Field Application Engineer 

What you will do

You will test, evaluate, and help position novel technologies in the context of emerging and unexplored application domains. Working at the interface between application exploration and technology development, you will translate application needs into concrete experiments, assess technology capabilities and limitations in real-world use cases, and provide critical feedback that helps shape the direction of next‑generation solutions. 

At imec, a wide range of novel sensing and imaging technologies are being researched and prototyped, spanning different maturity levels—from early proof‑of‑concepts to higher‑TRL demonstrators. These technologies are explored across diverse application domains and being integrated into various platforms such as drones, microscopes, medical devices, industrial systems, and laboratory setups. 

As a Field Application Engineer, you will work closely with internal research and engineering teams as well as external partners to explore use cases, design and execute experiments, and validate novel technologies in realistic application environments. You will play a key role in understanding application‑driven requirements and translating them into actionable technical insights. Delivering clear feedback and enabling decision‑making for both application and technology development is central to this role. 
Your hands‑on work and structured feedback on how novel technologies perform, where their limitations lie, and what future application needs may be, will directly contribute to shaping ongoing and future research and development activities.

In this job, your main activities will be: 

• Design, organize, and execute lab and field experiments to evaluate novel technologies for emerging application scenarios 
• Translate application needs into test setups, experiments, and evaluation metrics 
• Organize live demonstrations and provide technical insights on imec technologies to internal and external stakeholders 
• Organize, execute and report on application feasibility studies. 
• Document, analyse, and report experimental results, insights, and limitations 
• Provide structured feedback to research, engineering, and business teams to guide technology development and positioning 
• Collaborate closely with multidisciplinary teams across research, engineering, AI and data, and application domains 
• Support external partners in early technology exploration, evaluation, and adoption 
• Champion the customer internally by discussing interesting cases with your colleagues, share the customer feedback to the engineering teams, translate customer needs into improvement ideas 
• Develop application demonstrators, prototypes, scripts, tools, and supporting materials 
• Contribute to selected application‑driven research projects through hardware-software integration, data acquisition, and field experimentation 
• Share knowledge and insights internally, help building application expertise within the team 

What we do for you

We offer you the opportunity to join one of the world’s premier research centers in nanotechnology at its headquarters in Leuven, Belgium. With your talent, passion and expertise, you’ll become part of a team that makes the impossible possible. Together, we shape the technology that will determine the society of tomorrow.

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and proud of our open, multicultural, and informal working environment with ample possibilities to take initiative and show responsibility. We commit to supporting and guiding you in this process; not only with words but also with tangible actions. Through imec.academy, 'our corporate university', we actively invest in your development to further your technical and personal growth. 

We are aware that your valuable contribution makes imec a top player in its field. Your energy and commitment are therefore appreciated by means of a market appropriate salary with many fringe benefits. 

Who you are

• A generalist with a strong “can‑do” mentality and broad technical curiosity 
• A maker who enjoys building, experimenting, and learning across disciplines (expert level not required), such as:  
  
  • Scripting / coding 
  • Prototyping and tinkering 
  • Imaging, sensing, or data acquisition setups 
  • Embedded platforms 

• A clear communicator who enjoys collaborating with new people and sharing insights 
• Independent and pragmatic, able to take initiative and move from idea to experiment 
• Comfortable working in an exploratory and fast‑changing research environment 
• Hands‑on, proactive, curious, and creative 
• A fast learner with enthusiasm for new technologies and applications 
• A degree in engineering, science, or equivalent experience 
• 3–5 years of relevant working experience 
• You have experience in customer-facing engineering roles 
• Experience in hands‑on engineering, application engineering, or experimental roles 
• Interest in application exploration, technology validation, and professional services 
• Strong technical communication and interpersonal skills; fluent in English 
• A problem‑solving mindset and the ability to work both independently and in teams 

IMEC and its affiliates will not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than directly from a candidate. IMEC will consider unsolicited referrals and/or resumes submitted by vendors such as search firms, staffing agencies, professional recruiters, fee-based referral services and recruiting agencies (hereafter “Agency”) to have been referred by the Agency free of charge. IMEC will not pay a fee to any Agency that does not have a prior written agreement with IMEC, validated by its HR department, in place regarding a specific job opening and allowing to submit resumes.