Senior Materials & Process Engineer

About Castelion

Castelion is bringing a new approach to defense development and production: one that focuses on short, iterative design cycles, rapid testing in development, and modern commercial manufacturing strategies for production 're designing, building, and testing next generation long range strike weapons systems to give America and its Allies a definitive edge and deter future conflicts.

Castelion is growing our Engineering team to support the development of high-performance materials for hypersonic flight. The ideal candidate will have a comprehensive understanding of materials engineering, with a focus on data‑driven process development and optimization.

In this role you will have the opportunity to work on a wide range of complex and technically challenging tasks including process development for high‑temperature composite materials, and characterization and analysis for different material systems in relevant operational environments. This scope includes support to the manufacturing process development for production of high‑performance TPS materials and executing material test campaigns to validate new materials and process changes.

This role requires strong problem‑solving skills and the ability to collaborate effectively across the materials, manufacturing, and vehicle engineering teams.

• Drive high-performance material processing by applying data‑driven methods to mature fabrication processes, improve material performance and consistency, expand capacity, and reduce lead times.
• Conduct advanced materials characterization to validate process improvements and qualify material performance.
• Develop and maintain material specifications, process documentation, and quality‑assurance standards to ensure compliance with aerospace industry requirements and best practices.
• Support design and vehicle integration activities of new material systems and flight components.

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Materials Science, Ceramic Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or related field.
• Experience: New Grad ~ 3 years in a materials engineering process and characterization role, preferably within the aerospace/automotive/energy industry.
• Knowledge: Strong experience using first principles engineering approach to materials testing and characterization.

• Experience with material characterization techniques (OM, SEM, EDS, XRD, thermal conductivity, DSC/TGA, dilatometry, thermal shock, high-temperature mechanical testing, ablation testing).
• Proficient with CAD software packages for design and engineering applications.
• Knowledge of composite processing methods, resin/slurry infiltration methods, thermal cure processes, and CMC densification methods (PIP, MI, CVI).
• Familiarity with high-temperature vacuum furnace processes.
• Knowledge of CVD.

• Bias to Action and Creative Problem Solving. Desire and experience questioning assumptions in ways that lead to breakthrough ideas that are ultimately implemented. Successfully bring in applicable processes/concepts/materials from other industries to achieve efficiency gains. Ability to personally resolve minor issues in development without requiring significant support.
• High Commitment, High Initiative. A successful candidate will have a genuine passion for Castelion's mission and consistently look for ways to contribute to the company's technical goals and prevent hardware blockers. Ability to work in a fast paced, autonomously driven, and demanding atmosphere. Strong sense of accountability and integrity.
• Clear Communicator. Proactively communicates blockers. Trusted in previous roles to be voice of company with regulators, suppliers, gate keepers and customers. Capable of tactfully managing relationships with stakeholders to achieve company-desired outcomes without compromising relationships. Emails, IMs and verbal interactions are logical, drive clarity, and detailed enough to eliminate ambiguity.

• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Employment with Castelion is governed on the basis of competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

All employees are granted long-term stock incentives as part of their employment  employees receive access to comprehensive medical, vision, and dental insurance, and the company offers four weeks of paid time off per year.