Research Engineer - High Temp Materials & Processes

Masverde; California (MO); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Masverde seeks a Research Engineer to advance high-temperature materials processing in a lab-driven role, planning tests, building equipment, and interpreting results to guide decisions.

You will work with technicians to modify fixtures, maintain records and develop repeatable methods for scale-up, combining thermodynamics, kinetics and data analysis with Python or MATLAB.

Qualifications

• Grounding in thermodynamics, heat and mass transfer, reaction kinetics or materials science.
• Experience in metallurgy, electrochemistry, high-temperature processing or related field.
• Practical experience building experimental setups and fixing them when they don’t work.
• Care with measurements, data analysis and lab records.
• Ability to organise work and discuss problems with engineers and technicians.
• Working knowledge of Python, MATLAB or similar analysis tools.

Responsibilities

• Plan and run experiments to investigate reactions, material behaviour and process performance.
• Build and operate high-temperature test equipment, including vacuum and controlled-atmosphere systems.
• Use thermodynamics, process modelling and mass and energy balances to select test conditions and interpret results.
• Collaborate with technicians and fabricators on fixtures, sensors and equipment modifications.
• Keep reliable records, assess uncertainty and write findings, procedures and risk assessments.
• Develop repeatable methods that can be tested at a larger scale.
• Ensure safe lab work around hot equipment, reactive materials and pressurised systems.

Skills

Thermodynamics

Heat & Mass Transfer

Experimental design

Data analysis

Lab records

Problem solving

Tools

Python

MATLAB

Job description

I'm looking for a Research Engineer to work on high-temperature materials processing. Much of the work will be in the lab: planning tests, building and modifying equipment, and figuring out how the results can guide decisions moving forward.

You should be comfortable taking an experiment from an initial idea through to a result that someone else can reproduce. That includes troubleshooting the setup, checking the data and deciding what to try next.

The work

• Plan and run experiments to investigate reactions, material behaviour and process performance.
• Build and operate high-temperature test equipment, including vacuum and controlled-atmosphere systems.
• Use thermodynamics, process modelling and mass and energy balances to choose test conditions and make sense of results.
• Work with technicians and fabricators on fixtures, sensors and equipment modifications.
• Keep reliable records, assess uncertainty and write up findings, procedures and risk assessments.
• Develop repeatable methods that can be tested at a larger scale.
• Take responsibility for safe lab work around hot equipment, reactive materials and pressurised systems.

Your background

Requirements:

• A good grounding in thermodynamics, heat and mass transfer, reaction kinetics or materials science.
• Experience in metallurgy, electrochemistry, high-temperature processing or a closely related field.
• Practical experience building experimental setups and fixing them when they don’t work.
• Care with measurements, data analysis and lab records.
• Working knowledge of Python, MATLAB or similar analysis tools.
• The ability to organise your own work and discuss technical problems with engineers and technicians.

Nice-to-haves:

• Furnaces, vacuum equipment or inert-gas systems.
• Materials characterisation or chemical analysis.
• High-temperature corrosion, materials compatibility or contamination control.
• Thermochemical modelling.
• CAD, fixture design or thermal analysis.
• Taking a process from lab experiments to pilot-scale trials.

You’ll need experience in experimental research, whether that’s in industry, academia or both.