WHAT DOES A MATERIALS ENGINEER DO?
Published: Feb 21, 2025 – The Materials Engineer provides technical expertise to address material quality and processing challenges, and utilizes industry standards and analytical methods to identify and mitigate failure modes. This position drives strategic initiatives in materials engineering, including resin substitution projects and fit-for-function analyses, to optimize cost, supply chain complexity, and material performance. The engineer also collaborates with suppliers, engineering, and production teams while advancing additive manufacturing technologies and contributing to research on metallic materials.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Materials Engineer
1. Materials Engineer Essential Functions
- Collaboration: Collaborate on process development and continuous improvement activities related to photo-luminescent material fabrication.
- Teamwork: Work with a cross-discipline team of engineers to research and develop new materials and processes needed for next-generation products.
- Material Testing: Design and execute material characterization test plans, and generate related reports.
- Equipment Operation: Maintain and operate fabrication and test equipment in a laboratory environment.
- Process Transfer: Support efforts to transfer the methods and processes of the proprietary material to Production.
- Engineering Design: Steel structure and piping engineering, drawings, and documentation of existing and new developments.
- Technical Support: Technical support through procurement, fabrication, assembly, and testing.
- Project Management: Be a part of the project organization, reporting to both the Engineering Lead for the specific project package and the Department Manager.
- Quality Assurance: Secure quality delivery according to relevant OneSubsea guidelines and project-specific rules and regulations.
- Strength Testing: Conduct print strength, stiffness, and strain trials.
- Process Improvement: Help develop new printing techniques to increase part strength and finish.
- Print Settings Optimization: Help develop optimal print settings, including print speed and temperature control.
- Sample Testing: Obtain samples and test print materials.
- Material Research: Research and report on new materials relevant to the work.
2. Materials Engineer Role Purpose
- Project Organization: Organise concrete trials by the construction program.
- Trial Management: Manage concrete trials on-site or at the batching plant as described in the Inspection and Test Plan (ITP) and the Works Inspection Request (WIR).
- Interface Management: Manage the interface between Site Teams, subcontractors, and concrete suppliers.
- Meeting Participation: Attend Construction meetings and Quality meetings.
- Inspection Participation: Attend pre-pour and post-pour inspections on site.
- Document Management: Manage the Materials Compliance Requests (MCR) in connection with site teams, ensuring timely completion, acceptance, and distribution of documents.
- Schedule Management: Manage the Plant and Materials Schedule and the MCR Dashboard including monthly submission to Tideway.
- Document Tracking: Maintain other critical document registers/trackers e.g. Concrete Mix Designs, Technical Notes, Technical data of concrete components.
- Quality Control: Manage concrete quality testing records with the laboratory manager and Quality team.
- Safety Promotion: Promote and maintain a positive safety culture on the project.
- Environmental Impact: Proactively take measures to eliminate/minimize potential environmental impacts.
- Work Quality: Be responsible for the quality of work.
- Continuous Improvement: Learn and continuous improvement Engineering/Planning.
- Milestone Understanding: Understand key milestones and priorities.
- Deadline Management: Work to the deadlines required by the manager, and follow project Quality procedures.
3. Materials Engineer Roles
- Product Support: Support current and future product development needs on a global basis.
- Customer Support: Support the ongoing needs of a broad internal customer base, including production, product engineering, suppliers, quality, and advanced product development.
- Innovation Implementation: Support the implementation of new and innovative materials and processes, and assess new technologies.
- Failure Analysis: Product/Process failure analysis/troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, and supporting implementation of corrective actions.
- Material Selection: Be responsible for materials and process selection, developing material specifications.
- Data Review: Review supplier data and maintain detailed documentation.
- Best Practices: Development, implementation, and maintenance of best practices.
- Failure Analysis: Analyzing the failure of a wide variety of products via field inspections, experimental testing, and engineering analysis.
- Investigation Planning: Developing investigation plans using a variety of analytical equipment.
- Prevention Strategies: Providing failure prevention strategies.
- Quality Improvement: Conducting manufacturing facility audits/evaluations to help improve quality/reduce reject rates.
- Design Review: Conducting design reviews on components and products.
4. Materials Engineer Details and Accountabilities
- Technical Support: Provide technical support for complex material quality or processing issues in manufacturing.
- Material Testing: Use ASTM, ISO, IEC, and/or UL material testing protocol and cause and effect analysis to identify material failure modes.
- Strategic Initiatives: Drive materials engineering strategic initiatives to create comprehensive, low mix/high volume cost-effective material portfolios.
- Project Leadership: Lead resin substitution projects to reduce supply complexity and minimize supply risk.
- Cost Analysis: Participate in fit-for-function analysis to drive lower-cost material substitutions.
- Material Specifications: Define and document material specifications that impact critical-to-quality (CTQ) product attributes.
- Product Development: Support material selection in New Product Development.
- Feasibility Studies: Assist in feasibility studies to drive material conversion excellence.
- Supplier Interaction: Interface with suppliers to understand industry trends in materials.
- Team Collaboration: Close contact with engineering and production teams, providing advice and synthesis about materials and processes.
- Process Identification: Identify key process parameters in link with the qualification and contribute to the Research and Technology roadmap about materials with the research ecosystem.
- Technology Development: Contribute to the development of technologies mainly based on additive manufacturing for metallic materials.
- Technological Watch: Realize a technological watch in the field of Metallic Materials science.
5. Materials Engineer Job Description
- Material Support: Recommend material to projects, and answer internal and external material engineering-related questions, such as material property comparison, material knowledge, and experience sharing.
- Benchmark Coordination: Support and coordination of benchmarks in cooperation with the Benchmark Coordinator and local requestors.
- Supplier Collaboration: Cooperation with local suppliers: new materials, new supplier validation.
- Manufacturing Support: Technical support for manufacturing and purchasing.
- Testing Coordination: Coordination of tests and analysis with internal and external laboratories.
- Program Preparation: Preparing test/investigation programs, and analysis of results.
- Competitor Research: Research competitors and develop benchmarks based on findings.
- Design Suggestions: Test hardware parts and make suggestions for material/design changes.
- Material Development: Lead the development of ceramic materials and processes to meet the manufacturing requirements of solid-state lithium-ion batteries.
- Experimentation: Design and conduct experiments to develop a powder-based production process including powder synthesis, powder milling, slurry formulation, spray dry processing, and particle size control by classification.
- Analytical Techniques: Employ various analytical techniques, such as ICP, XRD, TGA, SEM, EDX, and pycnometer, to characterize, understand, and improve the powders' performance.
- Process Formulation: Contribute to developing process formulations for battery fabrication including slurries, pastes, and inks.
- Technical Liaison: Act as a technical liaison and interact with external manufacturers.
- Process Improvement: Contribute proactively to the development of more efficient systems/processes.