Position Summary:

The R&D Engineer I Additive Powder will be a technical leader within the R&D team responsible for multiple aspects of additive powder development and production. The R&D Engineer is responsible for the production of metal powders for both product development and customer orders. Product development work includes equipment operation, material testing, designing and executing experiments, analyzing data, and documentation. Production for orders includes planning material flow, guiding production processes in R&D, and coordination with site-wide production groups. With the increasing demand for powders, the Additive Powder Engineer will have responsibilities to identify new equipment, propose capital expenditures, design equipment and process layouts, and oversee installation and commissioning. In the execution of these duties, the Engineer will also provide daily direction to research associates.

The engineer may have customer interactions and will have a degree of involvement with marketing, sales, and business strategy. It is possible that demands within the R&D group or the GAM Technology site will require the Engineer to contribute on projects not within the Additive Powders scope. The engineer will be responsible for written and oral technical reports and may be involved with conference presentations and journal articles.

Essential Functions:

• Take responsibility for Additive powder production processes and equipment.
• Develop sound technical understanding of powder spheroidization and post-processing within the R&D area and other GAM production facilities.
• Supervise and provide daily direction to research associates.
• Develop hands-on experience to program and run machines to spheroidize metals.
• Design, execute, analyze, and present experiments related to optimizing metal powders and processes.
• Develop deep understanding of metal powder technologies and metal powder handling safety.
• Work with analytical, quality, and customers to establish process-capable specifications and process controls to meet them.
• Become familiar with feedstock requirements for additive and cold-spray powders, ASTM and other specifications related to powders, and company competitors and competitive production methods and products.
• Communicate, educate, and positively influence other GAM employees through direct engagement.
• Determine capital investments for equipment replacement and production expansion of additive powders.
• Support Business Development and Sales organization through presentations, costing, and customer (internal and external) training.

Requirements/Competencies/Qualifications:

• Minimum of BS in Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Engineering, Material Science, or Metallurgy.
• Metal powder handling experience of 2 to 5 years desirable; other powder handling may be acceptable.
• Demonstrated experience in experimentation and process development.
• Experience and capabilities with analytical procedures such as metallography, mechanical testing, SEM imaging and evaluation.
• Work experience in both laboratory and production environments and ability to work with people at various levels.
• Strong mechanical aptitude with the desire to perform hands-on work.
• Strong communication, teaching, and influencing competencies. Able to communicate effectively verbally and in writing.
• Solid understanding of statistics with experience using design of experiments (DOEs)
• Proficiency with the MS Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc.) and statistical software (ex. JMP, Minitab, or Stata). Desirable to have AutoCAD experience.
• Able to travel up to 5% domestic.
• U.S. citizen or Green Card required.

Competencies (in order of importance)

• Technical knowledge
• Execution of plans
• Data-based decision making
• Organizing & Planning
• Communication