Aerospace & Defense | Advanced Manufacturing
We are seeking an experienced Senior Materials Scientist / Metallurgist to provide technical leadership across materials development, process development, characterization, qualification, and production transition for advanced metal manufacturing technologies.
This is not simply an additive manufacturing engineering position.
We are looking for a seasoned materials professional with deep, practical knowledge of metallurgy, powder-based processing, material characterization, and aerospace/defense qualification—someone who understands not only how to develop a promising material or manufacturing process, but how to establish the technical rigor, documentation, process controls, and qualification evidence required to make it repeatable and production-ready.
The successful candidate will serve as a senior technical resource to a talented team of early-career materials scientists and engineers. The role is primarily one of technical leadership, mentorship, and process ownership, but the individual must be comfortable getting hands-on when necessary to investigate results, troubleshoot problems, evaluate data, and guide technical decisions.
What You’ll Do
You will help establish the materials-science and process discipline required to transition advanced manufacturing technologies from development and demonstration into qualified aerospace and defense production.
Key responsibilities will include:
- Provide senior technical leadership in materials science, physical metallurgy, powder metallurgy, and metal additive manufacturing.
- Lead materials and manufacturing processes through development, characterization, process-window definition, testing, qualification, customer approval, and production acceptance.
- Establish and mature material and process qualification methodologies for aerospace, space, and defense applications.
- Guide the development of robust, repeatable manufacturing processes with appropriate controls, documentation, acceptance criteria, and traceability.
- Provide technical oversight and mentorship to materials scientists and engineers, reviewing results, challenging assumptions, troubleshooting problems, and helping the team make sound engineering decisions.
- Support powder selection and characterization, deposition/process behavior, microstructural evaluation, post-processing, and structure-property analysis.
- Apply metallurgical laboratory techniques including metallography, SEM/EDS, mechanical testing, hardness testing, porosity/density assessment, and failure analysis.
- Evaluate the relationships among feedstock, processing parameters, microstructure, defects, post-processing, and final material performance.
- Support a broad materials portfolio that may include aluminum, titanium, steels, nickel alloys, copper alloys, tungsten, tantalum, and other refractory material systems.
- Develop and review material specifications, process specifications, test plans, qualification plans, technical reports, and production acceptance criteria.
- Support root-cause investigations and corrective actions involving material or process performance.
- Work directly with customers and technical representatives from U.S. government agencies and major aerospace and defense prime contractors.
- Clearly and credibly explain and defend materials characterization, process controls, test methodologies, technical results, and qualification strategies during customer and technical reviews.
- Help build the technical capabilities of the broader engineering organization through mentorship, disciplined engineering practices, and sound technical judgment.
What We’re Looking For
The ideal candidate brings significant industry experience and the technical judgment that comes from having taken materials and manufacturing processes beyond the laboratory and into demanding production environments.
We are particularly interested in candidates with:
- A BS, MS, or PhD in Materials Science, Metallurgical Engineering, Materials Engineering, or a closely related discipline.
- Significant professional experience in materials science or metallurgy, preferably within aerospace, defense, space, or another highly regulated engineering environment.
- Strong practical understanding of physical metallurgy and structure-process-property relationships across multiple metallic alloy systems.
- Strong knowledge of powder metallurgy, including powder characterization, feedstock considerations, processing behavior, microstructure, defects, and resulting mechanical properties.
- Meaningful experience with metal additive manufacturing and associated material/process development and qualification requirements.
- A working understanding of cold spray additive manufacturing, including powder selection, deposition behavior, post-processing, and metallurgical characterization. Extensive direct cold spray experience is highly desirable but not required for an otherwise exceptional candidate.
- Experience with NASA-STD-6030, DoD/MIL standards, aerospace material and process specifications, or equivalent qualification environments used by major aerospace and defense organizations.
- Demonstrated experience taking a material or manufacturing process through development, characterization, process definition, testing, qualification, customer approval, and repeatable production.
- Practical familiarity with metallurgical laboratory methods, including metallography, SEM/EDS, mechanical testing, hardness, porosity/density measurement, and failure analysis.
- Experience developing or reviewing process specifications, qualification plans, test methods, acceptance criteria, and technical documentation.
- The ability to distinguish promising experimental results from a genuinely robust, controlled, and production-capable process.
- Strong technical communication skills and the credibility to interact directly with sophisticated government and aerospace/defense customers.
- The ability and desire to mentor early-career engineers and scientists while remaining technically engaged.
The Person We’re Looking For
Technical depth matters, but so does judgment.
We need someone who has been in the industry long enough to recognize what good engineering looks like—someone younger engineers naturally seek out when they have a difficult materials or process question.
You should be comfortable reviewing data and asking the next question, recognizing when a result does not make sense, identifying where additional characterization is needed, and helping a team move from experimentation toward disciplined engineering.
You do not need to have spent your entire career in cold spray. A highly accomplished aerospace or defense metallurgist with strong powder metallurgy, metal additive manufacturing, and qualification experience could be an excellent fit.
Likewise, we are not looking for someone whose expertise is limited to one alloy family. Breadth of metallurgical knowledge and a strong command of fundamental structure-process-property relationships are particularly valuable for this position.
Prior management experience is beneficial, but this role does not require someone whose primary strength is people management. We are equally interested in an exceptional senior technical leader who can become a trusted resource, mentor, and authority for the engineering team.
Why This Role Matters
Our advanced manufacturing programs are increasingly moving beyond demonstrations and into qualification and production.
That transition requires a different level of materials-science rigor.
The person in this role will help establish the technical foundation necessary to make advanced cold spray manufacturing a repeatable, controlled, qualified, and trusted aerospace and defense production technology.
For the right materials scientist or metallurgist, this is an opportunity to have a meaningful influence on both the technology and the engineering organization developing it.
U.S. citizenship is required due to the nature of the defense programs supported by this position. An existing U.S. security clearance is beneficial but is not required; the ability to obtain one is required.
