Project Manager R&D – Advanced Materials

About the role

We are looking for a Project Manager R&D to lead the development of high‑performance, wear‑protective coating solutions. You will work within an international R&D team, turning innovative concepts into real‑world surface technologies for demanding industrial applications.

Key responsibilities

• Own product development projects focused on PVD wear‑protective surface solutions, from requirement analysis to coating property definition and selection of pre‑ and post‑treatment processes.
• Create and verify innovative, cost‑effective surface solutions that improve customer productivity, reliability and performance.
• Plan, steer and communicate project progress, costs, risks and timelines in line with established project‑management standards.
• Validate and transfer new coating processes into production in close cooperation with internal teams and external customers.
• Provide technical expertise during product launches, collaborating with Marketing, Sales and Production.

Required profile

• Master’s degree or PhD in physics, materials science, engineering or a comparable technical discipline.
• Several years of experience developing and characterising hard‑coating systems such as nitride, carbide, oxide or boride.
• Knowledge of thin‑film deposition technologies, ideally PVD arc, sputtering and/or PACVD.
• Experience with pre‑ and post‑treatment techniques is a strong advantage.
• Proven ability to lead or contribute to development projects in an industrial or applied R&D environment.
• Strong communication and presentation skills, proactive and collaborative working style, and willingness to travel internationally up to 20%.
• Fluent English; German language skills are a plus.

Required skills

• PVD arc deposition
• Sputtering deposition
• PACVD deposition
• Hard‑coating development
• Coating characterization
• Pre‑treatment techniques
• Post‑treatment techniques

What we offer

• An international R&D environment shaping future coating technologies.
• Close collaboration with experts across technology, production, sales and customer‑facing teams.
• Opportunity to take ownership of projects from lab‑scale concepts to real‑world implementation.