Staff Materials Engineer - Metallurgical Engineering

Commonwealth Fusion Systems•Devens, MA

20h•Onsite

About The Position

Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) is seeking a Staff Materials Engineer with expertise in metals and alloys to join their Materials Department. This department supports design engineers, supply chain, and manufacturing by selecting, defining, validating, and developing materials and processes for fusion power deployment. The role is crucial for the development of SPARC and the ARC fusion power plant, addressing unique materials challenges such as neutron fluxes, high heat loads, molten salt coolant systems, and high cryogenic mechanical loads. The ideal candidate will have experience in both R&D and production environments.

Requirements

Master’s degree with post-graduate experience in metallurgy, materials science, or a related discipline. Depending on experience and qualification, a bachelor’s degree will also be considered.
Minimum of 10+ years experience.
Experience with large-scale metal production processes, such as casting, forging, rolling, and drawing, and/or large-scale joining processes, such as soldering.
Experience collaborating and communicating effectively with technical teams at vendors and suppliers.
Familiarity with scaling metal and alloy design and development from R&D to full-scale products.
Strong understanding of process–structure–properties–performance relationships in materials.
Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to approach new and under-defined problems with creativity.
Experience with agile project management and effective task execution.
Ability to work effectively in a multidisciplinary team of engineers, scientists, technical staff, and other stakeholders.
Ability to operate effectively within a flexible, service-oriented engineering organization.
Perform activities such as typing and sitting for extended periods of time.
Dedication to safety to mitigate industrial hazards that may include heat, cold, noise, fumes, strong magnets, lead (Pb), high voltage, and cryogenics.
Willingness to travel or work required nights/weekends/on-call occasionally. Travel less than 10%.

Nice To Haves

Knowledge of materials behavior in cryogenic and high-temperature applications, and the effects of nuclear and plasma environments is a plus.
Demonstrated success in delivering new alloys or materials processes from design and development through at-scale implementation.
Experience authoring materials standards and specifications.
Experience communicating materials design and development approaches, results, and performance metrics to both technical and executive leadership.
Demonstrated ability to make and justify materials and engineering decisions in fast-paced development and production environments.
Demonstrated ability to take under-defined problems and drive them to completion.

Responsibilities

Translate component and system performance requirements and failure modes into verifiable critical material property requirements under manufacturing-relevant conditions, and define appropriate test methods to measure and validate those properties.
Identify materials and processes that enable the high-volume manufacturing of structures and systems under demanding operating conditions, with a focus on manufacturability, scalability, and cost consciousness.
Select and interpret applicable international materials standards and specifications, and author materials specifications for fusion-specific applications.
Serve as a technical lead for materials development projects when commercially available materials do not meet application requirements.
Collaborate with design, supply chain, and manufacturing engineers to select, approve, and qualify materials and processing methods.
Provide on-demand subject matter expertise for production root cause analyses and corrective action plans involving raw or as-fabricated materials.
Review, interpret, and report materials property data in version-controlled databases for engineering use.