Materials Engineer (Metal 3D Printing)

Freeform is a stealth mode metal 3D printing startup founded on the belief that transforming the way things are made is essential to making the world a better place. Our advanced technology stack lies at the intersection of hardware, software, and data science, creating the foundation for the world’s first fully autonomous and scalable manufacturing system. Our core team hails from several of the world’s most innovative companies such as SpaceX, Virgin Hyperloop, and Blue Origin, and we have secured significant funding from several of Silicon Valley’s top venture capital firms.

As a Materials Engineer at Freeform, you will have the unique opportunity to establish the company’s M&P infrastructure, strategy, and best practices for our advanced metal 3D printing technology. We are looking for someone with solid fundamentals in materials engineering, an understanding of metals, and a keen interest in working on the cutting edge of additive manufacturing development. In this role, you will own materials engineering efforts from cradle to grave, including hands-on sample testing, analysis of findings, and strategic process improvements. If you want to make an impact at a rapidly growing company that’s revolutionizing metal additive manufacturing, we’d love to hear from you!

3D printing experience is not required to be successful here - rather we look for smart, motivated, collaborative individuals who love solving hard problems and creating amazing technology.

Responsibilities:

• Establish Freeform’s M&P best practices and materials testing infrastructure / strategy.
• Operate scanning equipment to measure and analyze material properties such as tensile strength, surface roughness, and alloy microstructure.
• Generate and track quality metrics of printed customer parts such as dimensional accuracy, defect distribution, and surface roughness.
• Organize data and present key findings.
• Establish processes and procedures for measuring and quantifying material quality.
• Work with process development team to tie key findings into improvement of upstream printing processes, including training our advanced machine learning models.
• Create automation for M&P procedures to take human out of the loop.
• Strategize continuous improvement plans to enhance system performance, reliability, and scalability. 

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in material science, materials engineering, metallurgy, or mechanical engineering.
• 2+ years of professional materials engineering experience (with at least one year in metals).
• Experience developing and optimizing metallurgical sample preparation techniques such as cutting, grinding, polishing, acid etching, and optical microscopy.

Preferred Skills and Experience:

• Master’s or PhD in in material science, materials engineering, metallurgy, or mechanical engineering highly preferred.
• 5+ years of materials engineering experience.
• Experience with metal additive manufacturing highly preferred.
• Experience with laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) processes.
• Experience in process development.
• Experience operating complex equipment.
• Familiarity with processing large datasets and statistical data analysis software such as R, JMP, or Minitab.
• Passion for improving the state of metal 3D printing.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Location:

• We are located in Hawthorne in a 35,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility featuring large open spaces for team collaboration, R&D, and production, as well as easy access to the 405, 105, and 110 freeways. Our facility is in the heart of LA’s vibrant emerging tech eco-system alongside many other high growth startups and enterprises.

Why Freeform?

• We have an inclusive and diverse culture that values collaboration, learning, and making deliberate data-driven decisions.
• We offer a competitive compensation package that includes significant equity in the company, as well as a full suite of additional benefits including premium health care (medical, dental, and vision) and life insurance, generous Paid Parental Leave and extended transition back to work for birthing parent, 401K, and PTO.
• Our work environment includes casual dress, flexible work hours, a fully stocked kitchenette, free parking, daily paid-for lunches, and regular catered team-building events.
• Freeform is an Equal Opportunity Employer that values diversity; employment with Freeform is governed on the basis of merit, 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.