Staff Additive Manufacturing Engineer

Velo3D•Fremont, CA

1d•$165,000 - $188,000

About The Position

This role provides technical leadership for end-to-end additive manufacturing execution, ensuring complex customer hardware meets quality, dimensional, and delivery requirements. The position involves establishing and improving production strategies for metal additive manufacturing workflows, including post-processing, heat treatment, depowdering, EDM, scaling, and inspection processes. The engineer will serve as a technical authority for additive manufacturing process development, troubleshooting, and optimization across production programs. Key responsibilities include leading advanced post-build quality assessments, developing and optimizing post-processing strategies (furnace thermal cycles, depowdering, wire EDM), defining and advancing metrology and dimensional control strategies, and creating material- and condition-specific shrink-rate databases. The role also involves developing advanced compensation methodologies, providing Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) leadership, investigating failure modes, driving cross-functional alignment, leading continuous improvement initiatives, and supporting customer-facing technical discussions.

Requirements

U.S. Citizenship required due to the nature of government contract work and associated security requirements.
12+ years of hands-on experience in metal additive manufacturing, advanced manufacturing, production engineering, or related technical fields.
Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Materials Science, or a related technical discipline.
Deep technical expertise in metal additive manufacturing processes, including production-scale powder bed fusion and downstream manufacturing operations.
Strong understanding of GD&T, dimensional inspection methods, scan-based metrology, and translating measurement data into process improvements and compensation strategies.
Demonstrated experience leading complex continuous improvement initiatives in a production environment, including problem definition, experimentation, data analysis, implementation, and standardization.
Proven ability to solve complex manufacturing challenges through engineering analysis, experimentation, and cross-functional collaboration.
Experience developing and scaling manufacturing processes for high-value, low-volume, or mission-critical hardware.
Ability to operate effectively on the manufacturing floor while also influencing long-term technical strategy and operational improvements.
Excellent communication, leadership, and collaboration skills with the ability to align engineering, operations, quality, program management, and executive leadership.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting aerospace, defense, space, or other highly regulated industries is preferred.
Experience with government contract environments, export-controlled hardware, or regulated manufacturing standards is preferred.

Responsibilities

Provide technical leadership for end-to-end additive manufacturing execution, from build completion through final shipment, ensuring complex customer hardware meets quality, dimensional, and delivery requirements.
Establish and improve production strategies for metal additive manufacturing workflows, including post-processing, heat treatment, depowdering, EDM, scaling, and inspection processes.
Serve as a recognized technical authority for additive manufacturing process development, troubleshooting, and optimization across production programs.
Lead advanced post-build quality assessments by evaluating printed hardware, reviewing process data, identifying risks, and driving corrective actions to improve first-pass yield and process capability.
Develop and optimize post-processing strategies, including furnace thermal cycles (stress relief, Sol-Age), Solukon depowdering processes, and wire EDM operations.
Own the technical strategy for wire EDM processing of additive builds by developing advanced cutting approaches based on geometry, material behavior, surface area, and production requirements. Lead structured experimentation to establish capability and drive continuous improvement.
Provide technical leadership for Solukon and furnace operations by developing, validating, and standardizing production recipes that maximize safety, consistency, and process performance.
Define and advance metrology and dimensional control strategies by developing scan-based inspection methodologies, analyzing deviation trends, and translating dimensional data into actionable process improvements.
Create and maintain material- and condition-specific shrink-rate databases to improve scaling strategies, dimensional accuracy, and first-build success rates.
Develop advanced compensation methodologies, including asymmetric scaling approaches based on geometry, build height, distortion behavior, and historical manufacturing data.
Provide Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) leadership by influencing part design, support strategies, build orientation, and process routes for high-risk and first-article hardware.
Lead investigations into complex additive manufacturing failure modes, including cracking, distortion, dimensional variation, and process instability. Translate findings into design guidelines, manufacturing standards, and process improvements.
Drive cross-functional alignment between engineering, operations, quality, EDM technicians, furnace operators, depowdering personnel, and other manufacturing stakeholders to improve production flow and eliminate process gaps.
Lead strategic continuous improvement initiatives focused on manufacturing scalability, yield improvement, cycle time reduction, and process robustness using structured problem-solving methodologies and data-driven experimentation.
Provide technical leadership for NCR investigations, root cause analyses, and corrective/preventive actions while ensuring lessons learned are incorporated into designs, build files, specifications, and production standards.
Mentor and provide technical guidance to engineers and technicians, helping build organizational capability in additive manufacturing processes and production excellence.
Partner with manufacturing leadership to identify and prioritize high-impact improvement opportunities aligned with plant and business objectives.
Support customer-facing technical discussions, program reviews, and demonstrations that showcase Velo3D’s advanced additive manufacturing capabilities.