Materials and Process Engineer

Description About ThermAvant Technologies, LLC ThermAvant Technologies, LLC designs and manufactures high-performance custom thermal management solutions, including advanced heat sinks and heat spreaders utilizing Oscillating Heat Pipe (OHP) technology. Our solutions serve terrestrial and aerospace applications. ThermAvant operates an AS9100D/ISO9001-certified facility in Columbia, Missouri.

Why Join ThermAvant? Our team values innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement. We offer:

• Competitive pay based on experience.
• 100% company-paid health, dental, and vision insurance.
• Additional benefits including 401(k) paid time off, and career development opportunities.
• A collaborative and innovative work environment where your contributions make a difference.

Position Overview We are seeking a proactive Materials and Process Engineer to join our dynamic team. The M&P Engineer will support the development, qualification, manufacturing, and continuous improvement of materials and manufacturing for aerospace components and assemblies. The engineer will work closely with mechanical engineering, manufacturing, quality, suppliers, and operations to ensure materials and processes meet stringent aerospace performance, reliability, quality, and regulatory requirements.

The ideal candidate has strong knowledge of aerospace materials and manufacturing processes, excellent problem-solving skills, and experience translating engineering requirements into robust, repeatable production processes.

Key Responsibilities

• Select, evaluate, and qualify materials for aerospace structures, components, and assemblies.
• Develop, validate, and improve manufacturing processes including machining, forming, heat treatment, welding, brazing, bonding, composites, coatings, and surface treatments.
• Establish and maintain material and process specifications, standards, work instructions, and process-control requirements.
• Support new product introduction (NPI), production ramp-up, and manufacturing readiness activities.
• Investigate material and process-related defects, nonconformances, and production issues using structured root-cause analysis.
• Develop corrective and preventive actions and verify their effectiveness.
• Partner with Mechanical Engineering to assess material compatibility, manufacturability, durability, and performance.
• Support qualification and certification of new materials, suppliers, processes, and equipment.
• Analyze material and process data to identify trends, improve capability, and reduce scrap and rework.
• Participate in failure analysis, testing, metallurgical evaluation, and laboratory investigations.
• Support supplier development, audits, and resolution of supplier material/process issues.
• Prepare engineering reports, technical specifications, qualification documentation, and process documentation.
• Ensure compliance with applicable aerospace standards, customer requirements, and regulatory requirements.
• Support configuration management and engineering change activities related to materials and processes.
• Drive continuous-improvement initiatives involving cost reduction, quality improvement, cycle-time reduction, and process robustness.
• Provide technical support to manufacturing personnel and troubleshoot complex production problems.

Requirements Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science, Materials Engineering, Metallurgy, or a related field.
• Experience with composite materials and manufacturing processes.
• Knowledge of heat treatment, surface treatment, coatings, corrosion, fatigue, fracture, and material characterization.
• Experience with welding, brazing, soldering, adhesive bonding, or other joining processes.
• Familiarity with AS9100, FAA requirements, and aerospace material/process specifications.
• Experience with statistical process control (SPC), design of experiments (DOE), and process capability analysis.
• Familiarity with non-destructive testing (NDT) methods and metallographic analysis.
• Experience working with aerospace OEM, customer, or regulatory qualification requirements.