Process Engineer - Powder Metallurgy

MP Materials - Fort Worth, TX

Fort Worth, TX

Mining (except Oil and Gas)

About the position

MP Materials (NYSE: MP) is on a mission to restore the full rare earth supply chain to the United States of America. From electric cars to wind turbines and drones, rare earths are essential to the low-carbon, electrified technologies that power modern life. We hire ambitious, mission-driven people motivated to solve problems and affect change. Our values are grounded in teamwork, resiliency, and integrity, with an enduring commitment to our employees, community, and the environment. In the coming years, MP Materials will grow from a core materials and chemical processing company into a large industrial manufacturer. Our employees will lead this exciting transformation and grow professionally with us. The Process Engineer - Powder will be an integral part of the team designing and building a new metal, alloy, and magnet-making facility. This is a rare opportunity to have a central role in the development of a greenfield advanced manufacturing facility and helping to define the future of American manufacturing. The ideal candidate will have hands-on experience in controlling metal powder production processes such as powder conveyance, milling, classification, blending, quality control methods and measurements, and other related powder processing techniques.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical coordination and support to the powder processing operation to meet all internal and customer requirements.
• Work with production team members of upstream and downstream processes to ensure efficient and seamless integration across the full set of manufacturing operations in the factory.
• Provide technical training and support to the production team.
• Work with procurement, vendors, maintenance, operators, and other team members on equipment specification, design reviews, and commissioning of new plant.
• Contribute to EHS risk assessments, HAZOP studies, regulatory compliance efforts, and other related activities.
• Plan, execute, and assist with process, and procedure development for hydrogen decrepitation (HD) furnace, jet milling, and other powder processing processes.
• Work closely with the R&D team in new process development to streamline and accelerate deployment of new technologies at the industrial scale.
• Evaluate customer requirements and work in partnership with the broader manufacturing and engineering teams to define process control plans to meet customer specifications.
• Monitor and direct changes to key operating parameters under to achieve high yield, consistent product quality, and minimal EHS impacts.
• Supervise the daily use of quality control procedures, driving initiatives to ensure stable and efficient powder processing operations.
• Identify and take the lead in investigating and resolving quality issues related to the powder production area.
• Other duties, as assigned.

Requirements

• BS degree in Metallurgy/Materials Science, Mechanical, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, or related technical field.
• 3-5 years' experience in metal powder processing with industrial scale processes and equipment.
• Deep understanding of powder metallurgy processes for part manufacturing and powder quality control fundamentals such as particle size distribution (PSD), particle flowability, particle agglomeration, etc.
• Knowledge and experience in gathering and tracking process control information for SPC.
• Problem solving experience (FMEA, 8D, A3, Root Cause Analysis etc.).
• Comfortable with equipment fault diagnosis, process development, PLCs, and P&ID.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Experienced user of Microsoft Office suite.

Nice-to-haves

• 5+ years of experience of industrial experience powder manufacturing, processing, and/or conducting powder metallurgy processes.
• Deep technical knowledge of metal powder production, in particular milling, hydrogen decrepitation, and other comminution methods.
• Practical experience in the safe handling of metal powders.
• Experience with SAP.
• Ability to identify and solve problems and convince others (from engineers, to operators, to management) that your solution is the right one.
• Experience with programming, and process control operations; P&ID, PLC, CFD, MATLAB, Python, Mini -Tab, AutoCAD/Solidworks.