Founding Engineer — Advanced Manufacturing

Cortheon; Billerica (MA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Job summary

Cortheon, an MIT spinout reinventing investment casting, seeks a founding engineer in Billerica, MA to lay the engineering foundation and turn new materials into reliable processes for foundry pilots and repeat orders.

You will lead technical projects, shape equipment and practices, and help hire and mentor future engineers as the company grows.

Qualifications

• Substantial hands-on 3D printing experience (resin, metal, plastic or composite backgrounds welcome).
• Strong CAD skills with practical experience designing, building, testing and troubleshooting parts or processes.
• Track record of independently leading technical projects and interpreting test data.
• Careful lab and chemical-handling habits and clear communication with teammates, suppliers, and foundry partners.

Responsibilities

• Develop and improve resin-printing and post-processing methods with the materials team.
• Design experiments, measure parts, troubleshoot failures to improve accuracy, finish, reliability and throughput.
• Design patterns, casting trees, fixtures and test equipment in CAD with input from foundry partners.
• Build or modify equipment and test setups, including simple automation.
• Run trials with foundry partners and document repeatable methods from successful experiments.

Skills

3D printing

Leadership

Hands-on engineering

Tools

nTop

Materialise

Rhino/Grasshopper

Python

Job description

Founding Engineer — Advanced Manufacturing

Cortheon is an MIT spinout reinventing investment casting, starting with the materials and processes that determine what foundries can make. We’re combining the design freedom of 3D printing with the economics of casting so engineers can design metal parts for performance, not the limits of conventional tooling.

Our SynthCast materials and 3D printed patterns are engineered to work with existing precision metal foundry workflows and we are partnering with foundries across the country. We develop the materials and tooling while our foundry partners cast the final metal parts.

From more efficient marine propulsion to lighter aerospace and automotive components and better data center cooling, our goal is to make optimized metal parts practical to manufacture at scale.

The Role

We’re looking for a founding engineer to help lay the foundation for our engineering team. You’ll turn new materials and early demonstrations into a reliable process for foundry pilots and repeat orders. You’ll work directly with the founders and will lead technical projects independently. As we grow, you’ll shape our equipment and engineering practices and help hire, lead, and inspire future engineers. This is your opportunity to be a leading voice in engineering at Cortheon. Are you ready to step up?

What You’ll Do

• Develop and improve our resin-printing and post-processing methods, working closely with the materials team to test new formulations.
• Design experiments, measure parts, and troubleshoot failures to improve dimensional accuracy, surface finish, reliability, and throughput.
• Design patterns, casting trees, fixtures, and test equipment in CAD. Prepare complex geometries for printing and casting with input from our foundry partners.
• Build or modify equipment and test setups, including simple automation where it helps the process.
• Run trials with foundry partners, investigate results, and turn successful experiments into documented methods the team can repeat.

Who We’re Looking For

We’re looking for an outstanding engineering generalist with superb design instincts, natural leadership traits, and a practical, hands‑on approach. Above all, we want someone who can take a difficult technical problem, decide what needs to happen, and see it through without constant direction. You should be curious, resourceful, and comfortable learning new tools or skills when a project calls for them.

• Substantial hands‑on 3D-printing experience is strongly preferred. Resin, metal, plastic, and composite printing backgrounds can all be relevant.
• Strong CAD skills and practical experience developing, building, testing, and troubleshooting parts, equipment, or manufacturing processes.
• A track record of independently leading technical projects, designing useful experiments, and interpreting test data.
• Careful lab and chemical‑handling habits, and clear communication with teammates, suppliers, and foundry partners.

We prefer several years of relevant industry experience, roughly 3-5 or more, but make exceptions for exceptional talent. Recent graduates with unusually strong hands‑on project experience are encouraged to apply.

Mechanical, process, manufacturing, materials, chemical, and related engineering backgrounds are all relevant. A specific degree matters less than demonstrated engineering ability.

Useful, but Not Required

• Investment casting experience would help with pattern and gate design, shelling, dewaxing, and interpreting casting defects. Other useful experience includes photopolymers, dimensional inspection, machining, electronics and controls, or simulation.

CAD automation and computational design using nTop, Materialise, Rhino/Grasshopper, Python, or similar tools would also be valuable as we automate more of the process. You do not need experience in all of these areas.

Compensation

We expect to find a candidate within the salary range of $100,000 to $150,000 plus equity, commensurate with experience level.

Location

This is a full‑time, 40-hour-per-week, exempt, on‑site role in Billerica, Massachusetts.

Are you metal enough to cast your future with Cortheon?