Senior Engineer - Material Science

About POWERTECH

POWERTECH is a center of excellence for propulsion technologies, specializing in the design, engineering, and manufacturing of combustion engines, expendable turbojet engines, and turbofan engines for a wide range of aerospace, defence, and autonomous applications. Our solutions support fixed- and rotary-wing UAVs as well as other advanced platforms, driving innovation and performance in aerospace propulsion.

Role summary - Senior Materials Scientist – Alloy Development & Computational Design

You will be the technical lead who bridges computational alloy design and laboratory validation to deliver the next wave of AM-optimised materials for defence platforms. Sitting under the Principal Engineer for Materials & Characterisation, you will steer alloy-discovery projects from CALPHAD modelling through atomisation, printing and property mapping, while mentoring a small team of engineers and collaborating with process, post-processing and digital-thread groups.  

Key responsibilities

• Digital alloy design & modelling: Build and run CALPHAD / phase-field / ICME toolchains to screen thousands of chemistries for printability, hot-crack resistance and target modulus/density envelopes.
• Experimental validation: Plan and execute test campaigns for the experimental validation of the outcome from the computational work.
• Feedstock prototyping: Specify 10-30 kg test melts for atomisation; define powder PSD, morphology and oxygen limits; supervise production runs and recycling trials.
• Print & process optimization: Liaise with AM process leads to generate parameter maps; design Design-of-Experiments (DoE) campaigns linking chemistry-microstructure-property relationships.
• Characterisation & property mapping: Own the coupon-to-component test matrix: SEM/EDS, XRD, EBSD, CT, porosity, tensile/fatigue across necessary temperature ranges; maintain a live materials database consumable.
• Technology integration: Feed alloy allowables into design reviews and qualification workflows.
• Mentorship & knowledge transfer: Coach engineers (levels I-III) on computational tools and lab practice; publish white papers and present at conferences.

Mandatory qualifications

• PhD or MSc in Metallurgy, Materials Science or related discipline.
• 5+ years hands-on alloy-development experience, with at least 3 years applying CALPHAD/phase-field or ML-based design methods and proving them in the lab.  
• Demonstrable success delivering AM-specific alloys (Ti, Al, Ni or Fe systems) through to coupon or component qualification.
• Deep proficiency with thermodynamic/kinetic packages (Thermo-Calc, Pandat, MatCalc) and data-analysis tools (Python, JMP, Matlab).
• Strong laboratory background: ICP-OES, SEM/EDS/EBSD, XRD, mechanical testing.

Desired skills

• Experience integrating alloy data into digital threads / PLM environments.
• Familiarity with design-for-AM workflows and lattice or graded-material concepts.
• Patent drafting or standards-committee participation.
• Proven communicator—able to brief senior management and stakeholders and publish peer-reviewed work.  

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