Damen
We offer you an Ocean of Possibilities. Join our family.
About us
Damen aims to become the world's most sustainable and digitally connected shipyard. The Research, Development & Innovation (RD&I) department develops and implements the technology and know-how to achieve these ambitions. We actively assist the business in creating an innovative product portfolio and provide forward-thinking guidance to improve the quality and performance of Damen's products and services. You will be joining the Data Science team within Damen RD&I located in Gorinchem. Our department focuses on applying cutting-edge data and AI solutions to Damen's shipbuilding and maritime operations. The team includes domain experts in physics-informed machine learning, simulation acceleration, predictive maintenance, computer vision, and operational analytics. This internship is part of Smart Maintenance, a strategic project aimed at using AI to detect abnormal equipment behavior on board vessels before it leads to failure or unplanned downtime.
The role
As an intern, you will work on our Smart Maintenance project where we have developed an anomaly detection algorithm, which aims to help engineers spot early signs of equipment problems, such as engines, pumps, propulsion and cooling systems, before they escalate into failures. Vessels generate huge amounts of sensor data during operation, and our goal is to turn that data into reliable, trustworthy signals that support maintenance decisions. You will contribute to an existing pipeline that learns what "healthy" equipment behavior looks like and flags deviations from it. Your primary focus will be on a dedicated research topic, to be selected together with the team, that strengthens a specific part of this pipeline — from data selection to detection reliability, health trending, explainability, or deployment. There is room to shape the exact topic based on your interests and background, either before or shortly after you start. This can be a thesis/graduate internship and could start from September onwards.
Possible research topics that we offer, on which the final scope is to be defined together:
Model transferability across vessels: exploring how an anomaly detection model trained on one vessel can be adapted to other vessels, machinery types, or operating environments — including retraining, recalibration, and drift detection strategies.
Reliable anomaly detection: improving detection models to minimize false alarms, adapt to different operating conditions, handle transient events, and quantify prediction confidence.
Health and degradation trending: moving beyond fault detection to identify gradual performance degradation, developing health indicators that give early warning of wear or efficiency loss.
Explainable AI and fault diagnosis: making anomaly models explainable, identifying which sensors or components drive an alert, and supporting root-cause analysis for engineers.
Defining "healthy" operation: identifying, selecting, and validating representative data from vessels operating under normal conditions, accounting for varying operating modes and environmental influences.
Key accountabilities
As an intern, you will:
Skills & Experience
We are looking for a student who:
What we offer
Other
Are you ready to sail into your new adventure at Damen? Don’t hesitate, send us your motivation letter and resume here.
Due to housing issues we cannot accept international students that do not have accommodation in the Netherlands yet.
Recruiter:
Email:
liselotte.van.veenendaal@damen.comPlease apply through the Apply Button. Due to GDPR reasons we cannot accept applications by email.
Werken bij Damen: bouwen aan de toekomst van de maritieme wereld
Wil jij werken in de maritieme sector en bijdragen aan werk dat echt betekenis heeft?Bij Damen werk je samen aan schepen en oplossingen die ertoe doen en gebouwd zijn voor de lange termijn.
Over Damen als werkgever
Damen is een internationaal familiebedrijf met een sterke Nederlandse basis. Met meer dan 12.000 collega’s wereldwijd bouwen we al generaties lang aan alles wat met schepen te maken heeft: van werkschepen tot marineschepen en innovatieve oplossingen voor offshore en energie. Dat doen we met een blik op de lange termijn. Bij Damen kijken we verder dan de korte termijn en bouwen we samen aan oplossingen die niet alleen vandaag werken, maar ook voor de generaties na ons.
Facts about
Aantal medewerkers: 12.000+ (wereldwijd) / 9.000+ (groepsbreed)
Sectoren: Jachtbouw, Mariene Energie, Maritiem, Offshore, Scheepsbouw & Reparatie
Gewenst opleidingsniveau: Vmbo, Mbo, Hbo, Wo bachelor, Wo master
Ervaringsniveau: Student, Starter (< 3 jaar), Young Professional (3-5 jaar), Professional (5-10 jaar), Senior Professional (> 10 jaar)
Gewenste opleiding: Engineering / Techniek (Maritiem, Werktuigbouwkunde, Elektrotechniek), Scheepsbouw, Supply Chain & Logistiek, en Business & Support-functies (bijv. Finance, HR, IT, Marketing).
Openstaande vacatures: Kijk voor alle actuele vacatures op: career.damen.com