Join us on the path to a brightly illuminated future with your contribution to the research at Fraunhofer IOF. As a future employee, you are part of the latest developments in the fields of Optics and Photonics. You can expect enthusiastic and motivated colleagues as well as a modern and dynamic work environment. Do you want to move worlds with light, too? Then discover your career options at our institute on the following pages.
Photonics - the industry of the future
As a key technology of the 21st century, photonics opens up countless possibilities and has become indispensable in many areas of our everyday lives. It is making our computers and smartphones ever more powerful and is what makes welding aluminum with laser beams for car bodies possible in the first place.
Solutions to the big questions of the future
The Fraunhofer IOF carries out applied research in the field of optical system technology on the direct commission of industry and as part of publicly funded joint projects.
Our mission is to develop innovative optical systems to control light, from its generation to its application in the cutting-edge fields of energy and the environment, information and communication, health and medical technology, and safety and mobility. We welcome dedicated scientists, engineers and technologists at all times and offer optimum research and working conditions. In addition to that we offer interesting and fascinating tasks in IT, administration, and technological infrastructure.
Our scientific work depends on exchange. We therefore support and fund target-oriented cooperations and the linkages of manifold competences.
The institute’s location at the Beutenberg Campus in Jena creates ideal conditions for the successful and regional collaboration with other research institutions – such as the Institute for Applied Physics (IAP) of the Friedrich Schiller Universität (FSU) Jena or the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (IPHT).
In addition to that, we collaborate closely with the award-winning spin-offs from our institute.
To enable excellent research, we provide an optimal work environment. Our employees enjoy modern workplaces and technically very good equipped laboratories and clean rooms.
As an employer in the public service, we provide you with a secure income and many attractive employee benefits:
Further trainings are an essential part of professional learning processes that contribute to excellent research activities. At Fraunhofer IOF, you can choose from a wide variety of further trainings – reaching from language classes over trainings for supervisors or project managers to subject-related trade fairs, conferences, and seminars. Apart from that, there are internal specialist presentations at Fraunhofer IOF in which our employees present their research projects and therefore contribute to the interdisciplinary exchange at our institute.
Health is our most valuable good. This is why we especially care about the health of our employees. Our workplaces are furnished ergonomically and there are regular offers for occupational health checks. Once a year in fall, there is an offer for the influenza vaccination at our institute. This is supplemented by different offers supporting your physical and mental health. Apart from online classes and cooperations with local partners, there are health promotion days at our institute. On top of that, we invite our employees to join our team at the Jena Company Run or the city cycling and collectively achieve sporting goals.
At Fraunhofer IOF, we are committed to appreciative cooperation and an open organizational and working culture. The diversity of our employees is a hallmark of our institute.
As international research institute, we provide an ideal working environment for employees from all nations. Among other things, we support employees from abroad in their arrival at our institute. This includes language courses, joint activities, and the provision of a wide range of information and offers relating to living and working in the region.
A culture of welcome is a crucial part of our work life. We stand in for an appreciative community and an open organizational culture. Diversity, equal chances, and openness to the world are particularly important to us
With our Fraunpower (womens' power) initiative, we show that women are essential in research and administration and that they enrich our institute immensely. Get to know our female employees and researchers and let them inspire you!
Find out more about our visions and tasks in our institute's mission statement (german version).
Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF