Job Description

Project Manager R&D (gn)

Are you passionate about advanced materials, thin-film technologies, and turning innovative ideas into high-performance coating solutions?

Join our international R&D team and help shape the next generation of surface solutions for demanding industrial applications. In this role, you will drive development projects from concept to implementation, work closely with experts across functions and regions, and collaborate directly with internal and external customers to create solutions with real impact.

Your Responsibilities

• Take ownership of product development projects focused on PVD wear protective surface solutions, from understanding application requirements to defining coating properties and evaluating optimal pre- and post-treatment processes
• Create and verify innovative, high-performance, and cost-effective surface solutions that help our customers improve productivity, reliability, and performance
• Plan and steer development projects, ensuring transparent communication of progress, costs, risks, and timelines in line with our project management standards
• Validation and transfer of new processes into production in close cooperation with internal teams and external customers
• Contribute with your technical expertise during product launches and implementation, working closely with Marketing, Sales, and Production

Your Profile

• Master’s degree or PhD in physics, materials science, engineering, or a comparable technical discipline
• Several years of experience in the development and characterization of wear-protective nitride, carbide, oxide, boride, or comparable hard coatings
• Knowledge of thin-film deposition technologies, ideally including PVD arc, sputtering, and/or PACVD processes
• Experience with suitable pre- and post-treatment techniques is a strong advantage
• Experience leading or contributing to development projects in an industrial or applied R&D environment
• Strong communication and presentation skills, with the ability to translate technical topics into clear messages for different audiences
• A proactive, structured, and collaborative working style, combined with curiosity and a hands-on mindset
• Willingness to travel internationally up to 20%
• Fluent written and spoken English; German language skills are an advantage

We offer

• An international R&D environment where you can shape future coating technologies and contribute to solutions used in demanding industrial applications
• Close collaboration with experienced experts across technology, production, sales, and customer-facing teams
• The opportunity to take ownership, bring in your ideas, and see your developments move from lab-scale concepts to real-world implementation

Can you identify with this position and are you looking for a new challenge? Then we are eager to meet you! Please apply online.

Contact

Barbara Scherrer

Phone: +4233886688

About Oerlikon

Oerlikon is a global leader in material science engineering. Through the right combination of surface technologies, advanced materials, coating equipment, engineered components and advanced manufacturing, we help customers improve the performance, efficiency, durability and sustainability of their products and processes. Our technologies are often invisible to the end user, but mission-critical to the industries that power modern life: aerospace, energy, semiconductors, medical, luxury, tooling, automotive and general industries. Headquartered in Pfaeffikon, Switzerland, Oerlikon operates in 38 countries with a global workforce of around 10,000 people. In 2025, Oerlikon achieved sales of CHF 1.6 billion.

We offer a wide variety of job profiles in a dynamic, supportive environment where people are empowered to grow and reach their full potential — guided by our core values of integrity, team spirit, excellence and innovation.

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www.oerlikon.com