Vulcan Elements

Materials Process Engineer - Metals

Research Triangle Park, NC

Sponsorship not specifiedDetected 4 days ago

PythonMATLABProcess ImprovementANSYSCFDMechanical DesignAerospace EngineeringCOMSOL

About the role

Vulcan Elements is manufacturing American rare-earth permanent magnets for a secure, resilient future.
With a focus on national security and economic resiliency, we serve critical industries such as defense, aerospace, and automotive powering a high-technology future.
This role begins in Durham, NC and is expected to move to Benson, NC upon completion of new facility.

Create representative models for various manufacturing processes including fluid dynamics, mechanical behavior, heat transfer, and electromagnetic phenomena.
Use models combined with process data to support process improvement and optimization.
Build and refine simulations using ANSYS (Mechanical, Maxwell, ROCKY, Fluent), COMSOL Multiphysics, or equivalent commercial simulation platforms.
Collaborate with process, materials, and data engineers to integrate simulation outputs into process development and optimization workflows.
Design simulation studies to evaluate process sensitivities, identify failure modes, and guide experimental campaigns.
Document modeling assumptions, boundary conditions, validation results, and recommendations in a structured manner consistent with quality system requirements.
Support development of custom scripts and automation tools (Python, MATLAB, or similar) for pre/post-processing of simulation data.

Strong working knowledge of computational fluid dynamics (CFD), heat transfer modeling, and mechanical stress/strain analysis.
Proficiency with scripting languages (Python, MATLAB, or similar) for simulation setup, data extraction, and post-processing.
Must be a U.S. Person due to required access to U.S. export-controlled information or facilities.
This is a technical role requiring strong fundamentals in computational mechanics, experience with commercial simulation platforms, and the ability to translate modeling results into actionable manufacturing guidance.
B.S. or higher in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, or a closely related field.
Demonstrated experience building and validating process models using ANSYS (e.g., Mechanical, Maxwell, ROCKY, Fluent), COMSOL Multiphysics, or equivalent commercial simulation software.
Ability to work independently, manage multiple concurrent modeling efforts, and communicate results clearly to cross-functional teams.

Experience modeling metal manufacturing processes such as sintering, casting, powder compaction, forging, or heat treatment.
Experience modeling particle-level interactions including powder packing, granular flow, or discrete element methods (DEM).
Experience with electromagnetic modeling and simulation (e.g., ANSYS Maxwell) for magnetic field analysis or electromagnetic process design.
Familiarity with phase-field, CALPHAD, or other microstructure-evolution modeling approaches.
Experience with Multiphysics coupled simulations (e.g., thermo-mechanical, fluid-structure interaction).
Familiarity with GPU-accelerated computing, HPC environments, or cloud-based simulation platforms.
Experience in a production, industrial, or R&D environment with exposure to manufacturing constraints and process validation.
#ProcessEngineering #ProductionEngineering

This listing is sourced directly from Vulcan Elements's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.