Composite Engineering Specialist

Company Overview

Luna Labs USA is a leading defense contractor in Central Virginia, and a high throughput innovation engine for the aerospace, defense, and healthcare industries. Our diverse capabilities in materials, biotech, and engineered systems allow us to collaborate to address unique and complex problems faced by our customers. We partner with universities, government labs, and the best companies in the world to explore technological feasibility of new ideas, align technologies with customer needs, and generate solutions. Working with a robust global network of manufacturers, suppliers, licensees, and distributors, Luna Labs develops everything from small-scale prototypes to market-ready products.

Job Summary

This Polymer Composite engineering position leads and conducts research and development in the area of composite fabrication, novel resin development, and testing / validation. Current areas of composite development in the Materials group include aerospace composites repair, automated fabrication, additive manufacturing, and structural damage modeling.

The ideal candidate will contribute to program management, tasking, staff mentoring, budgeting, and proposal writing. The candidate will have a background in these areas and be willing to develop new skills by participating in technology development, new idea generation, and project design/execution. The candidate will perform general technical assistance on a variety of currently funded materials programs and will be expected to conduct exploratory research and development efforts to help establish commercially viable products.

Duties and Major Responsibilities:

• Lead project management for one or more technical projects including experimental design, problem-solving, data interpretation, report writing, budgeting and proposal preparation
• Perform in-lab, hands-on experiments and procedures to develop new materials-based technologies
• Identify new materials-based technologies to meet significant customer needs and secure funding opportunities to support technology development
• Contribute to the proposal writing process for funding generation
• Assist new technology transition into product concepts, prototype design, and commercialization
• Promote a safe, productive, organized, and clean work environment

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in Materials Science, Polymer Science/Engineering, or BS with >5 years experience in Project Management
• Related expertise in one or more active areas of the Materials group: fiber-reinforced polymer composites, polymer chemistry/engineering
• Experience with the development of additive manufacturing tools for 3D printing of polymer / polymer composites is highly desired
• Experience in laboratory research and program management
• Communicate well with customers and colleagues through reports, presentations, emails, and phone calls.
• Excellent interpersonal, organizational, and problem-solving skills
• Due to government contracting regulations, U.S. Citizenship is a firm requirement