Cleanroom Engineer (m/f/d)

The Max Planck Society is Germany's premier research organization. The 84 Max Planck Institutes conduct research at highest levels, in the service of the general public, in the natural sciences, life sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. The Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) is located at the Science Campus Hamburg-Bahrenfeld and investigates dynamical phenomena within matter down to the elementary timescales of atomic and electronic motions, the femtosecond or attosecond timescale. The focus is on the use of short wavelength ultrafast probes, such as X-rays or electron pulses, which are capable of measuring atomic and electronic structures in matter of all kinds. The MPSD currently consists of five scientific departments focusing on solid state physics and theoretical methods in these fields. The MPSD is a partner in the Center for Free‑Electron Laser Science (CFEL), collaborating with the Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY), European XFEL (EuXFEL) and the University of Hamburg in the development of science based on the X‑ray Free Electron Lasers (XFELs).

Your position

The primary goal of this position is to support the common clean‑room activities and coordinate the fabrication between the partners. Your role encompasses many diverse activities that balance well, including process development, machine maintenance, teaching and coordination. Specifically, you will be in charge of operation and maintenance of two major pieces of equipment, a high‑precision UV laser writer and a multi‑source physical vapor deposition system (PVD). The systems must operate at their feasibility limit daily, which means robustly writing 300 nm features into standard resist or producing homogeneous thin films at high reproducibility. This will require continued attention and adjustment in weekly maintenance and alignment cycles. Maintaining cleanliness and minimizing process cross‑contamination will be a key aspect of this work, as will exchanging material sources to switch between different processes. In this creative position, you will be actively engaging with the users of these machines and come into contact with wide areas of research, including biology, chemistry and physics; as well as industry partners. Your teaching roles will include continuous training of users to maintain best‑practice operations in our facilities. You will be the contact point for students and postdocs who want to translate their research questions into real microstructures.

Your background and skills

We are looking for a highly motivated and dynamic person to work in a vibrant international environment with the aim to push the limits of state‑of‑the‑art nanofabrication. You should be interested in developing new processes and procedures in this evolving environment, and in general enjoy solving challenging puzzles. Experience of clean‑room work is required (>2 years), either during an academic research project or in industry. A master’s degree either in Nanotechnology or a technical science connected to microfabrication aspects is a prerequisite and a PhD in a related subject is welcome. Experience with lithography and/or PVD is important. This position offers many opportunities to interact with a broad and international team of scientists. Naturally, fluent English and German is necessary. The diverse nature of this role needs a structured and independent person able to balance these roles. Yet above all, you must bring excitement and enthusiasm about bringing structures and ideas to life in the nanoworld!

Our offer

We offer an innovative environment, which will give you the opportunity to develop your own ideas in a low‑temperature high magnetic field facility in combination with state‑of‑the‑art micro‑machining capabilities. We offer an attractive remuneration according to the German public pay scale (TVöD). The appointment is for two years with the possibility to be made permanent.

The Max Planck Society strives for gender equality and diversity. We welcome applications from all backgrounds. The Max‑Planck Society is committed to increasing the number of individuals with disabilities in its workforce and therefore encourages applications from such qualified individuals.

Your application

To apply please complete the online application form and attach your English CV and motivation letter as well as all relevant certificates up to the 30th November 2025 .

Detailed information about the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter can be found on our website.

We look forward to your application.

For further information please contact Dr. Carsten Putzke, phone: ‑88402.

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