PhD Position in Supply Chain 2050 within the Industry x Academia Initiative (Supply Chain Powersystems Network), starting September 2026
Within Daimler Truck, the Truck Technology Operations Supply Chain organization covers a broad end-to-end scope across the powersystems supply chain, with a focus on plants in Kassel, Mannheim, Gaggenau and Detroit as well as global parts supply for overseas operations. Our work spans core supply chain domains such as supplier steering, in-plant logistics, transportation, network management, and digitalization.
With Supply Chain 2050, we are launching a forward-looking industry–academia initiative to explore how the world of 2050 may evolve and what this could mean for future supply chains. The ambition is to think beyond today’s constraints, understand how to make supply chain a true differentiator in the future, and identify which strategic choices and capabilities need to be built already today.
The project follows a two-step logic: it starts with unconstrained exploration of future worlds and their implications for supply chains, and then translates these insights into more focused pathways and selected areas for deeper work.
ABOUT THE JOB:
As a PhD candidate in Supply Chain 2050, you will work at the interface of academic research and industrial transformation. You will help shape a future-oriented project that combines strategic foresight, scientific rigor, and real-world relevance in one of the world’s largest truck manufacturers.
Your role will be to explore how external developments may reshape supply chains over the coming decades and to translate these insights into meaningful implications for future supply chain design, operations, and organizational development. Beyond the first exploration phase, the role also offers the opportunity to contribute to more focused topics in a second phase of the project, depending on the findings and your specializations and strengths.
Your tasks will include:
- Develop and structure future world scenarios for 2050 and derive implications for supply chain design, operations, and organization
- Research and analyze long-term drivers of change such as geopolitics, technology, environment, societal developments, and workforce evolution
- Explore what companies need to establish today in order to build resilient, future-ready, and differentiating supply chain capabilities for 2050
- Translate broad first-phase insights into focused themes and more concrete pathways in a second phase of the project
- Contribute to the identification and further development of potential focus areas such as future workforce models, digitalization, transport and logistics concepts, supply chain networks, or organizational design
- Work closely with experts and executive leaders across the supply chain organization to integrate practical perspectives and challenge ideas in a real industrial context
- Prepare analyses, workshop inputs, structured concept papers, and management-ready materials to drive the progress of the project
- Build a strong bridge between scientific methodology and practical application
WHAT WE OFFER YOU
We offer the opportunity to work on a highly visible and future-oriented topic at the interface of research and industrial transformation.
You will gain deep insights into multiple supply chain functions and beyond inside one of the world’s largest truck manufacturers and collaborate with practitioners, experts, and leaders across a broad industrial environment. The role offers a unique combination of strategic relevance, academic freedom, practical exposure, and cross-functional learning.
In addition, you will have the chance to:
- contribute to a project with real long-term significance
- work closely with experienced leaders and domain experts
- build a strong network across academia and industry
- combine rigorous research with direct practical relevance
- shape selected focus areas over time, based on first-phase findings, your strengths, and your academic interests
We are looking for a curious and driven researcher who enjoys tackling big-picture questions, thrives in structured analytical work, and is motivated to combine academic thinking with practical transformation in a global industrial environment
This role is particularly suited for candidates who want to work on topics with both strategic depth and practical relevance, and who are excited about shaping the direction of the Supply Chain 2050 project.
Your profile:
- Excellent university degree (Master’s or equivalent) in Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Industrial Engineering, Operations, Business, Economics, Future Studies, or a related field
- A strong theoretical background and preferably practical experience in at least one relevant field, such as supply chain management, logistics, operations, industrial engineering, digital transformation, sustainability, organizational development, or strategic foresight
- Strong interest in future-oriented supply chain questions, long-term transformation topics, and the role of supply chains as a future differentiator
- Strong analytical and conceptual skills, with the ability to connect broad external developments to business and supply chain implications
- Ability to think openly, creatively, and beyond near-term constraints, and to translate broad ideas into structured insights, research questions, and concrete pathways
- Experience with, or strong motivation to apply, scenario work, strategic foresight, transformation, and organizational development
- Ability to work independently, proactively, and with a strong sense of ownership and responsibility
- Strong communication skills and confidence in working across interdisciplinary stakeholders in academia and industry
- Very good English skills; German is a plus
- Curiosity, positive energy, and genuine enthusiasm for exploring future worlds, challenging today’s assumptions, and helping shape what supply chains could become by 2050
Additional information:
It doesn’t work completely without formalities. When sending your online application, please attach your CV, an individual letter and any references you may have (max. 5 MB).
Please understand that we no longer accept paper applications and that there is no right to get your documents returned.
We particularly welcome online applications from candidates with disabilities or similar impairments in direct response to this job advertisement. If you have any questions, you can contact the local disability officer once you have submitted your application form, who will gladly assist you in the onward application process: [email protected]
If you have any questions regarding the application process, please contact HR Services by e-mail: [email protected]
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What We Do
Daimler Trucks North America, LLC headquartered in Portland, Oregon, is the leading heavy-duty truck manufacturer in North America. Daimler Trucks North America produces and markets commercial vehicles under the Freightliner, Western Star and Thomas Built Buses nameplates. Daimler Trucks North America is a Daimler company, the world's leading commercial vehicle manufacturer.
