ENGINEER - RESEARCH ENGINEER - Computational Materials Integrity - Southwest Research Institute

ENGINEER - RESEARCH ENGINEER - Computational Materials Integrity

Who We Are:

We develop and apply advanced computational methods to investigate the performance of a variety of engineering materials that are used in a wide range of applications, especially estimating the life and reliability of high-consequence engineering systems.

Objectives of this Role:

• Perform fundamental and applied research through the development of advanced material and structural reliability assessments.
• Participate in individual and collaborative research projects that deal with applications in aerospace, space, engine, military, and manufacturing sectors.
• Apply principles in advanced engineering mechanics, materials science, uncertainty quantification, and applied mathematics to solve unique problems.
• Learn business development skills to support contract research programs.
• Interact with commercial and government clients.

Daily and Monthly Responsibilities:

• Build workflows that establish metallic structure-to-property relationships (e.g., fatigue crack growth rates) from EBSD data, crystal plasticity simulations, micromechanics, and other methods.
• Develop tools and solve problems at the intersection of mechanics and materials science using physics-based numerical techniques and bespoke AI/ML/ICME approaches.
• Develop, test, implement, and integrate numerical algorithms for structural integrity, life prediction, and uncertainty quantification.
• Ensure accuracy, precision, and consistency of predictions implemented within high-criticality software.
• Write reports to document results and to provide guidance.
• Communicate effectively with colleagues, collaborators, and customers.
• Prepare proposals, reports, and technical papers.
• Manage tasks and projects to completion within scope, budget, and schedule constraints within a team environment.

Requirements:

• Requires a Masters or a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science Engineering, Theoretical and Applied Engineering Mechanics, Structural Engineering, or similar engineering degree.
• 0-5 years: Must have experience and/or training in fatigue, finite element analysis, continuum mechanics, probabilistic methods, materials science, automation, and computer science.
• 0-5 years: Must have experience solving problems related to structural integrity at the component scale. Experience with ABAQUS, Fortran, Python, and formal software development processes is desirable.
• 0-5 years: Must have experience with recent computational integrity techniques in materials science including crystal plasticity, fatigue crack growth mechanisms, representative volume element reconstruction, and physics informed AI/ML.
• 0-5 years: Experience with recent advances is computational mechanics targeted towards structural applications is desirable, including contact algorithms, constitutive modeling, multi-physics, meshing algorithms, enriched methods, and automatic crack growth.
• A valid/clear driver's license is required.