Materials & Manufacturing Process Engineer (Early Career, Exceptional Talent)
$87,000–$117,000 year
On-siteCentennial, Colorado, United States
Job Summary
Own a defined piece of the Materials Process domain with real accountability for outcomes, including material qualification, investment casing, advanced joining methods, surface coatings, or non-destructive testing. Characterize and validate extreme-environment materials designed to withstand brutal mechanical and thermal stresses of gas turbines and high-Mach flight programs. Perform rapid failure analysis of testing anomalies using state-of-the-art internal labs, including SEM, to find root-cause and iterate solutions fast. Plan and execute test campaigns ranging from mechanical testing of superalloys for LCF/HCF and creep to DOEs for metallic additive and development testing of novel investment casting technologies. Help scope, procure, install, and commission new equipment, then use it and train others on it. Move from clean sheet to high-performance hardware in hand across disciplines and physical spaces from office to lab to shop floor.
Required Qualifications
- A degree in Materials Science & Engineering, Metallurgy, Mechanical, Aerospace, or Chemical Engineering – or equivalent hands-on hardware experience.
- At least one internship or co-op where you worked with real-world engineering materials, testing, or process characterization.
- Hands-on lab or shop experience – time operating mechanical test frames, metallographic sample prep equipment, heat-treat furnaces, or additive manufacturing machines.
- A fundamental understanding of materials behavior – from microstructural strengthening and fatigue failure mechanisms to corrosion resistance and high-temperature oxidation.
- A track record of finishing hard things, inside school and outside of it.
- Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
Desired Qualifications
- You've done something extraordinary early – built and characterized real hardware, led a competition team (Formula SAE, Baja, Rocketry) focusing on advanced materials, or done M&P lab work in an internship that most engineers don't see for years.
- You love building and want to work long, smart, and hard to create things that have real impact.
- You want ownership, not guidance.
- You get more energized when a problem gets harder, not less.
- You're uncomfortable waiting for someone else to find the answer.
- The metallurgy lab, the cleanroom, and the shop floor sound more interesting to you than a conference room.
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