience and good track record with education and supervision on undergraduate or graduate level
• Extensive experience with industrial collaboration: can be from working in partnerships with or within companies, but also industrial and NGO organizations
• Industry outreach and work experience will be assessed positively
• Research & innovation project management experience will be assessed positively
• International work experience, organizational drive and a team-oriented mindset
• Good written and oral communication skills
• Fluent in English, both spoken and written

Candidates must have experience and competence in several, but not all, of the following fields:

• Business, Manufacturing and Operations Strategy
• Product / Service design for Manufacturing, Logistics and Sustainability
• Systems Design and Engineering
• Materials Science, Industrial processes & Future Manufacturing Technologies
• Design, Operations & Maintenance of Manufacturing Systems
• Lean Manufacturing / Logistics and Industry 4.0 / 5.0
• Discrete Event Simulation Methods, Agent Based Simulation & Technologies
• Machine Learning, AI, LLMs & Data Science for Manufacturing and Supply Chain Operations
• Cost-Benefit and Return of Investment Analysis
• Life Cycle Analysis Methods
• Modelling and Simulation methods
• Case study, Design Science, Action Research Methods
• Project Management, Agile Methods, Scrum Methods
• EU strategies and plan for decarbonization of industry and society
• UN Sustainability Goals and Dimensions,

Working experience from industry, also within the renewable energy sector, will be seen as positive add-on but is not a requirement to apply for the position.

Contact information

Further information about the position may be obtained from Head of Section, Niels Gorm Maly Rytter, phone: +45 29103729 or email: ngry@iti.sdu.dk

If you experience technical problems, please contact our email support .

Application

Applicants are advised to read the SDU information on how to apply .

Assessment of the candidates is based on the application material, and the application must include:

• Curriculum Vitae including information on previous employment, list of programming skills mastered by the applicant, and teaching and supervision experience.
• Letter of motivation , including details on qualifications within the subject area (max. one page).
• Master’s and PhD degree certificates or equivalent (original and an official English translation).
• Complete list of publications .
• Publications most relevant to the position on which the applicant wishes to rely on.
• Summary and documentation of experience in teaching .
• A research statement may be included.
• At least one letter of recommendation from supervisors or previous employers . Should your referees wish to send their letters directly to us, please have them use e-mail: tek-hr@tek.sdu.dk mentioning your name and the title of the position in the subject line. Please note that these also need to reach us before deadline.
• A statement/documentation of other qualifications relevant to the position may also be included.

All documents must be in English and PDF format. CPR number (civil registration number) must be crossed out. All PDF-files must be unlocked, allow binding and may not be password protected.

SUBMISSION GUIDE: Motivated application must be uploaded under ‘Cover letter’ (max. 5 MB), Curriculum Vitae must be uploaded under ‘Resume’ (max 5 MB). All other documents must be uploaded under ‘Miscellaneous documents’ (max 10 files with a maximum 50 MB per file).

The application deadline is October 15, 2026, at 11:59 PM/23:59 (CET/CEST)

Assessment and selection process

Applications will be assessed by an expert or assessment committee. Shortlisting may be applied, and only shortlisted candidates will receive a written assessment. Read about shortlisting at SDU. Interviews and tests may be part of the overall evaluation. Read about the Assessment and selection process .

Employment terms

Appointment as a postdoc is temporary for an initial 2-year period, and the preferred start date is from December 1, 2026. Extension may be possible depending on available funding.

Employment as a postdoc requires academic qualifications at PhD level at the time of employment. Employment will be in accordance with the collective agreement between the Ministry of Finance and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations for academics in the state including the associated circular on the protocol for the job structure for academic staff at Danish universities and the provisions for postdoc as described therein.

Salary is determined in accordance with the applicable collective agreement and based on objective and gender-neutral criteria, including the content of the position, responsibilities, and qualification requirements. As an applicant, you are entitled to information about the starting salary and salary range for the position. This information will be provided during the recruitment process. SDU does not collect information on applicants’ previous salary. Further information on salary and taxation.

Persons employed in the position may, based on a specific individual managerial assessment, be exempted from time registration, also known as a “self-organizer”.

The University of Southern Denmark wishes its staff to reflect the surrounding community and therefore encourages everyone, regardless of personal background, to apply for the position. SDU conducts research in critical technologies, which, due to the risk of unwanted knowledge transfer, is subject to a number of security measures. Therefore, based on information from open sources, background checks may be conducted on candidates for the position(s).

Further information for international applicants about entering and working in Denmark. You may also visit WorkinDenmark for additional information.

Further information about The Faculty of Engineering.