General Information

We are often looking for talented new people to join our team!

Members of the HI department come from around the world and enjoy working in our diverse international environment. All of our work is conducted in English, so we value good oral and written English communication skills. Familiarity with German is helpful but not required.

We pursue interdisciplinary research in haptics and robotics and thus welcome applications from people in a wide range of fields. Most of our current department members have a background in mechanical engineering, biomedical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, or cognitive science.

The main types of research opportunities that we offer include:

• Unpaid BOGY internships for local high-school students
• Paid hourly student assistant (HiWi) work for bachelor’s and master’s students presently enrolled at a German university
• Short-term paid in-person internships for students pursuing a bachelor’s or master’s degree at a university outside Germany (special application possible, as explained below). Note that we do not offer any remote internships, even for volunteers.
• Bachelor’s thesis and master’s thesis research positions
• Research engineer positions. Note that currently we do not have any research engineer positions available, so applications will not be reviewed or responded to.
• Visiting Ph.D. student positions
• Doctoral research positions (special application required, as explained below)
• Research fellowships (typically funded by an external agency such as the Fulbright Scholar Program)
• Postdoctoral research positions. Note that currently we do not have any postdoctoral research positions available, so applications will not be reviewed or responded to.
• Visiting scientist positions for faculty on sabbatical

We recruit almost all of our interns through the Robotics Institute Germany Internships (RIGI) program, which organizes central applications for summer internships each year. Individuals seeking an internship between the months of May and October must apply via RIGI. Intern applications at other times of the year can be submitted via the process described below, but very few such opportunities are available, so not all applications will be reviewed or responded to.

Individuals who are interested in pursuing a doctoral degree (Ph.D.) in our department should already hold a master’s degree in a related field and should apply directly to one or both of the doctoral programs listed below, observing the respective annual application deadlines, which typically fall in November:

• International Max Planck Research School for Intelligent Systems (IMPRS-IS)
• Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems (CLS)

If you would like to apply for any research position (excluding a RIGI internship, research engineer, doctoral research, or postdoctoral research), please prepare the following materials in English and email them to Katherine J. Kuchenbecker at kjk@is.mpg.de:

• A paragraph (or more) explaining why you are interested in working in our department
• Details about which position interests you and when you would hope to work with us
• A PDF of your current résumé or CV listing all of your degrees, work experience, and publications
• A PDF of your unofficial transcript(s) from your current academic program and any previous university degrees that you completed
• PDF’s of up to three of your publications, if you have any
• Names, titles, institutions, and email addresses for two or more professional references

We try to examine and provide feedback about all serious and complete applications within one month. Incomplete, non-targeted, and unprofessional applications and repeated reminders will not receive any reply.

In addition, we sometimes advertise specific job opportunities through the institute’s central hiring tool. If any such positions are presently available, they will appear below.