Application Engineer, Additive Manufacturing

Aether; South San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Aether in South San Francisco is seeking an Applications Engineer to serve as the technical bridge between our materials and end users. You will work with engineering teams to evaluate, optimize, and expand use of our polymers in real-world manufacturing.

This role combines applications engineering, product feedback, and technical consulting. You will collaborate with customers, resellers, and OEM partners; travel up to 40% to build strong technical relationships, with hybrid remote and on-site

Responsibilities

• Deploy and optimize our materials in customers' additive manufacturing workflows
• Support pre-sales evaluations and post-sale optimization
• Travel to customer sites to assist with printer setup and troubleshooting
• Guide customers with design-for-additive-manufacturing (DfAM) to maximize performance

Job description

About Aether

Aether Bio is a deep tech company that uses machine learning to discover proteins with high-impact, real-world industrial applications. We’re building super materials, processing critical minerals, and developing new deployable manufacturing technologies. Our current product lines target the defense, unmanned aerospace, and industrial manufacturing sectors, strengthening American manufacturing competitiveness.

We are a team of ~40 people spearheading next-generation polymer composite material for additive manufacturing and beyond. Our products are gaining traction in highly demanding 3D printing applications like robotics, drones, and defense - where designers and engineers require differentiated speed and performance.

Role Overview

As Applications Engineer, you will serve as the technical bridge between Aether and our end users. This customer-facing role will work directly with engineers at organizations to evaluate, optimize, and expand the use of our materials in real-world applications.

You will partner with prospects, existing customers, resellers, and hardware OEM partners to support successful adoption of our materials, troubleshoot printing challenges, and redesign parts to take advantage of our unique material properties. You will also play a critical role internally by identifying patterns in customer usage, documenting best practices, creating technical content, and helping shape future product development.

This role is highly cross-functional and combines elements of applications engineering, product marketing, technical consulting, and early-stage product feedback.

Travel of up to 40% is expected, particularly during the first year as we build strong technical relationships with customers.

What You’ll Do

Customer Deployment & Technical Engagement

• Work directly with engineering teams to deploy and optimize our materials in their additive manufacturing workflows
• Support both pre-sales evaluations and post-sale optimization and qualification
• Travel onsite to assist with printer setup, parameter tuning, and troubleshooting
• Guide customers with DfAM to maximize performance with our materials

Build Technical Credibility in the Market

• Serve as a trusted technical partner to our customers and users
• Communicate clearly about the strengths and limitations of our materials
• Collaborate to identify new applications where our materials deliver the greatest performance advantages
• Represent Aether technical capabilities at events, trade shows, and conferences

Capture Learnings & Develop Content

• Identify usage patterns across customer environments and printing systems
• Develop internal and customer-facing technical guidance including:
  • Print parameters and best practices guidelines
  • Winning application highlights and case studies
  • Competitive landscape evaluations
  • Demo parts and applications highlighting unique Aether differentiators

Inform Product Development

• Represent the Voice of the Customer, and provide structured feedback to our materials and product teams
• Surface recurring technical challenges, feature requests, and opportunities for improvement
• Help shape the roadmap for future materials and product iterations

What Success Looks Like (First 12 Months)

Customers achieve reliable, repeatable results using our materials

• Increased reorder rates from existing customers
• Successful technical deployments across multiple customersDevelopment of foundational technical documentation and print guidelines
• Identification of high-value use cases where our materials provide clear advantages
• Establishment of several technically credible reference customers

Required Experience

Preemptively (?)

Travel

• Up to 40% travel, primarily within the United States.

Location

• Hybrid remote and on-site at the Aether South San Francisco office