About the role#
As a PhD candidate in Corporate Industrial Engineering at Volkswagen Group, you will research the intersection of Generative AI, Agentic AI, and automotive production planning. This role is part of the IPCEI-AI European funding project. You will develop AI methods and prototypes to help process planners generate, evaluate, and improve manufacturing process designs. Your work involves transforming product, engineering, and planning data into detailed assembly steps. You will coordinate your research with an established project focused on AI-supported product planning. The final doctoral topic is defined in collaboration with your supervising professor.
What you'll do#
- Develop AI methods to generate feasible assembly process steps from product, engineering, and planning data.
- Design and implement agentic AI workflows using Python, LangChain, and DeepAgents.
- Use tool-calling, memory, and retrieval mechanisms to build functional AI systems.
- Act as the Product Owner for prototype development, translating research needs into features, user stories, and validation criteria.
- Collaborate with the AI product-planning team to integrate their outputs into process-design logic.
- Evaluate AI-generated process designs against expert-created reference plans using metrics for quality, completeness, sequence, and explainability.
What you'll need#
- A university degree qualifying for doctoral studies in Computer Science with a specialization in Artificial Intelligence.
- Deep expertise in Generative AI, Agentic AI, Large Language Models, LangChain, and DeepAgents.
- Strong Python development skills, including experience with AI prototypes, data pipelines, APIs, and evaluation scripts.
- Solid knowledge of RAG architectures, embeddings, vector databases, prompt engineering, and AI system design.
- Ability to work at the interface of research, prototype development, industrial users, and IT teams.
- Confirmation of supervision and a confirmed delimitation of topics by a professor at a university or research institution entitled to confer a doctorate.
Location & details#
- This is a full-time, paid position.
- The role supports remote work.
- You will work a 35-hour week with flexible hours.
- Compensation includes a monthly salary of €3,030 in the first year, €3,194 in the second, and €3,497 in the third, plus a monthly allowance of €167 and a variable bonus.
- Benefits include 30 vacation days, plus December 24th and 31st off, as well as vehicle purchase and leasing conditions.
- You will have access to free seminars on scientific work and participation in a doctoral network.
About Volkswagen Group
Volkswagen Group is an automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg. Founded in 1937, the company operates 114 production plants and sells vehicles in 153 countries. It manages ten brands including Audi, Porsche, and Volkswagen. The organization employs over 100,000 people and focuses on vehicle production and related services.
How to get in at Volkswagen Group
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