Level III NDE Engineer (Ultrasonics / Phased Array)

Coronal Technologies; Long Beach (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Coronal Technologies is building its first dedicated NDE team to support high-criticality additively manufactured components. The role focuses on developing inspection processes, procedures, and documentation, while training and certifying the team for fracture-critical flight hardware.

The candidate will own method authority, drive UT and PAUT technique development on titanium, and align NDE practices with AMS-STD-2154, ASTM standards, NASA-STD-5009, and Nadcap expectations. A U.S.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in aerospace, pressure vessel, nuclear or similar regime where missed indication is critical.
• Hands-on phased array experience, not supervisory
• Familiar with calibration block design, DAC/TCG, encoded scanning and data interpretation with UT equipment
• Procedures written to AMS-STD-2154, ASTM E2700/E1417/E1742
• Familiarity with NASA-STD-5009 and MIL-HDBK-1823
• Ability to negotiate flaw size requirements with stress engineers
• U.S. person as defined at 22 CFR 120.62

Responsibilities

• Develop inspection processes and documentation, train the team, and certify inspection of fracture-critical flight hardware.
• Provide method authority: written practice, UT and PAUT procedures, audits of Level I/II personnel as the team grows.
• Develop technique on DED titanium, including focal laws, probe/wedge selection, calibration standards, and validation against samples.
• Establish NDE-derived initial flaw sizes with structures and M&P; ensure detectable flaw size is a design input.

Skills

Phased array UT

Ultrasonic testing (UT)

PAUT procedure development

NDT method authority

Education

ASNT NDT Level III certificate in UT

Tools

Evident

Zetec

M2M/Eddyfi

AOS

Job description

Coronal has a quality-first mindset and is targeting high-criticality, fatigue and damage tolerant applications - additively manufactured titanium pressure vessels among them. Conventional NDE vendors are used to inspecting wrought and cast material, and lack subject-matter expertise in the flaw populations and microstructures present in additively manufactured material. Coronal is standing up NDE internally to close that gap.

This is the first dedicated NDE role at Coronal, and the opportunity to build the NDE team as we grow. You will develop our inspection processes and documentation, train the team, and certify the inspection of fracture-critical flight hardware.

What you own

• Method authority. Written practice, UT and PAUT procedures and technique sheets, certification and audit of Level I and II personnel as the team grows.
• Technique development on DED titanium. Focal laws, probe and wedge selection, calibration standards, velocity and attenuation characterization across build directions, TFM/FMC validated against sectioned samples.
• Design for inspectability. Path planning and component design that can be inspected — settled before the arc is lit, not discovered afterward.
• The fracture control interface. Establish and defend NDE-derived initial flaw sizes with structures and M&P. Detectable flaw size is a design input, not a downstream inspection result.
• Probability of detection. Design and run POD studies on representative geometries that will hold up in front of a government customer.
• In-house NDE. Specify, commission and qualify an ultrasonic immersion cell — tank, phased array instrumentation, manipulator integration — and technically oversee the NDT methods we outsource.
• Qualification. NDE content of qualification plans, first article packages and proposals; AS9100 support and Nadcap readiness.

Required

• ASNT NDT Level III certificate in UT, or a qualification and examination record sufficient for us to certify you to NAS 410 / SNT-TC-1A Level 3 on arrival.
• 8+ years in aerospace, pressure vessel, nuclear or another regime where a missed indication is a safety-of-flight event.
• Hands-on phased array, not supervision of it — focal law and calibration block design, DAC/TCG, encoded scanning, and interpretation of your own data (Evident, Zetec, M2M/Eddyfi, AOS or equivalent).
• Procedures written to specification and defended in audit, i.e. AMS-STD-2154, ASTM E2700, ASTM E1417, ASTM E1742.
• Familiarity with NASA-STD-5009 and MIL-HDBK-1823.
• Enough fracture mechanics to negotiate flaw size requirements with stress engineers rather than receive them.
• U.S. person as defined at 22 CFR 120.62.

Preferred

• TFM/FMC and plane wave imaging in production, not on a demo bench.
• Immersion UT, automated or robotic scanning, manipulator integration.
• NDE of additive material, including inspection through as-deposited surface finish.
• Inspection of titanium and aluminum weldments — TIG, PAW, laser, E-beam.
• POD studies to MIL-HDBK-1823A or ASTM E3023, ideally one you designed rather than executed.
• Level I or above in RT, PT or ECA.
• A research instinct that runs to probe design, not only procedure writing.
• AIAA S-080 metallic pressure vessel practice, or MIL-PRF acceptance criteria for wire-arc DED.
• Nadcap NDT and AS9100 audit experience; CIVA or comparable ultrasonic modeling.
• You have written the NDE section of a qualification plan for a government customer and survived the review.