Partial Discharge Data Scientist

Optics11; Amsterdam; On-site; EUR 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary and benefits

Job summary

Optics11 in Amsterdam, a deep-tech company in fiber-optic sensing, is seeking an experienced Data Scientist to develop analytics for partial discharge monitoring and predictive maintenance.

You will translate challenges into scalable data-driven solutions, collaborating with embedded, software, and hardware teams. You will deploy algorithms to cloud and edge environments, and contribute to model maintenance and improvements.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of professional experience in data science focusing on sensor data analysis.
• Experience with real-time or edge computing is a plus.
• Strong foundation in mathematics, physics, and data modelling.
• Ability to deploy ML models in production or cloud environments.
• Experience with time-series and signal processing.
• Ability to translate data patterns into physical system insights.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, validate, and maintain algorithms for sensor data analysis and predictive analytics.
• Translate requirements into production-ready algorithms.
• Analyze large-scale sensor and time-series data to identify patterns and improve platform performance.
• Develop signal-processing, feature-engineering, statistical-modeling, and ML pipelines.
• Collaborate with software and platform engineers to deploy algorithms to cloud and edge environments.
• Monitor deployed models and contribute to retraining and improvement.

Skills

Time-series analysis

Signal processing

Statistical modelling

Machine learning

English communication

Education

M.Sc. or Ph.D. in science or engineering

Tools

Python

Pandas

NumPy

SciPy

scikit-learn

PyTorch

TensorFlow

JAX

Job description

We are looking for an experienced Data Scientist to develop advanced analytics for our partial discharge monitoring and predictive maintenance platform.

Optics11 is a deep-tech company developing advanced fiber-optic sensing technologies for challenging environments and applications in energy and underwater security. Our systems enable high-performance sensing and monitoring through advanced photonics, signal processing, and data-driven intelligence.

We are expanding our partial discharge R&D team with a Data Scientist who is motivated to translate complex business and engineering challenges into scalable, data-driven solutions that enabling next-generation acoustic emission monitoring solutions by processing sensor signals to early detect, localize and quantify partial discharge in energy infrastructure.

You will work closely with cross-functional teams (embedded, software, and hardware) to design, develop, and deploy advanced algorithms that predict energy infrastructure failures.

Previous experience in partial discharge, acoustic emission or electrical signal processing is an advantage, but not a dealbreaker. We value strong analytical thinking, curiosity, and the willingness to learn new domains.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, validate, and maintain algorithms for sensor data analysis, partial-discharge monitoring, and predictive analytics.
• Translate complex business and engineering requirements into robust, production-ready algorithms.
• Analyse large-scale sensor, time-series, and operational datasets to identify meaningful patterns and improve monitoring platform performance
• Develop signal-processing, feature-engineering, statistical-modelling, and machine-learning pipelines.
• Collaborate with software and platform engineers to integrate algorithms into the cloud monitoring platform and edge environments.
• Monitor deployed algorithm performance and contribute to model maintenance, retraining, and continuous improvement.

Why Join Us?

• Join one of Europe’s most promising deep-tech scale-ups.
• Shape the future of a rapidly growing multidisciplinary R&D organization.
• Competitive salary and benefits package.
• Enjoy regular team activities and company events.
• Fresh team lunches provided 3 times/week.

Requirements:

• Strong professional experience with Python and commonly used scientific and data-science libraries (e.g., pandas, NumPy, SciPy, scikit-learn).
• Strong foundation in statistical analysis, algorithm development, machine learning, and data modelling.
• Practical experience analysing sensor signals and time-series data.
• Solid understanding of signal-processing techniques such as filtering, denoising, spectral analysis, Fourier or wavelet transforms, and dimensionality reduction.
• Experience developing, validating, and deploying machine-learning models in production or cloud environments.
• Ability to connect patterns in data with physical processes and real-world system behaviour.
• Experience with at least one deep-learning framework, such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX.
• Ability to write clear, modular, tested, and maintainable Python code.
• Experience contributing to end-to-end data-science or ML projects, from problem framing and experimentation to deployment and monitoring.

Qualifications:

• You have at least 3 years of professional experience in data science with a focus on sensor data analysis.
• Familiarity with real-time systems, edge computing, or predictive maintenance solutions is a plus.
• M.Sc. or Ph.D. degree in a relevant discipline in science or engineering.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Solid understanding of mathematics and physics, with the ability to apply theory to real engineering problems.
• A pragmatic, hands-on mindset and willingness to work with imperfect real-world data.
• You have strong verbal and written communication skills in English (Dutch is an advantage).
• Ability to work independently, take ownership, and collaborate effectively across disciplines.

Nice to Have:

• Experience with partial-discharge, acoustic, vibration, electrical, or other condition-monitoring data.
• Experience with predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, fault diagnosis, or remaining-useful-life estimation.
• Knowledge of time-series and general-purpose databases such as QuestDB, MongoDB, or PostgreSQL.
• Experience with experiment tracking, dataset or model versioning, and reproducible ML workflows.
• Experience with GPU computing, CUDA, model optimization, or real-time edge deployment.
• Familiarity with MLOps practices, automated testing, CI/CD, and production model monitoring.

Security & Compliance:

You’ll be working with clients in the defense and security sectors, obtaining a Certificate of No Objection issued by the AIVD (Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service) is mandatory. This means you will need to undergo a security screening. For more information, please refer to details on security screening.