Mechanical Engineer - SPP and Advanced Manufacturing

Overview

At PNNL,our core capabilities are dividedamongmajor departments that werefer to as Directorates within the Lab,focused on a specific area of scientific research orother function, with its own leadership teamand dedicated budget.

Our Science & Technologydirectoratesinclude National Security,Earthand Biological Sciences, Physical and Computational Sciences, and Energy and Environment. In addition, we have an Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory,a Department of Energy, Office of Science user facility housed on the PNNL campus.

The Energy and Environment Directoratedeliversscience and technology solutions for the nation’s biggest energy and environmental challenges. Our more than 1,700 staff support the Department of Energy (DOE), delivering on key DOE mission areas including: modernizing our nation’s power grid to maintain a reliable, affordable, secure, and resilient electricity delivery infrastructure; research, development, validation, and effective utilization of renewable energy and efficiency technologies that improve the affordability, reliability, resiliency, and security of the American energy system;

and resolving complex issues in nuclear science, energy, and environmental management.

The Energy Processes and Materials Division, part of the Energy and Environment Directorate, creates and delivers real world solutions that support the Department of Energy’s goals for national energy security. We deliver new technologies that connect fundamental science to applications in areas such as energy storage, advanced materials manufacturing, applied catalysis, advanced separations, biomass conversions, carbon capture and utilization, and hydrogen production and storage.

We employ a systems perspective that includes discovery, technology development, and scale-up as well as economic, regulatory, and market acceptance issues necessary for successful technology commercialization.

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Applied Materials and Manufacturing group is seeking an outstanding researcher/engineer with expertise in solid-phase processing (SPP) to join a world-class, interdisciplinary research program advancing next-generation metals manufacturing for a broad range of energy, defense, and industrial applications. PNNL's research focuses on understanding the fundamental physics of microstructural evolution in materials subjected to high-strain and high-shear processing conditions and translating those discoveries into scalable manufacturing technologies that produce high-performance materials and components.

This is a highly hands-on position supporting the development of advanced manufacturing technologies including friction stir welding, friction stir processing, friction stir consolidation, shear-assisted processing and extrusion (ShAPE), friction extrusion, and cold spray. The successful candidate will collaborate with materials scientists, mechanical engineers, manufacturing researchers, and industrial partners to develop innovative processing solutions while advancing the understanding of processing-structure-property relationships across a variety of metallic materials and manufacturing platforms.

The successful candidate will:

• Work directly with advanced solid-phase processing equipment, tooling, robotics, automation systems, and materials characterization techniques.
• Design, develop, and optimize manufacturing equipment, tooling, fixtures, and processing approaches for research and industrial applications.
• Support design-build-test activities, including adaptation of tooling and systems for robotic manufacturing platforms and prototype equipment.
• Investigate relationships between processing conditions, microstructure evolution, and material performance through experimentation and characterization.
• Develop material- and application-specific processing parameters, workflows, and manufacturing protocols.
• Apply principles of physical metallurgy and materials science to integrate machine development with process optimization across multiple manufacturing technologies.
• Coordinate fabrication activities with machinists, engineers, and technical staff.
• Develop…