System One is looking to hire a highly motivated Principal Materials Engineer to support the engineering efforts of our client’s Materials Development & Qualification team. This is a 12 month, remote contract opportunity.
This role will work as part of a high functioning team of engineers focused on development and qualification for next generation material and components for sodium cooled fast reactors. You will be responsible for corrosion and mechanical property testing supporting the performance requirements of advanced reactor projects. Your role will also include R&D of advanced materials and fabrication technologies.

Responsibilities
• Interface with various project teams to ensure materials development and testing efforts meet programmatic objectives.
• Develop test requirements, plans, specifications, and procedures for testing unique materials in a liquid sodium metal environment.
• Provide material selection guidance for reactor development programs.
• Oversee test programs for material performance and degradation (e.g., physical property measurement, ion and neutron irradiation, mechanical testing, corrosion, and tribology)
• Lead large-scale cooperative projects for materials testing and development with external collaborators, partners, and suppliers – including national laboratories.
• Maintain project schedule and ensure timely delivery of results.
• Conduct testing and material characterization in a laboratory environment
• Provide materials engineering support for the procurement of engineered components and systems.
• Lead the technical development of suppliers to increase the technology readiness level of key components.
• External procurements of materials, equipment, and testing services, including authoring procurement requisitions, and managing supplier performance to plan.
• Perform scientific analysis on test data and generate technical reports to document new knowledge related to materials performance and behavior, reactor design, and materials qualification.

Key Qualifications and Skills
• Bachelor’s degree with minimum 5 years of related experience; or a master’s degree and 3 years of related experience; or a PhD and 1 year of related experience. A degree in Materials Science/Engineering, Chemistry/Chemical Engineering or a related technical discipline is required.
• Prior experience in materials development, testing, and characterization for nuclear research or industry applications is desired but not required.
• Extensive knowledge of aqueous and non-aqueous corrosion and environmentally assisted degradation mechanisms (e.g. stress corrosion cracking, environmentally assisted fatigue, creep and creep fatigue, thermal aging, etc.) is required.
• A thorough understanding of metallurgy including fabrication and thermomechanical processing of ferrous (e.g., ferritic-martensitic steels) and nonferrous (e.g., nickel-base) alloys is preferred
• Knowledge of materials aging mechanisms common to nuclear power reactors and other extreme operating environments is highly desired.
• Experience and understanding of neutron irradiation effects on metals is desired.
• Proficiency in writing and producing technical documentation including test reports and studies.
• Experience cooperating with external project partners/collaborators and suppliers for technical scopes of work is highly desired.
• Proficiency in experimental techniques for materials characterization and analysis is required.
• Experience working to quality standards such as ASME NQA-1 is preferred.
• Ability to work with minimum direction to solve challenging problems.