R&T Engineer, Materials & Processing

Job Title

This role supports research and technology projects that help advance AEC's composite manufacturing capabilities.

Job Responsibilities:

In performing their respective tasks and duties, all employees are expected to adhere to Albany's current values:
Albany Wins Together, Count on Each Other, Own Your Actions, Care About Each Other, and Share Your Enthusiasm. Safety must always come first; we never compromise on safety for the sake of achieving another objective. Employees are also responsible for the health and safety of themselves and each other.

• Identify and lead initiatives to enable and sustain world class technical competency and proficiency of the Research and Development organization as needed to meet company goals.
• Identify advanced technologies and applications for potential business development. Stay abreast of industry trends in technology development and best practices, participate in relevant industry events.
• Contribute tactical effort to specific programs as required. Significant effort is expected for key strategic programs such as:
• Identify and evaluate alternate materials for use in 3D woven/molded composite structures.
• Identify manufacturing processes that will complement those currently in use at AEC or will expand the range of components which can be fabricated at AEC.
• Establish plans for maturing the technologies identified.
• Provide mentoring and technical leadership; assist in the assessment of technical competencies of the organization, identify skills and training needs and assist in developing and executing plans to address them.
• Collaborate and lead as necessary the design verification and validation process of new products, including material and component testing.
• Establish material characterization and qualification plans in line with certification agencies expectations (e.g., FAA,EASA).
• Design, source, and procure equipment and tooling needed to support new composite parts and manufacturing processes.
• Lead and/or support internally funded, customer funded, and capital expenditure projects from idea phase (project creation) through completion. Must have ability to lead small working team on dedicated project.
• Evaluate the results of computational models and experiments to assess the performance of processes, materials and structures.
• Develop quotations, cost models, and trade studies in support of various business development activities.
• Participate in key customer visits, program team meetings, and activities related to engineering/technical elements of various programs.

Supervisory Responsibility:
No

Qualifications/Characteristics:

• Bachelor's degree in materials, mechanical, civil, aerospace engineering, or a related field. Advanced degree a plus.
• 2-5 years in aerospace, composites, materials engineering, or related fields preferred.
• Exposure to composite materials, manufacturing processes, or product development
• Exposure to Ceramic Matrix Composites (CMC) and related processing methods is a plus.
• High proficiency and demonstrated technical skills related to the design, development, and manufacturing of some or all of the following composite structures and processes:
  Aerospace primary and secondary composite structures and related manufacturing and processing techniques (i.e. weaving, complex textile preforms, dry or prepreg layup, RTM, VARTM, press molding, autoclave and out-of-autoclave processing, bonding, finishing, assembly).
• Exposure to software (e.g. CAD with Solid Works or Catia, Finite Element Analysis with Abaqus, LS-Dyna, etc., RTM process modeling with PAM-RTM, LIMS, etc., Draping analysis with Fiber Sim, PAM-FORM, etc.).
• Strong understanding of mechanics and strength of materials.
• Familiarity with methods and analysis of material characterization methods and analysis (i.e. DSC, DMA, rheology, etc.), destructive testing (coupons, sample preparation, component testing), and non-destructive composite test methods (μCT scanning, Ultrasonic, laser scanning, etc.)
• Familiarity with new product introduction (NPI) standards, aerospace certification methods, and the development of design allowables.
• Team and people skills, including interpersonal skills that are required to…