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Salary: USD 135,000 - 250,000 / annual
Hadrian is building autonomous factories to reindustrialize America by combining AI, advanced software, robotics, and full-stack manufacturing to help aerospace and defense companies build mission-critical systems up to 10x faster and at lower cost. Following a $1.37B Series D at $7.87B valuation, the company is rapidly expanding manufacturing capabilities across welding, casting, forging, electronics, additive manufacturing, and more.
As an Additive Manufacturing Engineer focused on Directed Energy Deposition (DED), you will serve as a technical bridge between customer requirements and production-ready DED manufacturing solutions. This is a hands-on, customer-facing role at the intersection of applications engineering, manufacturing execution, and process development.
Key responsibilities include:
- Supporting technical engagement with customers to gather requirements and translate program needs into actionable manufacturing plans aligned with feasible DED solutions
- Evaluating part and program fit for DED, identifying technical risks, and supporting new application development and manufacturing planning
- Providing Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) guidance specific to DED, including deposition strategy, feature design, heat input considerations, and distortion risk
- Defining and optimizing manufacturing workflows across design, deposition, post-processing, inspection, and certification
- Partnering with internal teams to develop, mature, and industrialize DED capabilities, including equipment readiness and process parameter refinement
- Driving improvements in DED platform robustness and repeatability based on machine behavior, deposition quality, and production performance
- Coordinating materials and quality integration, including weldability evaluation, heat input effects, residual stress, and mechanical performance
- Supporting qualification planning, validation builds, NDT strategy, and first article activities required for customer approval
- Maintaining engineering documentation, process records, work instructions, and traceability artifacts
- Investigating machine, process, and part quality issues using structured root cause analysis
- Collaborating across Additive Manufacturing, Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Materials, Supply Chain, and Operations teams
- Presenting technical recommendations, trade studies, and risk assessments to internal stakeholders and customers
- Travel up to 15-20% primarily within the U.S.
Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Materials, Aerospace, Manufacturing, Welding, or related field)
- 4+ years of experience in additive manufacturing, manufacturing engineering, applications engineering, process engineering, or development of metallic additive technologies, preferably with DED
- Hands-on knowledge of metal DED processes and production workflow, including design considerations, pre-process planning, deposition, post-processing, inspection, and qualification
- Experience with DfAM principles specific to DED and interaction between deposition strategy, machining, distortion control, and downstream manufacturing performance
- Working knowledge of welding metallurgy, heat input control, residual stress management, and mechanical performance in deposited metallic structures
- Experience with engineering drawings, GD&T, tolerance interpretation, and inspection planning
- Experience supporting part development from prototype through qualification or early production
- Strong problem-solving skills with ability to analyze technical issues and recommend practical solutions
- Ability to communicate effectively with customers, engineers, technicians, suppliers, and cross-functional teams
- U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident required for ITAR compliance
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience supporting aerospace and defense applications in regulated manufacturing environments, including qualification of flight-critical or mission-critical hardware
- Experience with process validation, qualification planning, capability studies, statistical process control, multifactorial DOE, or first article execution
- Familiarity with aerospace manufacturing standards and quality systems (NASA, ESA, AS9100, EN9100, or comparable)
- Experience with wire-based DED processes or powder-fed DED or adjacent metal AM technologies
- Experience with robotic toolpath programming, CAM systems, welding simulation tools, or thermal-mechanical modeling relevant to DED
- Metallurgical experience with copper alloys, nickel-based superalloys, titanium, aluminum, or other high-performance alloys
- Experience with metrology, NDT, heat treatment, and process control methods for DED hardware qualification
- Experience with machine OEMs, materials suppliers, software providers, external processors, or contract manufacturers supporting additive workflows
- Working knowledge of complementary conventional manufacturing processes (CNC machining, casting, forging, welding)
- Experience with ERP, MRP, MES, or production planning systems such as SAP
