Senior Composite Project Engineer

Element Materials Technology • Duarte, CA

2d • $90,000 - $130,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Element Los Angeles is hiring 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. Working with customers and internal engineering, laboratory operations, quality, and commercial teams, the engineer serves as the liaison between the laboratory and customers, translating customer test plans into laboratory workflows while owning schedules, resources, risk, communication, and project outcomes. Projects may involve multiple material batches, conditioning environments, subcontractors, and as many as 10,000 specimens.

The engineer leads projects from contract review and kickoff through planning, scheduling, work-instruction creation, specimen preparation and organization, conditioning, testing, data review, reporting, invoicing, and closeout. The role also coordinates approved FAA certification-program activities, manages project schedules and financial controls, translates technical requirements into executable laboratory plans, and ensures work follows applicable quality and compliance requirements. There are no direct-report responsibilities; the engineer leads through influence and mentors engineers and project managers.

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, expectation management, 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 and communicate technical and schedule issues, risks, scope changes, and customer-witness activities.
• Lead projects from contract review and kickoff through planning, scheduling, work-instruction creation, specimen organization and preparation, conditioning, testing, data review, reporting, invoicing, and closeout.
• Simplify highly complex projects as needed to enable laboratory execution and maintain organization and traceability for projects involving up to 10,000 samples.
• Develop and maintain project schedules and integrated master schedules, milestones, forecasts, budgets, change impacts, 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, risks, mitigations, contingencies, and escalations.
• Execute projects in accordance with controlled requirements, including ISO/IEC 17025, Nadcap, applicable FAA requirements, customer approvals, configuration control, calibration status, measurement traceability, data integrity, and nonconformance processes.
• Influence and mentor engineers and project managers in customer service, communication, meeting leadership, status reporting, scheduling, budgeting, risk management, escalation, and customer management.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior