Are you all about science and technology?  Would you like to develop your skills and use them to tackle the greatest challenges of our time? VTT might be just the place for you – apply now for VTT Summer of Changemakers 2025 traineeships! 

VTT is one of the leading applied research organisations in Europe. What unites us are curiosity, a passion for learning, and a purpose: to solve the biggest challenges of our time and turn them into sustainable growth and well-being. Our cross-disciplinary community of over 2300 brilliant minds from over 55 different nationalities is focused on creating impact through science-based innovation. Now, we are looking for passionate changemakers – you – to join us as summer trainees.

Our last summer's trainees rated their summer job experience at VTT 4.6/5 in Oikotie's Responsible Summer Job survey. Below are some excerpts from their feedback when asked what was the best part of their summer job:

“Great team, interesting tasks, enough responsibility, and opportunities to make an impact.”
“I got to know a lot of professionals from different fields with this summer job. So, networking is the best part.”
“Interesting projects, nice and helpful colleagues, work-life balance, and equal treatment with permanent colleagues.”

Do you want to be our next Research Trainee in our Optical measurements team? 

As a Research Trainee, you will be involved in the research and development of optical measurements. 

Our team, Optical measurements works on optical sensing, machine vision, spectroscopy and optoelectronics. The team has 25 cross-functional experts covering the necessary development chain from application studies to sensor system integration and assembly for the optical instrument development.

The application areas can vary from agriculture to mining, paper, process and defense industry. You will be part of our cross-functional engineering team (optical, electrical, mechanical, and software design, assembly, calibration, and testing), which develops prototypes and measurement methods.

What your responsibilities as a Research Trainee would include?

• Building measurement setups in the laboratory 
• Laboratory measurements using spectrometers, camera systems, laser time-of-flight systems or other instruments 
• Organizing and analysing measurement data 
• Software development for measurement instruments
• Image or spectral data analysis and artificial intelligence 
• Writing short reports of your work.

You don’t have to have competence for all above mentioned points. Responsibilities will be selected based on your background.

Who we are looking for?

You are a student in engineering or physics (close to completing your BSc or MSc) and have

• Good track record from your studies
• An interest in optics, spectroscopy or machine vision and data analytics
• Programming skills are a plus
• Good verbal and written English.

As a person, we hope that you are curious about science and new technologies. We also appreciate taking the initiative and having good interaction skills.

What would we offer you?

• Impactful work for the future. As a leading applied research organisation, we are on a mission to bring exponential hope to the world by joining together people, businesses, science and technology. We tackle the biggest challenges of our time – from climate change and resource sufficiency to industrial renewal and smart healthcare – and turn them into sustainable growth. Read more about our strategy – the path of exponential hope.
• Career opportunities, top-level mentors. At VTT, your skills are appreciated and supported with the opportunity to learn from the top experts in their field. You’ll get to discover our community of over 2300 experts representing more than 55 nationalities working across cutting-edge fields of science and technology.
• Meaningful projects, real responsibility. With us, you get to take on meaningful projects and create innovative scientific and technical solutions. We treat all employees as equals and give you real responsibility from the start. VTT is a caring employer that supports your growth and work–life balance and offers a range of well-being services.

What is like to work with us solving the biggest challenges of our time? Check from the video what kind of experiences Aymara, Daniil, Eric and Isabella had from their summer traineeships and what kind of change did they drive.

Apply now and join our community of brilliant minds!

Come, curious minds and clever changemakers! Prepare your CV and cover letter, and send in your application with your transcript of records via our recruitment system as soon as possible but at the latest by 2 February 2025. Let’s change the world for the better next summer.

All VTT Summer of Changemakers traineeships are paid, and the salary is determined based on study credits: for Master's students the monthly salary is between 2600€ and 2800€, and for Bachelor's students the monthly salary is between 2100€ and 2400€. The typical duration of traineeships is between 3 and 6 months, with start dates usually falling between March and June, however the length and the exact starting date can be discussed with the hiring team. 

Please read more of VTT Summer of Changemakers from here: https://www.vttresearch.com/en/summer-changemakers

Interested and want to hear more?

For further information, please contact Research Team Leader Katariina Rahkamaa-Tolonen, Katariina.rahkamaa-tolonen@vtt.fi.

We will process applications as they come in and fill in the position as soon as we find the right candidate. We will inform all applicants about the continuation of the process during February 2025. Most of the interview will be held in February-March, however they can be started already during the application period.

We look forward to hearing from you!