Research Engineer: Digital Twin for Planning in Surface Treatment Industries (M/F) – 18-MONTH FIXED-TERM CONTRACT

WORK ENVIRONMENT:

As a ministerial school in charge of industry, IMT Mines Albi is a school within the Mines-Télécom Institute, the leading group of engineering and management schools in France. At the forefront of industrial and academic challenges on the international stage, it acts as a territorial scientific and economic driver by combining its 4 missions - training engineers by integrating the dynamics of sustainable development, conducting scientific research, contributing to economic development, and disseminating the culture of science, technology, and innovation - in a virtuous and innovation-driving cycle.

Its positioning in terms of training and research makes IMT Mines Albi a benchmark school for three of IMT's four themes, namely responsible future industry, energy, circular economy and society, and engineering, health, and well-being.

IMT Mines Albi has established a strategic plan in 2023 for a five-year period, broken down into 7 major actions, thus responding to the strategic orientations of the IMT group to which it belongs.

Through the Industrial Engineering Center (CGI), IMT Mines Albi conducts research at the intersection of artificial intelligence and industrial engineering, in collaboration with national and international public and industrial partners.

The Industrial Engineering Center (CGI) (https://cgi.imt-mines-albi.fr/) has about 70 people, including 25 doctoral students. The center is focused on supporting the transition of ecosystems by enabling responsible and sustainable decision-making in unstable or disrupted environments. This is put into practice by representing, modeling, and analyzing the data of these organizations to formalize knowledge leading to decision-making in heterogeneous, collaborative, uncertain, and/or disrupted contexts.

The CGI is structured according to applied research axes and scientific programs. The applied research axes are:

• FLOWS Axis: Flexible Logistics and Operations for sustainable WorldS to which this position is attached.

• DiSCS Axis: Digital Systems for Crisis management and Security;

• TRACE Axis: Territorial Resilience, Agility, and Circular Economy;

• WHOPS Axis: Well-being and Health through Organizational Processes and Services.

• The two scientific programs at the heart of these research axes are:

• HOPOPOP: Hybridization for Operations & Planning, Organizations & Performance, Optimization & Problem-solving; This position is attached to the HOPOPOP program.

• AIME-DM: Automated Information Modeling and Extraction for Decision-Makers.

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Context

In the context of Industry 4.0 and beyond, industrial players are deploying digitalization strategies where operational systems are connected to increasingly intelligent cyber systems. In this context, the organizational digital twin refers to the system that allows bidirectional interaction between a physical organization (people and systems) and its virtual replica for the purpose of global flow management.

Recent reviews and typologies (e.g., Kritzinger et al., 2018; Onaji et al., 2022; Soori et al., 2023; Kober et al., 2024; Traoré, 2024; Namaki Araghi et al., 2025) on digital twins in the manufacturing context show that the DT manages shop floor data and interoperates with various systems (MES, ERP, traceability, quality), has physical or data-driven simulation models focused on flow management, and orchestrates services oriented towards data processing or simulation model management. The DT has various objectives (evaluating the impacts of changes and performance, optimization), and interactions with users when necessary to support decisions at different horizons (tactical and operational) and potentially of different natures (planning, maintenance, quality). The implementation of such a system represents a major organizational and technical challenge that must be adapted to industrial specificities and evolutions.

The INFINITY project aims to design and test a digital twin system to support industrial planning in the context of the surface treatment industry. It is in partnership with a key industrial player in this field for the aeronautics industry, which is leading the project with CORAC funding. As industrial-scale digital twin projects are infrequent, one of the project's challenges is to study the scalability of the proposed system and the impact of the digital twin on the organization. As part of the project aims to design new treatment processes, part of the subject also concerns evaluating the impact of these new processes on the production system management.

Several theses are being conducted simultaneously within this project, each with complementary orientations: (i) data collection and construction of information necessary for planning; (ii) the digital twin for short- and medium-term planning; and (iii) the digital twin for strategic investment planning. The research engineer for this position will be responsible for integrating the contributions of these theses to constitute a digital twin prototype. They will also build an evaluation platform for this twin.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

The central challenge of the position is to propose a digital twin system focused on one or more finite capacity simulation models that assist in short-term, medium-term, and strategic planning, but also on services supporting this planning (optimization of certain decisions, management of operator versatility, grouping orders to form batch sizes, monitoring vital parameters for the twin [process steps, macro-process steps, product mix, versatility, ...]).

The twin will be designed following a systems engineering approach that formalizes requirements, anticipates the impacts of scalability and process evolutions to propose an architecture adapted to these evolutions, and evaluates the added value of the digital twin. Representative datasets of various scales will be compiled in collaboration with the industrial partner leading the INFINITY project.

CAPABILITIES AND ATTITUDES:

Technical Skills

• Information System Engineering and Architecture

• Software Development

• DevOps Approach

• Experience in Discrete Event Simulation and Operations Research are a plus.

Cross-functional Skills

• English (written and spoken, minimum B2 level) and French (minimum B2)

• Autonomy and ability to work in a research team.

• Motivation to contribute to an industrial application of research.

Complementary Skills (not essential)

• Knowledge in reinforcement learning and big data analysis for simulation

PROFILE SOUGHT:

You hold a Computer Science Engineering degree

BEYOND THE PROFESSIONAL ENVIRONMENT, WHY JOIN US?:

• Pleasant working environment on a 22-hectare campus

• 49 days of leave per year

• On-site administrative catering

• Sustainable mobility assistance for commuting

• Social benefits (complementary social protection and family assistance)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Nature and duration of the contract: 18-month fixed-term contract

For internal use:

Position category and reference job title: Category II, Job R – Research Engineer

Reference job title(s) for potential applicants: All categories

• Job location: Albi

• Application deadline: 10/01/2026

• Interview dates: around 10/05/2026

• Desired start date: 12/01/2026

• Remuneration is set according to the candidate's profile (job title, age, employment track, salary guarantee duration), based on the rules defined by the Institut Mines Télécom management framework.

• Positions offered for recruitment are open to all, with, upon request, accommodations for candidates with disabilities.

• Position open to civil servants of category A and/or contract employees.

Contacts:

• On the job content: Jacques LAMOTHE, CGI Professor (For administrative/HR aspects: Laura OLIVIER, HR Manager (

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