A Challenging International Career Engineering studies elevated Nir Laufer to Director of Product Management at a Swiss company

We catch Nir Laufer at the airport. He has just returned from Toronto, Canada, where he had traveled in his capacity as Director of Product Management for Oscilloquartz, a Swiss company that specializes in synchronizing communication networks and produces atomic GPS-based watches. “During my three years in this position, I’ve been almost all over the world, meeting clients, lecturing at conferences and meeting with our development centers”, he says. “I spend a considerable part of my time abroad, in the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and Asia, among other places. I even happened to be, by chance, in Japan in 2011, during the massive earthquake that caused the Tsunami”.

Laufer was a graduate in the first class of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Bar Ilan. He majored in signal processing and communications and graduated summa cum laude. Later he completed his Master’s degree in Business Administration. He started his career working in R&D in algorithm development and later in managing an algorithm group. Eight years later, he felt ready to go forward to a position managing a product line.  “I wanted a position that requires a wider perspective”, he says. “As director, I define the company’s product line, and make sure it develops in the direction outlined together with the senior management. I’m responsible for a small team, partly based in Switzerland, and represent the company to customers and suppliers and in business development and sales, as well as with standardization organizations, including the standardization body of the UN."

His engineering studies in the Faculty of Engineering at Bar Ilan, Laufer tells us, opened doors for him to a variety of possibilities both in engineering and in related fields. "I warmly recommend engineering studies at Bar Ilan," he says. "I very much enjoy my work and think that it is very diverse, challenging and rewarding, from every aspect."