Postdoc (f/m/d) Mechanical Characterization and Material Assessment for Nuclear Applications (Engineer - Materials Science)

Postdoc (f/m/d) Mechanical Characterization and Material Assessment for Nuclear Applications

With cutting-edge research in the fields of ENERGY, HEALTH, and MATTER, around 1,500 employees from more than 70 nations are committed at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) to mastering the great societal challenges of our time.

The Institute of Resource Ecology (IRE) conducts applied fundamental research to protect humans and the environment from the effects of radioactive radiation.

To strengthen the Structural Materials Department, we are looking for you as a Postdoc (f/m/d) Mechanical Characterization and Material Assessment for Nuclear Applications.

Small-scale specimen techniques have evolved from a pragmatic response to limited material availability into an independent methodological tool that enables testing concepts with higher statistical significance, new specimen geometries, and, above all, direct access to materials that simply do not exist in conventional quantities. This is precisely what makes them relevant for two central challenges in nuclear materials research: the reliable assessment of irradiation-induced property changes in operating plants and the systematic screening of new alloy concepts, for which only small material volumes are available in the early stages of development.

The Structural Materials Department has been developing and operating such procedures for several years as part of national and European research projects, including fracture mechanics characterization using miniaturized specimen geometries as well as Small-Punch Tests. The department is involved in Euratom-funded consortia that address both questions of long-term integrity of reactor pressure vessel steels and the qualification of candidate materials for advanced reactor concepts. Hot Cells are available for experimental work, enabling the handling of activated material to a degree that only a few research groups worldwide maintain.

The advertised position bundles these activities and is intended to develop them further in terms of content. We are looking for a person with their own scientific drive, who takes responsibility for testing programs, critically develops methods, and builds analytical concepts that reliably connect small-scale specimen results with established fracture mechanics assessment approaches. A concrete point of connection is the department's preliminary work on the systematic linking of fractographic findings with microstructural features, with the aim of understanding how neutron irradiation changes fracture initiation behavior at the microstructural level and what this means for the interpretation of macro-mechanical test quantities. Numerical methods, especially FEM-based stress analysis at initiation sites in the sense of local fracture approaches, form a natural bridge between experiment and mechanistic understanding. Data-driven evaluation methods, such as for inverse parameter identification or uncertainty quantification in fracture mechanics datasets, are not an end in themselves, but a logical extension where they promise real gains in knowledge.

The position offers the necessary creative freedom as well as integration into an active international research network. The department is increasingly involved in research programs on advanced reactor systems including fusion — a field in which the need for reliable material assessment methods is visibly growing.

Your tasks

• Coordination and scientific supervision of the mechanical testing of nuclear structural materials (fracture mechanics characterization, small-scale specimen techniques, tensile tests) within the framework of ongoing and future collaborative projects
• Further development and critical assessment of small-scale specimen methods with regard to their significance and transferability to fracture mechanics characteristic values
• Systematic linking of fractographic findings with microstructural features and macro-mechanical test results
• Numerical simulation of mechanical tests using FEM, especially for stress analysis at fracture initiation sites
• Documentation, analysis, and scientific publication of results in specialist journals and at international conferences

What distinguishes you

• Completed university studies (PhD) in Materials Science, Physics, Materials Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, or a comparable field
• Sound knowledge in the field of mechanical properties and fracture mechanics of metallic materials
• Experience with Finite Element Modeling (FEM) desirable, especially in the context of mechanical material testing or local fracture approaches
• Practical experience in mechanical material testing an advantage, preferably fracture mechanics testing and/or small-scale specimen techniques
• Interest in the methodological development of testing procedures
• Knowledge in the field of nuclear structural materials an advantage
• Knowledge in fractographic or microstructural characterization an advantage
• Experience with scientific evaluation environments
• Solid knowledge in scientific data analysis and statistical evaluation
• Interest in or initial experience with data-driven evaluation methods or machine learning an advantage
• Strong communication skills and willingness to cooperate with internal and external partners
• Independent, structured, and solution-oriented way of working
• Initiative and willingness to actively shape scientific questions
• Strong teamwork skills in international research consortia
• Programming skills (Python, C/C++)
• Very good written and spoken English, German an advantage

What we offer you

• An exciting working environment on an attractive research campus
• High scientific networking and scientific excellence
• Remuneration and social benefits according to the collective agreement for the public service (TVöD-Bund) - including 30 vacation days per year, company pension scheme (VBL)
• Depending on personal qualifications, a classification up to EG 13 TVöD-Bund is possible
• We support the compatibility of private life and work with the possibility of part-time employment and mobile working as well as flexible working hours
• A variety of offers from occupational health management
• Employee discounts from well-known providers via the Corporate Benefits platform
• An employer subsidy for the Deutschland-Ticket Jobticket

We look forward to receiving your application documents (cover letter, CV, certificates, etc.), which you please submit exclusively via our online application portal.