PhD Researcher - Offshore Wind

Job Description

Job Description

PhD Student on Data Fusion for Fatigue Assessment of Offshore Wind Turbine Supports

City: Copenhagen, Denmark

Are you passionate about sustainability and innovative technology? Are you motivated by enabling a smarter and more intelligent decision-making process for predictive maintenance? Are you excited about contributing to the green energy transition?

If this sounds like you, or you're curious to learn more, then this PhD enrolment could be the perfect opportunity. Join our team in Copenhagen and work with us to close the gap to a sustainable future.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctorial Network

The doctoral network called Decentralized Infrastructure Asset MOnitoring and coNDition assessment (DIAMOND) will train a new generation of Early Stage Researchers. The main objective is to enable a smarter and more intelligent decision-making process for predictive maintenance to help ensure the success of the green energy transition. This is feasible through data-driven methods that combine sensor data, digital twins, and machine learning. Ramboll leads one of the projects in the doctorial network in collaboration with University of Thessaly, focusing on life-time extension of offshore wind turbine supports. Thus, the aim is to extend the service life of offshore wind structures, reduce material use and waste, and strengthen the sustainability and competitiveness of renewable energy.

Your PhD project

Offshore wind turbines (OWT) support structures are prone to fatigue damage and are exposed to lifetime hazardous marine environments with dynamic loading from wind, waves, ice, salinity, seabed changes and even earthquakes. Potential downtime or even collapse can cause large monetary losses and confidence erosion in renewable energy. Structural Health Monitoring of OWT support structures and their asset management are key to ensure lifetime performance, safety, financial competitiveness and design life extension while improving sustainability and reliability with increased knowledge of structural behaviour and environmental impact to improve future designs. DC8, supported by Ramboll’s state-of-the-art, modular solutions for digitally enabled asset management and digital twinning (DT) will deliver unique asset management excellence via continuous data aggregation and in-house designs, statistics, system identification, virtual sensing for fatigue estimates, ML for state estimation and deep OWT domain knowledge. The DT solution will address core challenges in transferring large data for analyses and the reliance on full-scale design engines for fatigue estimation by improving/extending existing procedures for efficient data transfer, computing costs, and software to move towards self-aware infrastructure. DC8 will assimilate DT solutions with on-site capabilities and decision making/asset management tools at fleet level integrated with Value of Information (VoI) analyses, identifying optimal key performance indicators for maximized benefit.

PhD supervisory team

Tobias Friis, Ramboll

Costas Papadimitriou, University of Thessaly

Secondments

Host: University of Thessaly, Costas Papadimitriou
6 months on fundamentals of statistical assessments of data from edge computing.

Host: Ramboll Germany, Moritz Werther Häckell
3 months on industrial approaches of fleet level data validation.

About you

• Must not have been awarded a doctoral degree
• Conditions of international mobility require that researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity in Denmark for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the recruitment date (Compulsory national service, short stays such as holidays, and time spent as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention are not taken into account.)
• The candidate must hold a second-level Master of Science (120 ECTS + 180 ECTS in a bachelor degree) or equivalent degree in Civil or Mechanical Engineering or related fields to the project's subject matter
• Candidates who do not have the required qualification at the call closing date may apply but the academic qualifications must be awarded before enrollment in the PhD School.

What we can offer you:

• Living Allowance: €191,710.08 over 36 months
• Mobility Allowance: €25,560 over 36 months
• Family Allowance: (where relevant) €17,820 over 36 months
• Participation in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctorial Network called DIAMOND incl. international training and collaboration
• Projects that are technically intensive and that enable you to make a real difference

Ready to join us?

Please submit your application, university transcript and CV online. We invite diversity in all its forms and encourage applicants from all groups to apply.

Deadline: 1st of February 2026

Work at the heart of sustainable change with Ramboll

Ramboll is a global architecture, engineering, and consultancy company. As a foundation-owned people company, founded in Denmark, we believe that the purpose of sustainable change is to create a thriving world for both nature and people. So, that's where we start – and how we work. Our history is rooted in a clear vision of how a responsible company should act and being open and curious is a cornerstone of our culture. Ramboll employs more than 18,000 people globally across 35 countries. Ramboll experts deliver innovative solutions across Buildings, Transport, Water, Environment & Health, Energy, Management Consulting, and Architecture & Landscape. Combining local experience with global knowledge, we help shape the societies of tomorrow.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

Equality, diversity, and inclusion are at the heart of what we do. At Ramboll, we believe that diversity is a strength and that different experiences and perspectives are essential to creating truly sustainable societies. We are committed to providing an inclusive and supportive work environment where everyone is able to flourish and reach their potential. We also know how important it is to achieve the right balance of where, when, and how much you work. At Ramboll, we offer flexibility as part of our positive and inclusive approach to work. We invite applications from candidates of all backgrounds and characteristics. Please let us know if there are any changes we could make to the application process to make it more comfortable for you. You can contact us at job.advert.accessibility@ramboll.com with such requests.