X-Ray Hardware/Material Engineer (Freelance)

Discover International; Montpellier; On-site; EUR 40,000 - 60,000; Part time

Job summary

Discover International seeks a senior X-ray hardware engineering consultant to join our on-site team in Montpellier on a 50% FTE, 1-year contract starting January 2027. You will bridge physics and engineering to optimize the X-ray acquisition chain and image quality.

The role requires deep hands-on experience with diagnostic X-ray systems, collaboration with a multidisciplinary R&D group, and the ability to influence procurement and design decisions in a regulated clinical context.

Qualifications

• Extensive hands-on experience with diagnostic X-ray imaging systems.
• Deep technical understanding of the full imaging chain from generator to detector to image-processing pipeline.
• Experience evaluating how acquisition settings and hardware variation affect image quality and dose.
• Ability to translate physics insights into practical procurement, verification and design decisions.
• Strong cross-functional communication across physics, engineering, procurement, software, quality and clinical teams.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical judgement on how X-ray hardware and acquisition parameters impact image quality, dose and system performance.
• Assess supplier specifications to determine true system-level equivalence for replacements.
• Develop test protocols, acceptance criteria and design-input requirements for components.

Skills

Senior imaging physicist

X-ray systems engineer

Detector/imaging-chain architect

OEM technical lead

Job description

I am seeking a senior X-ray hardware engineering consultant to replace critical expertise being lost through the retirement of a long-tenured team member. The consultant will work hands-on with the company’s equipment and multidisciplinary R&D organisation to define, evaluate, and optimise technical parameters across the X-ray acquisition chain—from generator and tube selection through detector performance and resulting image quality.

This is an onsite, part-time consulting assignment beginning in January 2027 with a requirement of 50% FTE in a 1-year contract alongside English being the main spoken language.

Core objective

Provide the technical judgement that connects changes in X-ray hardware and acquisition parameters to their expected impact on image quality, dose, system performance, and component-selection decisions.

The key need is someone who can answer practical questions such as:

• If a defined X-ray energy or spectrum is used in a given clinical application, what impact should this have on image contrast, noise, penetration, dose, and overall diagnostic image quality?
• If tube operating parameters change—such as kVp, mA, exposure time, filtration, focal spot, or generator characteristics—how will this affect the resulting image and the trade-offs involved?
• If Procurement sources an X-ray tube from Siemens Healthineers or another supplier, are the technical specifications genuinely equivalent for the intended system and clinical use case?
• Which tube, generator, detector, scintillator, and raw-material characteristics materially affect spatial resolution, DQE, noise, artefacts, stability, consistency, and system-level image performance?
• Which parameters need to be locked down in product specifications, verification plans, acceptance testing, supplier qualification, and design-change assessments?

Team context

The R&D organisation comprises approximately 35 people, covering the technology blocks required to build the product line. This includes:

• Clinical specialists and physicians.
• Software specialists.
• Broader system, product, and technology-development capability.
• Existing technical know-how across the product, but a specific gap in deep X-ray physics and image-quality judgement.

This is therefore not a role to build a team from scratch or lead general R&D. It is a senior expert-support role embedded with an established multidisciplinary group, filling a highly specialised capability gap.

Ideal consultant profile

The strongest candidate would be a senior imaging physicist, X-ray systems engineer, detector/imaging-chain architect, or former OEM technical lead with long practical experience in diagnostic X-ray systems.

Essential background

• Extensive hands-on experience with diagnostic X-ray imaging systems, ideally across radiography, fluoroscopy, mobile X-ray, surgical C-arms, or related digital X-ray modalities.
• Deep technical understanding of the full imaging chain: generator -> X-ray tube -> beam/spectrum -> patient or phantom -> detector -> image-processing pipeline -> displayed image quality.
• Direct experience with the effects of acquisition settings and hardware variation on image quality, dose, image noise, contrast, resolution, artefacts, and clinical usability.
• Experience evaluating or selecting X-ray tubes, generators, flat-panel detectors, scintillators, filtration, and related system components.
• Ability to distinguish apparent specification equivalence from actual system-level equivalence. For example, determining whether a replacement X-ray tube with a similar headline rating will produce comparable output, focal-spot performance, spectral behaviour, reliability, and image quality in the intended system.
• Practical familiarity with image-quality metrics and test methods—such as MTF, DQE, NPS, SNR/CNR, spatial resolution, uniformity, dose efficiency, and phantom-based assessment.
• Strong ability to work at the interface of physics, engineering, procurement, software, quality/regulatory, and clinical teams.
• Comfortable being physically present with equipment, test setups, prototypes, and engineering teams.

Highly desirable background

• Former technical, R&D, applications, or systems role at an X-ray OEM, detector manufacturer, tube manufacturer, or specialised imaging-physics consultancy.
• Experience developing or validating mobile X-ray, radiography, fluoroscopy, C-arm, or remote radiology systems.
• Knowledge of image-processing effects and the interaction between detector hardware, acquisition parameters, and post-processing.
• Experience creating component specifications, supplier-comparison frameworks, test protocols, and design-input requirements.
• Exposure to medical-device design controls, verification/validation, risk management, and image-quality requirements in a regulated environment.