Junior Developer - Platform Integration Specialist

We are seeking a Technical Professional who will focus on support to develop software to help create the digital factory of the future, assist industry in optimizing their organizations, and supporting the energy needs of the public. The successful candidate must be a highly motivated, self‑starter who is comfortable working as part of a team. We’re looking for a proactive, collaborative engineer who thrives both independently and, in a team, with excellent written and verbal communication skills.

This position resides in the Research Application Development in the Secure and Digital Manufacturing Section, Manufacturing Science Division, Energy Science and Technology at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

You will work at the MDF to advance digital manufacturing technologies and to accelerate their deployment to industry and national scale applications. The MDF hosts a diverse set of advanced manufacturing systems - including powder bed, directed energy deposition, machining, polymer, and convergent manufacturing systems – used to produce critical components from advanced materials.

These systems are instrumented and connected through a unified digital thread platform that captures multimodal, high‑frequency data across the full manufacturing lifecycle, from process execution to post‑process characterization. This environment enables the creation of high‑fidelity digital twins and AI‑ready datasets that support real‑time monitoring, predictive modeling, and process optimization.

In this role, you will assist in development and deployment of advanced data management platform. You will contribute to the development of integrated data workflows across distributed systems. You will communicate with machine operators, researchers, project PIs and other stakeholders and contribute to high‑impact programs. This role offers the opportunity to work on diverse, high‑impact problems and to shape the future of intelligent manufacturing.

• Collaborate with researchers, engineers, and manufacturing technicians to digitize and standardize manufacturing workflows for integration into a data management platform.
• Develop workflow‑specific data entry forms, metadata schemas, validation rules, and user interfaces to support new research activities.
• Coordinate onboarding of new projects by configuring platform modules, developing new data entry forms, and enabling workflow‑specific functionalities.
• Provide technical support and user training, gather feedback and drive improvements to usability and adoption.
• Create and maintain documentation for digital workflows, onboarding procedures, user guides, and configuration standards.
• Participate in testing new platform features, performing quality assurance, and validating software releases before deployment.
• Partner with platform developers to implement new capabilities and continuously improve existing workflows.
• Champion data quality, consistency, and FAIR data practices across manufacturing and materials science projects.

• BS/BA in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Systems, Engineering, Data Science, or a related discipline
• Familiarity with web application development concepts and technologies including HTML, CSS, and Django.
• Ability to understand user requirements and translate them into practical software configurations.
• Strong troubleshooting and problem‑solving skills and ability to work effectively within a team environment.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work effectively with researchers, engineers, and software developers.
• Interest in scientific software development, data management, and advanced manufacturing technologies.

• Experience with the Django framework.
• Experience with Git and collaborative software development workflows.
• Experience with Linux command‑line environments.
• Experience configuring web applications or developing internal business applications.
• Experience providing technical support or working directly with end users.
• Familiarity with manufacturing techniques
• Familiarity with relational databases such as PostgreSQL.

• Visa sponsorship…