Senior Composite Project Engineer

Element Materials Technology•Duarte, CA

17d•Onsite

About The Position

Element Los Angeles is seeking a Senior Technical Project Engineer for its composites non-metallic material test laboratory in Duarte, California. The role leads complex aerospace material-qualification, design-allowables, and certification-support programs, serving as the liaison between customers and the laboratory. The engineer works with customers and internal engineering, laboratory operations, quality, and commercial teams to translate test plans into laboratory workflows while owning project schedules, resources, risks, communication, and outcomes. Projects may involve multiple material batches, conditioning environments, subcontractors, and up to 10,000 specimens. The position owns projects from contract review and kickoff through planning, scheduling, work-instruction creation, specimen organization and preparation, conditioning, testing, data review, reporting, invoicing, and closeout. It also coordinates approved FAA certification-program activities and ensures execution meets controlled quality, compliance, configuration, traceability, calibration, and data-integrity requirements. The role has no direct reports but leads through influence and mentorship. The stated salary range is $90,000–$130,000 per year, depending on experience. Element is a global testing, inspection, and certification business with more than 9,000 employees at 270 sites in 30 countries. Its purpose is to “Make tomorrow safer than today,” supporting customers with product quality, sustainable outcomes, and market access. Element describes its workplace as one that empowers employees to take charge of their careers and provides growth and development. It is an equal opportunity employer.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in engineering, materials science, aerospace, chemistry, physics, or a related technical field.
Seven or more years of experience in technical project management, aerospace testing, material qualification, composite materials, or laboratory operations.
Clear and concise communication skills, expectation-management ability, and ability to manage and de-escalate situations.
Working knowledge of polymer matrix composites, ceramic matrix composites, plastics, specimen machining and preparation, environmental conditioning, mechanical testing, instrumentation, calibration, data acquisition, and technical reporting.
Demonstrated ownership of complex schedules, budgets, forecasts, risks, resources, customer commitments, and cross-functional execution.
Strong written, verbal, facilitation, and customer-management skills.
Experience with project scheduling tools, LIMS or ERP systems, Microsoft Office, ISO/IEC 17025, Nadcap, and aerospace specifications.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in a technical field.
PMP or comparable project-management certification.
Proven experience with composite material qualification and design-allowables programs.
Experience supporting FAA certification testing, conformity readiness, or customer-witness activities.
Familiarity with CMH-17 and aerospace composite test methods, including ASTM and ISO methods.

Responsibilities

Serve as the primary project contact for customers; lead weekly status reviews, communicate technical and schedule issues and risks, manage expectations and scope changes, and coordinate customer witness activities.
Lead projects from contract review and kickoff through planning, scheduling, work-instruction creation, specimen organization, specimen preparation, conditioning, testing, data review, reporting, invoicing, and closeout.
Simplify highly complex projects as needed to make them executable in laboratory workflows, while maintaining organization and traceability for projects involving up to 10,000 samples.
Develop and maintain project schedules and integrated master schedules, milestones, forecasts, budgets, change-impact assessments, and recovery plans.
Coordinate approved FAA certification-program activities with customers, authorized FAA representatives or designees, and internal quality and technical personnel, including test-plan interfaces, conformity readiness, witness points, data packages, and final reporting.
Interpret statements of work, test plans, ASTM and ISO methods, CMH-17 guidance, customer specifications, and customer instructions to develop executable laboratory plans.
Determine staffing, equipment, fixtures, instrumentation, supplier, and procurement needs.
Manage capacity constraints, project risks, mitigations, contingencies, and escalations.
Execute projects within controlled requirements, including ISO/IEC 17025, Nadcap, applicable FAA requirements, customer approvals, configuration control, calibration status, measurement traceability, data integrity, and nonconformance processes.
Lead by influencing and mentoring engineers and project managers in communication, customer service, meeting leadership, status reporting, scheduling, budgeting, risk management, escalation, and customer management.