How to Apply to Thyssen Krupp

12 min read Last updated April 20, 2026 19 open positions
Blake Crosley
Blake Crosley Researched using publicly available information, hiring data, and ATS analysis.

Key Takeaways

  • thyssenkrupp AG is a 95,000-person German industrial conglomerate headquartered in Essen, run by CEO Miguel López since 2023, organised into Materials Services, Industrial Components, Automotive Technology, Steel Europe, and Decarbonization Technologies, with Marine Systems pending a carve-out.
  • The real ATS is Workday, deployed across multiple tenants per operating company (steeleurope.wd3, thyssenkruppmaterialsna.wd12, and others), unified for candidates by the in-house aggregator at jobs.thyssenkrupp.com. Apply via the destination tenant, not just the group board.
  • Ausbildung and Duales Studium are massive, structured pipelines with cohort windows running roughly September through February for August starts. They are a genuine route into long careers at the company.
  • Interviews are formal, technically deep, and often include a Betriebsrat representative for works-council-covered roles. Understated competence and specific technical evidence beat high-energy self-promotion.
  • The 2024 Duisburg steel restructuring, the EP Corporate Group stake in Steel Europe, the planned Marine Systems carve-out, and the thyssenkrupp nucera 2022 Frankfurt IPO are the four live strategic stories you should have read about before your interview.
  • Segment choice matters more than company choice. Joining Steel Europe in Duisburg in 2026 is a very different career than joining thyssenkrupp nucera or Automotive Technology — pick deliberately.

About Thyssen Krupp

thyssenkrupp AG is a 210-year-old industrial conglomerate headquartered at thyssenkrupp Quarter in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The group employs roughly 95,000 people across more than 40 countries and generates approximately 35 billion euros in annual revenue, though the exact figure swings meaningfully with steel prices and plate-mill utilisation. Miguel Ángel López Borrego has served as CEO since June 2023, succeeding Martina Merz in a transition that signalled a sharper focus on decarbonisation, portfolio discipline, and structural cost reduction. The group is organised into five segments that behave almost like independent companies: Materials Services (trading and stocking of steel, aluminium, plastics, and raw materials, with the giant Materials Processing Europe arm), Industrial Components (bearings for wind turbines, large-diameter slewing rings, and forged crankshafts), Automotive Technology (powertrain, suspension, and electric-mobility components that ship into nearly every major OEM), Steel Europe (the Duisburg-centred flat-carbon steel business, the largest integrated steel producer in Germany and the spiritual home of the company), and Decarbonization Technologies, which contains thyssenkrupp Uhde and the partially listed thyssenkrupp nucera, a world leader in chlor-alkali and alkaline water electrolysis equipment. Marine Systems, the submarine and surface-vessel builder best known for the Type 212/214 class, is legally still part of the group but has been earmarked for a carve-out or separate listing, and the final structure of that transaction is an active strategic question in 2026. The backdrop for any hiring conversation is not corporate boilerplate but a company under real pressure. In 2024 the Steel Europe division announced a significant restructuring plan that will reduce capacity at the Duisburg site and shed thousands of positions over several years, triggering sharp public conflict between López and the IG Metall-aligned works council. Around the same time, Czech investor Daniel Křetínský's EP Corporate Group took a stake in Steel Europe with the intention of building it toward an independent structure, while thyssenkrupp nucera completed a Frankfurt IPO in 2022 and now trades with its own public shareholders and financial reporting rhythm. Candidates should understand that thyssenkrupp is simultaneously a flagship of German heavy industry, a restructuring story, and a decarbonisation play — and that the segment you join determines almost everything about your day-to-day reality.

Application Process

  1. 1
    Start at jobs

    Start at jobs.thyssenkrupp.com — this is the group-wide aggregator that pulls vacancies from every operating company's underlying system (primarily Workday tenants, plus Talentlink for some German entities and standalone systems for a few subsidiaries). The group careers homepage at karriere.thyssenkrupp.com is a marketing and employer-branding layer and will always redirect you to the jobs board for real postings.

  2. 2
    Filter aggressively by segment and location before you apply

    Filter aggressively by segment and location before you apply. A job titled 'Ingenieur Produktion' can route you into Steel Europe in Duisburg (where restructuring is active), Automotive Technology in Bremen, or Marine Systems in Kiel (carve-out candidate). The hiring team, collective bargaining agreement, works council, and long-term trajectory differ dramatically between these destinations.

  3. 3
    Create your candidate account on the relevant Workday tenant

    Create your candidate account on the relevant Workday tenant — the big ones you will actually apply through are steeleurope.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com (Steel Europe / thyssenkrupp Steel), thyssenkruppmaterialsna.wd12.myworkdayjobs.com (Materials Services North America), and additional tenants for Materials Trading, Industrial Components, and Automotive Technology. Each tenant is a separate account, so expect to register more than once if you apply across segments.

  4. 4
    Upload a complete German-style Bewerbungsmappe for roles based in Germany: Ansch

    Upload a complete German-style Bewerbungsmappe for roles based in Germany: Anschreiben (cover letter), Lebenslauf (tabular CV with photo if you are comfortable, dates in DD.MM.YYYY format), Arbeitszeugnisse (employer references in the specifically graded German format), and scanned Zeugnisse (academic transcripts from Abitur through degree). International candidates should still submit a clear chronological CV, degree certificates, and a written cover letter addressed to the specific role.

  5. 5
    Ausbildung and Duales Studium candidates apply through a distinct path: the azub

    Ausbildung and Duales Studium candidates apply through a distinct path: the azubi/dual-student landing pages on karriere.thyssenkrupp.com point to segment-specific Workday postings with opening windows typically running from September through February for the following August start. Deadlines and apprenticeship categories are set at the operating-company level, not the group level.

  6. 6
    Expect an acknowledgement email within a few business days, followed by a pre-sc

    Expect an acknowledgement email within a few business days, followed by a pre-screen from a central Recruiting Service Center agent or divisional HR business partner. For salaried roles, the typical timeline from application to offer is six to ten weeks; apprenticeship and Duales Studium timelines are longer because they are batched around intake cohorts.

  7. 7
    Interview rounds almost always combine at least one technical or specialist inte

    Interview rounds almost always combine at least one technical or specialist interview with the hiring line manager, one cross-functional interview with a peer or senior expert, and an HR conversation covering compensation expectations, tariff band placement (where applicable), and notice period (Kündigungsfrist). For management-track roles, expect an assessment centre with case work, a presentation, and structured behavioural interviews over one to two days.

  8. 8
    Offers are typically issued on Group-standard employment contracts subject to th

    Offers are typically issued on Group-standard employment contracts subject to the applicable collective bargaining agreement (Tarifvertrag Stahl for Steel Europe production roles, Metall- und Elektroindustrie NRW for many engineering roles, bespoke contracts for senior salaried staff). Make sure you understand which agreement covers the specific entity and location before you sign — it affects working hours, holiday, supplementary pay, and union representation.

Resume Tips for Thyssen Krupp

recommended

Write a true German Lebenslauf if you are targeting a Germany-based role: revers

Write a true German Lebenslauf if you are targeting a Germany-based role: reverse-chronological tabular format, one to two pages, every position with precise start and end dates (DD.MM.YYYY), employer city, and clear job title. Unexplained gaps longer than a few months should be addressed rather than hidden — German recruiters will ask about them.

recommended

Call out degrees with formal credentials the ATS and recruiter will recognise: '

Call out degrees with formal credentials the ATS and recruiter will recognise: 'Dipl.-Ing. Maschinenbau (TU Dortmund)', 'M.Sc. Metallurgical Engineering (RWTH Aachen)', 'B.Eng. Elektrotechnik (Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg)'. For Ausbildung candidates, state the full training title ('Ausbildung zum Industriemechaniker/in, IHK-Abschluss') and Abschlussnote (final grade).

recommended

Segment-match your keywords to the operating company's world of work

Segment-match your keywords to the operating company's world of work. Steel Europe roles reward vocabulary around Hochofen, Stranggießen, Warmbandwalzwerk, Koksofengas, LD-Konverter, Direktreduktion, Wasserstoff-DRI, and coil-coating lines. Automotive Technology roles lean on IATF 16949, APQP, PPAP, FMEA, Six Sigma, powertrain benchmarking, and e-axle terminology. Marine Systems responds to classification-society standards (DNV, Lloyd's Register), MIL-STD, and defence-export-control references. Decarbonization Technologies (nucera, Uhde) values electrolyser stack design, chlor-alkali membrane technology, PEM/AEM/alkaline chemistry, and green hydrogen project development.

recommended

Quantify in industrial units that actually mean something to thyssenkrupp manage

Quantify in industrial units that actually mean something to thyssenkrupp managers: tonnes produced, availability percentages, OEE, scrap rate reductions in basis points, CAPEX approved in euro millions, MW of installed capacity, ppm defect rates for automotive supplier work, and hours saved in shutdown turnaround planning.

recommended

Lead every bullet with an action verb in the past tense ('Senkte', 'Plante', 'Im

Lead every bullet with an action verb in the past tense ('Senkte', 'Plante', 'Implementierte', or the English equivalent if writing in English) and close with measurable outcome. 'Reduced unplanned downtime on the hot-strip mill by 11 percent over 12 months through root-cause FMEA of hydraulic failures' beats 'Responsible for maintenance reliability.'

recommended

List Sprachkenntnisse honestly using the CEFR scale (A1 through C2)

List Sprachkenntnisse honestly using the CEFR scale (A1 through C2). German is a de facto requirement for most Germany-based roles below director level, and any claim of C1 or C2 should be defensible in conversation from the first interview onward. English is expected across the group; a third language (Portuguese for Brazil operations, Mandarin for China, Spanish for Americas trading) is a meaningful differentiator for global commercial roles.

recommended

For Duales Studium and Ausbildung applications, the tone shifts: emphasise Prakt

For Duales Studium and Ausbildung applications, the tone shifts: emphasise Praktika (internships), Schulprojekte, extracurricular engineering work (Formula Student, robotics, Jugend forscht), and motivation letters that show you understand which Ausbildungsberuf you are choosing and why thyssenkrupp rather than a competitor Mittelstand employer.

recommended

Name the segment and ideally the specific business unit in your cover letter ('A

Name the segment and ideally the specific business unit in your cover letter ('Als Werkstoffingenieur mit Fokus auf Direktreduktion bewerbe ich mich gezielt bei thyssenkrupp Steel Europe am Standort Duisburg'). Generic 'I want to work at thyssenkrupp' letters consistently screen lower than letters that demonstrate the applicant has read the segment strategy.

recommended

Do not bury the ATS

Do not bury the ATS. thyssenkrupp's underlying Workday tenants parse standard PDF and DOCX submissions reliably, but they still punish unusual typography, multi-column creative layouts, embedded images in place of text, and text trapped inside graphics. A single-column, left-aligned, selectable-text CV will always beat a visually clever layout through the initial screen.

ATS System: Workday (multiple tenants, fronted by jobs.thyssenkrupp.com aggregator)

thyssenkrupp's current applicant tracking standard is SAP SuccessFactors at the HR-data layer for several subsidiaries, but the recruiting and application surface has migrated largely to Workday. Each major operating company runs its own Workday tenant — confirmed live examples include steeleurope.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com (Steel Europe / thyssenkrupp Steel), thyssenkruppmaterialsna.wd12.myworkdayjobs.com (Materials Services North America), and separate tenants used by Industrial Components, Materials Trading, and Automotive Technology. The candidate-facing unified layer is the in-house jobs board at jobs.thyssenkrupp.com, which ingests postings from every underlying system (Workday dominates, with Talentlink/Lumesse still powering some German entities and bespoke systems for specialised subsidiaries like nucera and Marine Systems) and routes applicants back to the correct tenant to submit. Candidates should plan on creating separate accounts per tenant rather than expecting a single group-wide profile.

  • Apply on the operating company's actual Workday tenant — don't waste time looking for a single 'group account'. The jobs.thyssenkrupp.com board is a router; your application only counts once it lands in the destination Workday.
  • Use a plain, single-column PDF CV with selectable text, standard fonts (Arial, Calibri, Times), and no headers/footers around critical data. Workday's parser reliably pulls employment history, education, and skills when the layout is clean.
  • Complete every optional profile field on Workday — especially work authorisation, languages, and 'Job Interests' — because Workday's internal search and candidate-pool features actively surface fully-populated profiles to recruiters searching across reqs.
  • Apply to the specific Requisition ID rather than relying on 'Join the Talent Community'. Talent-community profiles at thyssenkrupp are genuinely reviewed, but concrete applications move through the pipeline faster than speculative ones.
  • Mirror the exact wording the job ad uses for certifications and tools — 'IATF 16949' not 'QMS automotive certification', 'SAP S/4HANA PP-PI' not 'ERP production planning'. Workday keyword search is literal.
  • If you already have an account on one thyssenkrupp Workday tenant, you can often re-use its stored CV and profile data when applying to another tenant via the 'Sign in with Workday' flow — but verify your authorisation and contact data each time, because tenants do not share updates automatically.

Interview Culture

Interviews at thyssenkrupp are recognisably German, recognisably industrial, and recognisably old-economy — in the best and most demanding senses of each.

Expect formality: use 'Sie' unless the interviewer explicitly offers 'Du', address people with their full title ('Herr Dr. Schmidt', 'Frau Professor Weber'), and arrive at least ten minutes early for on-site interviews. Dress codes trend conservative business: suit and tie for management and sales roles, business casual for engineering and technical roles, safety boots and PPE provided for any interview that includes a plant tour. Technical depth is non-negotiable. For engineering positions the hiring manager will probe into your actual work — metallurgy candidates should be ready to discuss phase diagrams, heat treatment, continuous casting parameters, and scrap/raw-material mix economics; mechanical engineers on a plant-maintenance track should expect reliability-centered-maintenance questions, vibration analysis, and walkthroughs of specific failure modes on large rotating equipment; automation and controls candidates should expect Siemens S7 / TIA Portal, PROFINET, and functional-safety (IEC 61508, ISO 13849) discussion. Behavioural interviewing is used but rarely in the fluent American 'tell me about a time' style — German interviewers more often ask directly about specific project outcomes, decisions, and technical choices you made, and expect a structured, evidence-based answer. Self-promotion that would be unremarkable in a US context can read as overclaiming here; understated competence carries further. Works council influence is real and frequently visible. For roles covered by the Tarifvertrag or by a Betriebsrat, the works council has co-determination rights on many hiring decisions, and for senior roles at Steel Europe in particular, a Betriebsrat representative may sit in on part of the interview process. This is not a red flag — it is the German co-determination model doing exactly what it is designed to do, and candidates who treat the Betriebsrat as a legitimate stakeholder tend to be well-received. Assessment centres for graduate programmes, Duales Studium, and management-track roles typically run one to two days and combine a group case study (often a make-or-buy decision, a plant-investment analysis, or a sustainability trade-off), a presentation in German and/or English, structured interviews with HR and line management, and sometimes a short written analytical task. Candidates are evaluated on analytical rigour, ability to defend a position under pushback, teamwork in the group exercise, and cultural fit with thyssenkrupp's engineering-heavy, hierarchy-aware style. Be candid about the elephants in the room if they come up. The Duisburg restructuring, the EP Corporate Group stake in Steel Europe, the Marine Systems carve-out debate, and the CEO-works-council tensions of 2024 are all matters of public record, and interviewers generally prefer candidates who demonstrate they have read the recent news over candidates who pretend not to notice. A thoughtful question about how a specific decarbonisation programme (tkH2Steel, nucera's large-scale electrolyser projects, Uhde's green ammonia work) will affect the role you are interviewing for will almost always land better than a generic 'What is the company culture like?'

What Thyssen Krupp Looks For

  • Deep technical competence grounded in a specific domain — metallurgy, mechanical design, controls engineering, supply chain, commercial trading, or plant operations — rather than generalist management polish. thyssenkrupp is still a deeply engineering-led culture and hires accordingly.
  • Comfort with scale, heaviness, and physical reality. The plants are enormous, the timelines are long, the consequences of failure include death and environmental damage, and the culture respects people who take that seriously.
  • Credible commitment to decarbonisation. Candidates who can speak fluently about Direktreduktion, green-H2 value chains, Scope 3 emissions in automotive supply, or chlor-alkali efficiency gains signal alignment with the strategic direction López has set.
  • Co-determination literacy. Candidates who understand what Betriebsrat, Aufsichtsrat-Mitbestimmung, and Tarifvertrag mean in practice and can work inside that framework are significantly more hirable than candidates who expect a non-union US-style management model.
  • Language fluency. German at C1 or C2 for most roles based in Germany; English at C1 or C2 across the board; additional languages aligned with commercial regions (Portuguese for Brazil, Mandarin for China, Spanish for Americas) are genuinely valued for global trading and Materials Services roles.
  • Stability and considered career trajectory. Short tenures and frequent employer changes are viewed with more scepticism here than in US tech hiring. A three-to-five-year average at each role is a floor, not a ceiling.
  • For Ausbildung and Duales Studium candidates: solid Mittlere Reife or Abitur grades (particularly in Mathematik, Physik, and Werken/Technik), demonstrated hands-on curiosity (Formula Student, Maker-Space work, internships at Mittelstand engineering shops), and a clear articulated reason for choosing this Ausbildungsberuf.
  • Restructuring resilience. For Steel Europe roles in particular, thyssenkrupp is looking for people who can do strong work while the organisational ground is genuinely moving under them — not people who will freeze or defect at the first hard quarter.

Frequently Asked Questions

What ATS does thyssenkrupp use to receive applications?
thyssenkrupp uses Workday as the dominant applicant tracking system, deployed in multiple tenants across its operating companies — including steeleurope.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com for Steel Europe, thyssenkruppmaterialsna.wd12.myworkdayjobs.com for Materials Services North America, and separate tenants for Industrial Components and Automotive Technology. SAP SuccessFactors is used at the HR-data layer for some subsidiaries, and Talentlink (Lumesse) still powers a few German entities, but the recruitment-facing surface you will actually apply through is Workday. The in-house aggregator at jobs.thyssenkrupp.com unifies these postings for candidates but routes you back to the underlying Workday tenant to submit.
Do I need to speak German to work at thyssenkrupp?
For most roles based in Germany, yes — practically speaking, German at CEFR C1 or higher is a requirement or strong expectation, particularly for production, engineering, and any role that touches the Betriebsrat or Tarifvertrag. English is the group's working language for international collaboration, and senior management and certain global-function roles can operate entirely in English. Materials Services commercial roles outside Germany (UK, US, Canada, Brazil, India) typically run in the local language plus English. If you are early in your German learning journey, target the global trading and decarbonization-technology arms first rather than Steel Europe production roles.
Is thyssenkrupp still laying people off in the Steel Europe division?
The 2024 restructuring plan announced by Steel Europe commits to reducing production capacity at the Duisburg site and cutting several thousand positions over a multi-year horizon. The exact pace, the voluntary-versus-involuntary mix, and the interaction with IG Metall collective agreements remain actively negotiated as of early 2026. Candidates considering Steel Europe roles should evaluate which function they are entering (some areas, notably green-steel and tkH2Steel hydrogen-DRI projects, are actively hiring even while other areas contract), read current IG Metall communications, and ask the hiring manager directly about the role's position in the restructuring plan. Other segments — nucera, Uhde, Automotive Technology, Industrial Components, Materials Services — are not affected by the Steel Europe plan.
What is an Ausbildung and does thyssenkrupp really offer them?
Ausbildung is the German dual vocational-training system: a typically three-to-three-and-a-half-year paid apprenticeship combining on-the-job training at the employer with parallel classroom instruction at a Berufsschule, culminating in a formal qualification recognised by the Industrie- und Handelskammer (IHK) or Handwerkskammer. thyssenkrupp is one of the largest industrial Ausbildung employers in Germany, typically training in fields like Industriemechaniker, Elektroniker für Betriebstechnik, Zerspanungsmechaniker, Verfahrensmechaniker, Mechatroniker, Hüttenfacharbeiter, and Industriekaufmann. Duales Studium programmes combine a bachelor's degree (usually at a DHBW, Hochschule Bochum, or regional partner) with structured blocks at the company. Application windows open the autumn before intake, and both paths convert into permanent roles at high rates.
What is the salary and benefit structure like at thyssenkrupp?
Compensation depends heavily on which collective bargaining agreement covers your role. Steel Europe production roles typically fall under the Tarifvertrag Stahl (IG Metall), which sets base pay by Entgeltgruppe, mandates 35-hour standard work weeks, 30 days of annual leave, holiday and Christmas allowances (Urlaubs- und Weihnachtsgeld), and shift differentials. Many engineering and technical roles fall under Metall- und Elektroindustrie NRW, which is similarly structured but with its own scale. Senior salaried and management roles are on outside-tariff (AT, 'außertariflich') contracts with individually negotiated base plus target bonus, typically with company pension (Betriebsrente), group-wide share-participation scheme eligibility, and in some cases a company car. Compared to software and consulting, base pay at parity grade is somewhat lower, but total compensation including tariff holiday/Christmas payments, pension contributions, and stability is competitive for German heavy industry.
How should I approach the Marine Systems carve-out if I'm applying to that division?
Marine Systems (TKMS), headquartered in Kiel with additional facilities in Emden and Wismar, has been publicly flagged by the parent group for a potential carve-out via IPO, sale, or partnership structure, and the discussion has accelerated in 2024-2026 as European naval demand has surged. Candidates joining TKMS today are, in effect, joining a business that may operate under a different corporate roof within the medium term. Ask directly about the current status of the carve-out, how benefits, pension contributions, and share schemes translate into the new structure if and when it lands, and what the strategic plan is for the specific site and product line (submarines, surface vessels, electronics) you are joining. Defence-sector security clearances (Sicherheitsüberprüfung) are required for most engineering and technical roles and take months to process.
What is thyssenkrupp nucera and is it actually the same company?
thyssenkrupp nucera AG & Co. KGaA is a separately listed subsidiary that completed its IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in July 2022. The parent group retains a majority stake but nucera has its own board, its own financial reporting, its own employment contracts, and its own share-incentive programme for employees. Its business is industrial electrolysis — both the mature chlor-alkali business and the rapidly growing alkaline water electrolysis business for green hydrogen, where it is one of the top global vendors by installed capacity. Applying to nucera is a distinct process from applying to the rest of thyssenkrupp AG, and the career trajectories, compensation structures, and cultural feel are closer to a scaled-up growth company than to Steel Europe.
What does the CEO-works-council conflict mean for me as a candidate?
In 2024 there was significant public friction between CEO Miguel López and parts of the IG Metall-aligned works council over the pace and design of the Steel Europe restructuring, the handling of Board-of-Directors member departures, and the governance implications of the EP Corporate Group stake. Candidates should treat this as relevant context rather than disqualifying. The German co-determination model is designed to produce exactly this kind of visible tension between executive direction and employee representation, and the system ultimately functions through negotiated agreements. From an individual candidate's standpoint, the practical implication is that decisions which would be made unilaterally in an American management structure here require genuine agreement with employee representatives — and candidates who can operate effectively in that environment will do much better than those who expect top-down command authority.

Open Positions

Thyssen Krupp currently has 19 open positions.

Check Your Resume Before Applying → View 19 open positions at Thyssen Krupp

Related Resources

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Sources

  1. thyssenkrupp corporate homepage —
  2. thyssenkrupp Jobboard (group-wide aggregator) —
  3. thyssenkrupp careers hub (karriere.thyssenkrupp.com) —
  4. thyssenkrupp Steel Europe Workday tenant (Job Board) —
  5. thyssenkrupp Materials Services North America Workday tenant —
  6. thyssenkrupp nucera AG & Co. KGaA investor relations —
  7. thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) —
  8. thyssenkrupp Steel press release archive (Duisburg restructuring) —
  9. IG Metall thyssenkrupp coverage —
  10. Bundesagentur für Arbeit — Ausbildung overview —