Sr. Manager Propellant Engineering

ARC Automotive•Knoxville, TN

26d•Onsite

About The Position

This is a technical leadership position responsible for managing the ARC propellant team. The team is responsible for propellant formulation development, process development, and propellant operations support including development of energetic material and chemical raw ingredients suppliers. The propellant team also provides general chemical expertise in support of production operations and general company issues.

Requirements

B.S., M.S. or PhD. in chemistry with a minimum of thirteen (13) years' experience in propellant chemistry with at least 3 years’ experience in a supervisory role.
Experience in energetic materials product/process development from concept through production.
Experience analyzing data based on statistical methods and a strong working knowledge of experimental analytical methods required.
Familiar with DOD energetic material safety standards as well as ATF and USDOT regulations for energetic material storage and transportation.

Responsibilities

Provide technical and managerial leadership in the planning, execution and delivery of propellant related projects. These projects include formulating propellants and gas generating materials (fuel, oxidizer, binder, etc.) based on the applications requirements (gas output, flame temperature, autoignition temperature, or other characteristics) and developing the associated processes- from lab scale through pilot scale to full scale production.
Work closely with other company technical staff to understand system level requirements and apply to energetic material performance.
Allocate department resources in support of on-going production programs as well as development projects.
Manage and mentor department personnel including recruiting, personnel development, training and performance reviews.
Manage propellant laboratory operations in the areas of materials and process development, energetic materials testing, and the development of analytical methods and procedures.
Provide technical presentations to the company executive staff as well as Tier One and OEM customers.
Lead benchmarking efforts on competitor’s products.
Provide department technical leadership and expertise on other matters such as: developing appropriate acceptance procedures, specifications, and test methods with suppliers, developing procedures, specifications, methods and test plans (analytical, hazards, compatibility, etc.) in support of material validations and discrepancy analyses, supporting product investigations and the preparation of formal technical reports, evaluation of potential energetic material suppliers, evaluating and completing trade studies on materials processing equipment including supporting propellant operations capital projects, supporting lab and production scale process hazards analysis (PHA), maintaining computer ballistic models for existing products as well as developing models for new products.
Develop and maintain corporate chemical information for Safety Data Sheets (SDS) and other similar documents.
Enhance the new product development pipeline.
Lead safety-first culture.
Incident prevention and risk mitigation ownership.
Performs other job-related duties as assigned.