Muon Tomography Engineer (Visa Support Provided)

Location: Hamburg (Hybrid - mainly on-site with ~1 home-office day per week; fully remote not possible)

About the Role

We are seeking an innovative, impact-driven Muon Tomography Engineer (m/f/d) to take full ownership of how raw particle track data is transformed into high-resolution 3D density reconstructions. Operating within a fast-paced, small skunkworks team, your software will be mission-critical—directly powering the pass/fail decisions used by our industrial, defense, aerospace, and security partners.

You will work at the cutting edge of computational imaging, combining laser-plasma-accelerator-driven muon sources, next-generation particle detectors, and AI to enable revolutionary non-destructive testing and quality assessment for critical components like rocket engines and gas turbines.

Key Responsibilities

• Algorithm Development: Design, implement, and scale density-reconstruction algorithms, progressing from point-based methods (POCA, ASR) to advanced likelihood-optimized methods.
• Performance Optimization: Explore and deploy adaptive or multi-resolution numerical grids to efficiently balance memory requirements, reconstruction speed, and spatial resolution.
• Uncertainty Modeling: Leverage the muon beam's narrow energy bandwidth to compute precise per-track error weights rather than relying on global constants.
• Multi-Modal Data Fusion: Integrate optical images and Device Under Test (DUT) geometry into reconstructions as hard constraints that narrow the solution space.
• High-Flux Track Statistics: Solve track pile-up and hit-ambiguity issues in tracking detectors operating under high muon flux conditions.
• Software Engineering: Take reconstruction methods out of the research sandbox and package them into maintained, standalone production software tools with fixed input/output formats.
• Collaboration: Partner with cross-functional teams and world-class research facilities (such as DESY, DLR, and others) with occasional international travel.

Ideal Candidate Profile

Must-Haves

• Education: Doctorate (PhD / Dr.) degree required.
• Experience: Minimum post-doctoral experience; ideally several years of postdoc-level research or industry experience.
• Technical Expertise:
• Practical background in tomographic reconstruction (POCA, ASR, likelihood optimization).
• Strong foundation in adaptive or multi-resolution numerical grids.
• Experience with practical uncertainty modeling at the individual track level.
• Demonstrated capabilities in multi-modal data fusion (combining spatial priors or optical data with physics models).
• Proven solutions for handling high-flux track pile-up problems.
• Software Mindset: Ability to ship robust, production-ready tools rather than isolated research scripts.
• Language: Full professional proficiency in English (C1 level); German or Estonian language skills are a plus.

Personality & Working Style

• Skunkworks Mentality: Thrives in a small, highly autonomous team with rapid iteration cycles, simple solutions, and full ownership.
• Curiosity: Passionate about finding broken assumptions and rigorously testing against real-world physical objects.
• Team Player: Able to "disagree together, commit together" and treat external project constraints as creative design parameters.

Core Benefits & Compensation

• Business-Critical Impact: Your software directly dictates every pass/fail decision made by our customers on mission-critical industrial hardware.
• Cutting-Edge Stack: Work alongside multi-GeV beamlines and advanced AI-driven particle detection frameworks.
• Strong Network: Direct collaboration opportunities with premier institutions like DESY and industry giants in aerospace and energy.
• Comprehensive Relocation & Visa Support: Full assistance and visa sponsorship provided for non-EU citizens moving to Hamburg.