Senior Materials Engineer - Aerospace AM & Defense

Beehive-Industries; Knoxville (TN); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

Dental benefits

Life insurance

Disability coverage

401(k) with company match

Equity in company

Job summary

Beehive Industries is seeking a Senior Materials Engineer to advance materials, heat treatment, powder metallurgy, and material characterization for aerospace/defense applications. You will contribute technically and guide projects in AM metallurgy, property optimization, and production integration to enable high-performance additive manufacturing.

The role requires expertise in metallurgy, DOE, and complex problem solving, with leadership and collaboration across engineering teams. U.S.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science & Engineering, Metallurgy, Mechanical Engineering, or related field.
• Minimum of 5 years of related experience; or 3 years with Master’s; or PhD without experience.
• Experience qualifying high-performance metallic materials and heat treatments for production.
• Experience leading materials engineering tasks, failure analyses, and material selection on programs.
• Experience in aerospace/defense with strict quality and material specs.
• Knowledge of powder metallurgy, phase transformations, microstructure-property relationships, and heat treatment of aerospace alloys.
• Familiarity with ASTM/SAE/AMS, ISO standards and metallurgical analysis techniques (SEM, EDS, EBSD, metallography, CT, hardness, tensile, fatigue).
• Experience with additive manufacturing materials and heat treatment parameters for AM parts.
• DOE, statistical process control, and root-cause analysis experience.

Responsibilities

• Serve as technical authority for aerospace-grade metals, powder characterization, heat treatment, and material qualification across AM workflows.
• Define technical strategies, roadmaps, and characterization protocols to support process development and production scalability.
• Establish material specifications, heat treatment standards, and powder controls with documentation.
• Lead resolution of metallurgical challenges, including microstructure evolution and defect mechanisms.
• Develop and qualify production-ready material processing specs (HIP, heat treatment, surface finishing).
• Apply metallurgy expertise to optimize mechanical properties and fatigue performance.
• Influence integration of materials practices into broader manufacturing workflows (post-processing, machining, NDT, quality systems).
• Guide cross-functional teams in solving metallurgical problems and evaluating new materials.
• Mentor junior engineers to elevate technical standards.
• Support decisions on testing labs, material suppliers, and future materials tech.
• Represent materials engineering in technical reviews with leadership, customers, suppliers, and government partners.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Skills

Materials science

Metallurgy

Aerospace materials

Heat treatment

Powder metallurgy

DOE

Statistical methods

Cross-functional collaboration

Technical leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Materials Science & Engineering

Master’s degree or PhD in related field (nice to have)

Tools

SEM

EDS

EBSD

CT scanning

Job description

Beehive Industries is seeking a Senior Materials Engineer to advance materials, heat treatment, powder metallurgy, and material characterization for aerospace/defense applications. You will contribute technically and guide projects in AM metallurgy, property optimization, and production integration to enable high-performance additive manufacturing.

The role requires expertise in metallurgy, DOE, and complex problem solving, with leadership and collaboration across engineering teams. U.S.