(Mandatory) Internship Technical Founder's Associate (m/w/d)

About CyFract

We are a deep-tech startup on a mission to fundamentally change how we treat the world's most valuable resource: water. Founded in 2022, we develop a patented uniflow hydrocyclone that removes suspended solids without membranes, consumables or moving parts, at a fraction of the energy conventional systems require. Having completed the UnternehmerTUM Incubator and a €3M project financed by SPRIN-D (German Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation), we successfully deployed two containerized pilot systems and are conducting validation projects with industrial partners. We are now building the team that will carry this from working prototype to industrial standard, and we are looking for the people who want to build it with us.

The Role

As Technical Founder's Associate, you will work directly with the founding team on our core technology. Over the coming months our separation geometry will be tested with pilot partners. You will be one of the people who builds the test setup, runs the measurements, and turns the results into something we can act on. This is not a role where you reproduce something that already works. Parts of what you build will be the first of their kind, and some of them will fail. We are looking for someone who finds that interesting rather than alarming. You will sit close to the founding team and see how an early stage company actually runs: how decisions get made, what gets prioritised and why, and what a founder's week really looks like. Your measurements and your judgement feed directly into those decisions.

Tasks

• Build, modify and operate our Munich test rig; run and document test series
• Design and iterate cyclone and guide-vane geometries in CAD and prepare print-ready files
• 3D print, post-process, assemble and pressure-test prototypes
• Build out the measurement chain: sensors, data acquisition, evaluation

Requirements

• Enrolled in environmental engineering, mechanical engineering, process engineering, physics or a related field
• Hands-on CAD and 3D printing experience
• Demonstrable build experience: a personal project, workshop time, or study projects
• Independent working style
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in German and English

What sets you apart

• Fluid mechanics, ideally with CFD (Ansys Fluent, OpenFOAM, SimScale)
• Experience with pumps, piping or hydraulic loops
• Systems-level thinking that connects hardware, measurement and data
• Experience in water treatment, circular economy or industrial hardware projects

Benefits

Why CyFract?

Water is the only resource with no substitute. There is no alternative to it, and there never will be. Yet we treat it as though it were free: we use it once, contaminate it, and spend enormous amounts of energy trying to make it usable again. That is the problem we work on. We offer you a seat in the room where it gets solved:

Iteration speed. Sketch a geometry in the morning, print it in the afternoon, test it the next day.

You see the whole loop. CAD, print, assembly, measurement chain, data, and the report that goes to our partners.

Direct collaboration with the founders. No layer in between, and ownership of your own components.

Long-term opportunities. Upon successful completion of the project, we may offer you a working student position or a role as Founding Engineer.

This position is open both to students completing a mandatory internship required by their study regulations and to students doing a voluntary internship alongside or between their studies. The work is primarily on-site in Munich-Bogenhausen, with limited home office possible for tasks that allow it.

If you want to build things that have not been built before, send us your motivational letter, your CV, and a one-pager on a past project that shows how you work.

Not a perfect fit on paper? Apply anyway. We care more about how you think and how you build than about ticking every box, and we may well hire more than one person.

CyFract develops next-generation particle separation systems for sustainable water treatment in desalination and industrial reuse. CyFracts's patented low-pressure hydrocyclone technology separates even neutrally buoyant particles such as algae, organics, and microplastics using only fluid forces without membranes, filters, or chemicals. This enables energy-efficient and chemical-free water treatment that reduces OPEX costs by up to 50 percent while lowering environmental impact and improving operational reliability. This disruptive innovation builds on decades of research in flow optimization, advanced computational fluid dynamics simulations, and precision 3D printing that together enable unprecedented control of hydrodynamic separation at industrial scale. Backed by SPRIND’s multimillion-euro innovation funding and supported by UnternehmerTUM, the Creative Destruction Lab, and the Deep Tech Alliance, CyFract is advancing from proven prototypes to large-scale containerized pilot units designed to purify up to 10,000 cubic meters of water per day.