Materials Engineer (Metal 3D Printing)

Freeform builds AI-native manufacturing systems that unify software, hardware, and physics to produce industrial-scale parts at the speed of human ideation. By treating manufacturing as a single integrated system, we unlock a new era of innovation where complex hardware is designed, built, and scaled without limits.

As a Senior 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!

Success here doesn't hinge on 3D printing experience. Instead, we seek intelligent, motivated, and collaborative engineers who thrive on solving challenging problems and creating groundbreaking technology!

Responsibilities:

• Establish Freeform's M&P best practices, and materials testing infrastructure and strategy
• Operate equipment to measure material properties such as tensile strength, surface roughness, and microstructure
• Generate and track quality metrics of printed customer parts such as dimensional accuracy, defect distribution, and surface roughness
• Organize, analyze and interpret data and present key findings
• Work with process development team to tie key materials findings into improvement of upstream printing processes, including training our advanced machine learning models
• Establish and optimize processes and procedures for measuring and quantifying material quality
• 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:

• Master's degree in Materials Science, Materials Engineering, Metallurgy, or Mechanical Engineering with a minimum of 2 years of hands-on professional experience in metals characterization, processing, or design; or a PhD in one of these disciplines
• Experience developing and optimizing metallurgical sample preparation techniques such as cutting, grinding, polishing, acid etching, and optical microscopy

Nice to Have:

• 5+ years of materials engineering experience
• Experience with development of new alloys
• Experience with metal additive manufacturing highly preferred
• Experience with laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) processes
• Experience in process development
• Experience operating complex materials equipment (SEM, Instron, etc.)
• 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

Location:

• Based in Hawthorne, our vertically integrated facility brings technology development, R&D, and production together under one roof. We operate at the center of LA's deep tech ecosystem, surrounded by some of the most ambitious hardware innovation happening anywhere in the country.

What We Offer:

• We have an inclusive and diverse culture that values collaboration, learning, and making deliberate data-driven decisions.
• We offer a unique opportunity to be an early and integral member of a rapidly growing company that is scaling a world-changing technology.
• Benefits
  • Significant stock option packages
  • 100% employer-paid Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance (premium PPO and HMO options)
  • Life insurance
  • Traditional and Roth 401(k)
  • Relocation assistance provided
  • Paid vacation, sick leave, and company holidays
  • Generous Paid Parental Leave and extended transition back to work for the birthing parent
  • Free daily catered lunch and dinner, and fully stocked kitchenette
  • Casual dress, flexible work hours, and regular catered team building events
• Compensation
  • As a growing company, the salary range is intentionally wide as we determine the most appropriate package for each individual taking into consideration years of experience, educational background, and unique skills and abilities as demonstrated throughout the interview process. Our intent is to offer a salary that is commensurate for the company's current stage of development and allows the employee to grow and develop within a role.
  • In addition to the significant stock option package, the estimated salary range for this role is $100,000-$125,000, inclusive of all levels/seniority within this discipline.
• 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.