Career special "System Development"

From the idea to the serial product – everyday in life in systems development at Rheintmetall. Apply now!

Designing real innovation

This is part of everyday's life for system developers and engineers (m/f/d) at Rheinmetall

For system developers and engineers (m/f/d), cross-divisional work and good networking are part of their daily business. Their tasks consist, for example, of combining existing ideas in new systems, creating synergies between projects or developing functions or complete systems themselves.

Depending on the field of application, our colleagues concentrate on the conceptual design of systems and components as well as future architectures in which existing systems can be integrated on a higher level, take over requirement engineering and system tests.

We take a look behind the scenes of two different teams at our location in Bremen. Both offer very different, but interesting fields of activity for system developers and engineers (m/f/d).

Operations & Technology and Electronics & Sensors

Two teams in which exciting tasks await you

Interview – Vincent Kretz, System developer

Vincent Kretz is a system developer in the OSK - System Concepts team. He shares personal experiences of his career path with us and looks back on his first year at Rheinmetall.

"The variety of tasks, combined with the creative freedom I was given straight away,
challenges me every day. And I have of a lot of fun doing it."

Vincent Kretz

System developer

Hello! In the OSK - System Concepts team, we work with 16 colleagues on the conceptual design of systems and future architectures and the integration of existing systems. And this concerns many things: from higher-level cloud information systems to artificial intelligence and the design of individual military vehicles.

My job and daily tasks are often difficult for outsiders to understand, so I am happy to tell a bit more about what I do for a living.

A typical workday

Regularly, my day starts between 7.30 and 8.30 a.m. with checking my emails and, if necessary, a short meeting. Thanks to the flexitime system, I can arrange my own hours. A general working day consists of a mixture of coordination with other departments, planning work and technical conceptualisation. Even though my job is subject to strict confidentiality, I would like to give a little insight into my tasks. One aspect is planning project tasks and coordinating and steering the development team. So these are mainly organisational tasks. In conceptual design, on the other hand, we are currently working quite concretely at the technical level on the use of AI systems to support vehicle crews. We are using agile approaches, such as Scrum or KanBan. Due to the complexity of the task, we are working closely with other departments to achieve the best result.

The way of working at Rheinmetall is very open and takes innovative approaches into account. The work starts with free, unbiased ideas and then gradually moves into analytical tracks. The agile approaches are valuable to me because my personal experience gain is greatly enhanced by constant and short-term feedback.

Overall, I chose system development because the variety of topics and the creative ways of working excite me. It is a pleasure for me to develop a concept, to coordinate it in the team and to see it grow.

Sound knowledge for a good start in professional life

Studying mechanical engineering at the TU Braunschweig in Germany was the starting point of my career. Here, I quickly realised that mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and computer science are strongly interconnected nowadays and common systems are an intersection of these three fields.

I am curious by nature, so I like to explore technical topics and learn new things. In my Master's degree, I wanted to build up an understanding on the software side and focused on automation technology. I realised, that vision systems and image-based detection options based on artificial intelligence in particular offer significant added value for solving existing problems. I was able to gain experience on the topic of artificial intelligence at TU Braunschweig and in the corporate environment and decided to focus my Master's thesis on this area. I can now use the knowledge I have gained directly in my current everyday life and expand it further.

The way to Rheinmetall – It all started at the Case Camp

Rheinmetall offers workshops for students and young professionals. To my excitement, there was also an AI workshop. I applied to learn new skills and gain more insights into Rheinmetall as a possible future employer.

A daily exchange of knowledge between the teams, the agile coach and the specialist departments made for an extremely educational time and personally brought me even more valuable company insights, my current job and even good friendships.

In the beginning, it was a challenge on the job to understand the multitude of existing systems and components. A big thank you to all my colleagues who approached me in such an open and motivated way and shared their knowledge.

"A mentor from my department supported
me in arriving at my job step by step."

Vincent Kretz

System developer

For me, Rheinmetall is an excellent employer for further development. This is also evident in the selection of training courses that you can attend unbureaucratically in your daily work.

Interview – David Hilkert, System engineer

System engineer David Hilkert from the Acoustic Sensors & Lasers team tells us about his day-to-day work at Rheinmetall.

The Electronics & Sensors department focuses on the development of sensor systems, from the electronic development of the circuit boards, functional development and commissioning to engineering tests, such as electromagnetic compatibility.

In our Acoustic Sensors & Lasers team, we primarily develop acoustic systems, especially acoustic shooter localisation. In addition, we are responsible for situation awareness sensors, e.g. laser rangefinders or radar.

The path to professional life and to Rheinmetall

During my bachelor's and master's thesis as part of my studies in electrical engineering, information technology and computer engineering at RWTH Aachen University (Germany), I worked on the signal processing of acoustic systems.

I then joined the Acoustic Sensors & Laser team at Rheinmetall Electronics GmbH, where I was able to optimally apply my knowledge from my studies to the further development of the "Acoustic Shooter Localisation System" (ASLS) and expand my knowledge base to include other systems, such as the laser rangefinder.

"I like becoming a specialist in one area while getting a broad overview
of different functioning modes of sensor technology at the same time."

David Hilkert

System engineer

Every day brings something new and a lot of variety

My tasks include overall system development, function development, requirement engineering and system testing. This broad range of tasks provides a lot of variety. I expand my knowledge and skills every day. We get along very well in our team and complement each other with our individual special knowledge and experience.

Rheinmetall as an employer

Rheinmetall offers exciting career prospects. System developers and engineers (m/f/d) can expect an extensive range of system concepts as well as a broad and varied field of activity. Every day, you can apply and intensify learned knowledge and expand into new fields of knowledge.

Employees also benefit from flexible working hours, company pension schemes, fitness offers, mobile working, a canteen and a bistro as well as company events at the Bremen site.