R&D Engineer – Metal Additive Manufacturing

Kensington360; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Kensington360 is seeking an R&D Engineer in Sunnyvale, CA to drive metal additive manufacturing opportunities. You will partner with customer teams to define requirements and develop AM validation plans, turning results into practical guidance for engineering groups.

The role blends design for AM, materials characterization, and transfer of validated processes to production, with hands-on testing and close customer interaction to deliver tangible improvements.

Qualifications

• 2–5 years of hands-on metal additive manufacturing experience.
• Experience with design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) and AM process development.
• Ability to translate technical results into actionable recommendations for customers.

Responsibilities

• Work with customer R&D teams to understand function, performance, and design constraints.
• Translate requirements into AM validation plans covering build parameters, heat treatment, inspection, and milestones.
• Lead collaborative design reviews and advise on printability and support strategies.
• Plan and execute process development and parameter optimization.
• Coordinate mechanical testing, metallography, nondestructive testing, and dimensional inspection.
• Investigate issues such as cracking, distortion, porosity, and lack of fusion, and recommend next steps.
• Present findings to both technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
• Document engineering decisions and prepare handover for production.

Skills

Metal AM

LPBF

Customer collaboration

DfAM

Education

Bachelor's in materials/metallurgy/mechanical engineering

Master's or PhD preferred

Tools

Materialise Magics

Oqton

Machine-native software

Job description

R&D Engineer - Metal Additive Manufacturing, Sunnyvale, CA

Kensington360 is recruiting an R&D Engineer for a metal additive manufacturing business in Sunnyvale. You'll work directly with customers developing new applications, turning product requirements into practical AM validation plans and explaining technical results in terms their engineering teams can use.

The role combines customer collaboration, design for additive manufacturing (DfAM), process development, materials characterization and the transfer of validated processes into production.

What you'll do

• Work with customer R&D teams to understand the function, performance requirements and design constraints of their components.
• Translate those requirements into AM validation plans covering build parameters, heat treatment, inspection and qualification milestones.
• Lead collaborative design reviews and advise on printability, support strategies and other DfAM considerations.
• Plan and execute process development and parameter optimization work.
• Coordinate mechanical testing, metallography, nondestructive testing and dimensional inspection, linking the results back to the customers' requirements.
• Investigate issues such as cracking, distortion, porosity and lack of fusion, and recommend the next development steps.
• Present findings clearly to both technical and nontechnical customer stakeholders.
• Document engineering decisions and prepare a thorough handover for production once a process has been validated.

What you'll bring

• 2-5 years of hands-on metal additive manufacturing experience, ideally with laser powder bed fusion (LPBF).
• A sound understanding of alloy behavior, solidification, microstructure, heat treatment and common AM defect mechanisms.
• Practical experience with AM build preparation software, such as Materialise Magics, Oqton or machine-native software.
• Experience using mechanical testing, metallography or other characterization methods to assess printed parts.
• The ability to work directly with customers and turn complex technical findings into clear recommendations.
• A bachelor's, master's or PhD in materials science, metallurgy, mechanical engineering or a related discipline. Hands-on experience is essential.

Experience with titanium, nickel alloys, aluminum, stainless steels or tool steels is useful. Exposure to simulation tools and ASTM, AMS or ISO standards would also be valuable.