Industries

Jena  offers many different employment and career opportunities from skilled trades to high-tech industries. Innovative high-performing enterprises, top-rate research facilities and two universities are all gathered together in Jena. Major international businesses are as at home here as the many innovative small and mid-sized businesses, creative trade and service industries, highly qualified health and care providers, first-class training institutions and a lively startup scene.

Optics & photonics

Jena, the ‘City of Light’, is an international centre for optics and photonics, and is seen as the birthplace of the entire industry. At the end of the 19th century Carl Zeiss, Otto Schott and Ernst Abbe laid the foundations for an internationally renowned high-tech location with their new design for microscope manufacture. The cornerstone of this historical development – the close interconnection of business and science – continues to ensure the city’s future viability today. Companies with global reach like ZEISS, JENOPTIK and SCHOTT, and research institutes such as the Abbe Center of Photonics, the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering (IOF), as well as the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology and the Thuringia photonics network OptoNet e.V. are all based in Jena.

Today, over 9,000 people work in this industry in Jena, including more than 1,000 research scientists at the many scientific institutions. With annual growth in their field of competence of between three and five per cent, the optics and photonics industry in Jena offers excellent career opportunities – from an apprenticeship or career entry as a skilled professional through to a management role.

Medical engineering and healthcare technologies

Important milestones in medical engineering and healthcare technologies have been achieved and continue to be achieved in Jena. Innovative solutions for diagnosis and treatment are being developed here.

Their billion euro turnover makes it clear; the Jena companies operating in the spheres of medical engineering and healthcare technologies are high-growth experts offering exciting employment opportunities for skilled professionals in the STEM professions – and much more besides.

Additionally, the university hospital in Jena – the only university clinic in Thuringia – together with many other scientific facilities, act as key partners in supporting research and development projects, and offer interesting career prospects thanks to their excellent technical facilities. Those wanting to start companies in the medical engineering or healthcare technology sectors will find the ideal startup conditions in the Jena technology and innovation park (TIP) and the bio instrument centre (BIZ). The Thuringian industry association for medical technology and biotechnology medways e.V. (industry association) is also based in Jena, and co-ordinates many collaborative projects with partners from industry and the field of scientific research in Germany and internationally. In addition, the city is home to the Septomics Centre for Innovation Competence (ZIK), where new methods for sepsis diagnosis and treatment are being developed.

Digital economy

Online trading was invented here, in the ‘e-commerce capital’: in 1994, the Jena company Intershop started the first online store in the current sense of the word. Anyone involved in selling or buying online would find it hard to do without the e-commerce technologies from Jena.
Building on this development, digital enterprises in Jena have become highly skilled and specialised in digitising business and production processes, in artificial intelligence applications, developing apps and applications, and big data analytics. The high-tech optics and photonics companies as well as those involved in science and research also offer interesting areas of employment for creative IT specialists. At the digital hub Jena, innovation is hardwired. More than 3,500 employees work on the digital transformation here.

The skilled professionals of today, and tomorrow too, can also progress their education and training by opting for one of the 24 different study paths in digitisation at the two universities in Jena. The range of educational services offered by the Friedrich Schiller University Jena was expanded in 2023 with the foundation of an e-commerce professorship and at Ernst Abbe University of Applied Sciences, a Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence (ZAKI@EAH) was set up in the same year.
Here, businesses, universities and research institutions pool their talents and work together on the digitisation projects of the future.

The ‘made in Jena’ digital business has long since made a name outside the local community. From the many young startups through to strong mid-sized companies and on to international players – exciting companies are looking for individuals who can help shape the future, in state-of-the-art work environments, with flat hierarchies, a strong team spirit and excellent career prospects.
Anyone who has an idea for a digital business and wants to set up a company will find a very positive startup culture here, with everything they need, successful role models, the right infrastructure and a lively startup ecosystem with many sources of support and financial backing.

Skilled crafts & services

Jena shows how up to date and innovative traditional trades can be. The trade businesses based in Jena orient many of their service offerings to fit the requirements of the high-tech industry. That means sophisticated and tailor-made solutions are needed. The expertise of well-qualified tradespeople is therefore welcome in Jena, and they can count on a crisis-proof place to work, good team spirit among the businesses here, and decent recompense.

Jena’s compact size makes it easier for outstandingly organised trade networks to collaborate on an equal footing with local businesses and research facilities. This is the key to the success of Jena’s trade businesses, which also benefits employees and apprentices. Skilled employees find that most trade businesses in Jena have flat hierarchies, with a modern company structure, technology expertise, and above all, there is a wide range of projects providing daily challenges and allowing them to experience a sense of achievement.

The training and further training of employees is of vital importance. Trade businesses in Jena offer outstanding work opportunities for the apprentices of the future who leave school or college with good exam results. Skilled workers with a ‘Meister’ qualification or equivalent can also take a degree course at the two universities in Jena even without ‘A’ levels.

Education, health and social services

Working in science

Jena is a world-renowned scientific hub for science professionals, post-docs or managers in academic institutions. Here, the spotlight is on interdisciplinary and applications-based research. The Friedrich Schiller University, with its long history, and the practice-oriented Ernst Abbe University are both based in Jena. The city is also home to twelve research institutions in addition to the universities, among them the Max Planck Institute, two Leibniz Institutes and a Fraunhofer Institute.

With the focus on optics and photonics, life sciences, health, and information technology, research in Jena is geared towards issues which are important for the future, in order to help society and the economy to progress further. This gives rise to exciting career opportunities for academic professionals. 4,500 staff work in research and teaching in Jena, and the number is rising.

Precision engineering

Environmental technology