Student Assistant: Mathematical Optimization in Energy Systems
KAKTILocation: DTU Science Park (fly-in office) / Remote
Hours: 15-20 hours per week (flexible)
Start: As soon as possible
Help Build the Next Generation of Industrial Energy Optimization
At KAKTI, we develop intelligent optimization and control solutions that help industrial companies reduce energy consumption, lower operating costs, and accelerate the green transition.
We are currently looking for a technically strong Student Assistant to join our team and contribute to the DRY3E project, an ambitious industrial electrification project focused on optimizing high-temperature drying processes through heat recovery, steam generation, advanced control, and electricity market participation.
This is an opportunity to work on real-world industrial optimization challenges where mathematical programming is at the core of the solution.
About the Role
You will work closely with experienced engineers at KAKTI while taking ownership of your own tasks and work packages.
A central part of your work will be to design and implement an optimization model that describes how different energy assets interact, including:
- Heat recovery systems
- Steam generation and storage
- Industrial drying processes
- Flexible electricity consumption
- Participation in electricity markets
- Operational constraints from the industrial process
You will help transform real industrial processes into tractable optimization models and decision-support tools.
The role combines:
- Mathematical modelling
- Operations research
- Energy systems engineering
- Industrial stakeholder interaction
Your Responsibilities
You will:
- Develop optimization models in Pyomo
- Formulate and implement MILP optimization problems
- Work with the industrial use case owners to understand process requirements
- Identify and formulate objectives, constraints, and decision variables
- Model interactions between different parts of the drying process
- Investigate how electricity market mechanisms and bidding opportunities can be integrated into optimization models
- Research state-of-the-art optimization approaches from academia and industry
- Evaluate existing formulations and solution techniques
- Analyze non-linear process relationships and develop suitable linearizations and approximations
- Help ensure that optimization problems remain computationally tractable for practical use
- Contribute to implementing the developed model into KAKTI’s existing optimization architecture and testing the model
You will not be expected to solve these challenges alone. You will have access to experienced colleagues and internal tools.
What We Are Looking For
We imagine that you are currently:
- In the later semesters of your Bachelor's degree or the early part of your Master's degree
- Studying a relevant field such as:
- Mathematical Modelling and Computation
- Applied Mathematics
- Operations Research
- Energy Systems
- Computer Science
- Industrial Engineering
- Similar quantitative disciplines
Required Qualifications
- Strong programming skills in Python
- Experience with mathematical optimization
- Understanding of linear programming and mixed-integer programming
- Experience with or interest in Pyomo
- Ability to independently structure and execute technical work
- Strong analytical skills
What We Offer
- Real responsibility from day one
- A steep learning curve in industrial optimization and energy systems
- Close collaboration with experienced optimization engineers
- Access to internal domain knowledge on industrial energy systems
- Flexible working hours that accommodate studies and exam periods
- Possibility to work remotely
- Access to office facilities in DTU Science Park
- Opportunity to contribute directly to the green transition
- The chance to work on solutions that will ultimately be deployed in real industrial facilities
Practical Information
- Working hours: 15-20 hours per week on average
- Hours can be adjusted around exams and university commitments
- Work location is flexible between remote work and our facilities at DTU Science Park
- Competitive student salary based on qualifications
Interested?
Send a SHORT motivated application focusing on previous experience in mathematical optimization/decision processes, for example previous work, completed university degree courses, project work, or other competencies showing you to be the person for the job.
Include also a CV and transcript of grades to magnus.poulsen@kakti.ai.
We review applications on an ongoing basis and encourage interested candidates to apply as soon as possible.
About KAKTI
KAKTI is a Danish software company that simplifies heat production in the future energy system. As markets, prices and assets get more complex, our platform, LILA, combines advanced forecasting with mathematical optimization to run production, storage and market bidding, from decision support to direct plant control, so operators can be engineers, not traders. The team spans software engineering, mathematical optimization, AI and thermal operations, and KAKTI is an alumnus of Google's AI for Energy Accelerator.