Job description

Aviation is undergoing a much-needed transition: aircraft must become lighter, more sustainable, and more cost‑efficient to meet climate targets and address the economic challenges facing the sector. This postdoc position will develop circular design principles and methods in a project aiming to design an innovative, lightweight, and biobased door for aerospace overhead stowage compartments. The design not only reduces fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions but also makes maintenance easier, and enables reuse, and recycling. The door serves as a demonstrator for the broader application of thermoplastic composites in cabin components, which at scale can deliver significant environmental and efficiency gains across the entire interior.

As postdoc you will contribute to cutting edge academic research at the intersection of circular design, environmental assessment, and aerospace engineering. In this role, you will investigate and advance methods for circular product design, prospective Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and supply chain modelling, using the thermoplastic composite bin door as a central case study. Your work supports the scientific development of design tools and assessment frameworks that enable circularity in durable aerospace components. You will generate insights that directly inform the design process in other work packages while simultaneously refining academic methodologies for application in future aerospace systems.

You will collaborate with a multidisciplinary consortium of industrial partners, researchers, and educators. Your activities include mapping the product lifecycle(s), developing circular design strategies, performing prospective LCAs, and designing circular supply chain concepts. You will also contribute to academic teaching and supervision by integrating project outcomes into TU Delft courses and guiding MSc students working on circular and sustainable aircraft interior concepts.

This research project is supported by a cross industry consortium consisting of an aircraft manufacturer, an airline and material and manufacturing specialists. Together, we develop the circular luggage bin door concept, produce and test prototypes. With the consortium, we investigate assembly, disassembly, repairability, and user experience in an operational environment. Building on this case, we develop the methodologies enabling design and evaluation of aerospace products using thermoplastic composite materials. The integrated approach ensures that the innovations are not only technically feasible but also practically applicable within the aviation industry.

Job requirements

This position is ideal for a researcher who wants to advance academic knowledge while engaging with real world aerospace challenges and shaping the next generation of circular design methodologies.

You should have:

• PhD degree in design engineering, industrial ecology, aerospace engineering or a related field
• Experience with work in research projects with internal and external partners
• Experience with conducting (prospective) lifecycle assessment
• Affinity with circular and sustainable product design
• English proficiency

In addition, the following experience is highly appreciated:

• Design, prototyping and testing of tangible products
• Working with thermoplastic composite materials
• Coaching and supervising students

Does this position spark excitement in you? If you cannot tick all the boxes but enthusiastic about sustainable design with composite materials, we’d like to get to know you!

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)

Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world-famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society. For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem-solvers, both in business and in a social context.

At TU Delft we embrace diversity as one of our core values and we actively engage to be a university where you feel at home and can flourish. We value different perspectives and qualities. We believe this makes our work more innovative, the TU Delft community more vibrant and the world more just. Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale. That is why we invite you to apply. Your application will receive fair consideration.

Challenge. Change. Impact!

Faculty Industrial Design Engineering

Matching the evolution of people with the speed of the revolution of technology. This is the focus of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE). Delft designers act as a bridge between advances in technology and the needs of people, organisations and society to create products, services and systems with purpose.

IDE is a leader in design research across the application areas of mobility, sustainability and health, as well as its development of design tools and methods. A 350-strong research team and over 2,000 students work together in our inspiring hall, labs and studios.

In close cooperation with industry, the public sector and NGOs we rehearse possible futures in research and education to design for a complex future.

Click here to go to the website of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering.