Solar Turbines
Materials Engineer
San Diego, California · Senior · Part-time
Stay score
odds of building a lasting career here
Sponsors, but it's cap-subject — you still face the weighted lottery (~45% per draw at Level III). Good if you win; have a cap-exempt backup on your list.
Lottery odds assume a STEM candidate.
Personalize to your clock →H-1B wage level
the lottery is wage-weighted — each level is one more entry
$17,408 more — $138,008 — moves this role to Level IV and 4 lottery entries. That figure is inside the range the employer already advertised.
Based on the DOL prevailing wage for this occupation and worksite, a base salary of $138,008 would place this position at wage Level IV. That figure is within the posted range, and I'd like to target it. This role classifies under "Materials Engineers" for prevailing-wage purposes.
DOL prevailing wage, 2026-27 wage year · Materials Engineers (17-2131) · San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA. Wage level is derived by USCIS from the offered wage, occupation and worksite; the occupation shown is inferred from the job title.
Employer immigration record
from this employer's Department of Labor filings
Files H-1B transfers
Sourced from Department of Labor LCA, PERM and prevailing-wage disclosure data. Employer matching is by name, so figures may be split across an employer's legal entities. Absence of a filing means none appears in our copy of the data, not that none exists.
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About the role
- Solar Turbines Incorporated, headquartered in San Diego, California, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc.
- Solar manufactures the world's most widely used family of mid-sized industrial gas turbines, ranging from 1 to 35 megawatts.
- When you join Solar, you're joining a global team who cares not just about the work we do - but also about each other.
Responsibilities
- The engineer will work closely with design engineering, manufacturing, quality, procurement, suppliers, and service teams to ensure material reliability, performance, and compliance.
- Provide materials engineering support for gas turbine and gas compressor components, including rotating and stationary hardware.
- Support component design teams through material selection and mechanical property assessments.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Materials Science & Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
- Minimum 8+ years of relevant industrial experience
- Strong knowledge of ferrous metallurgy, including:
- Experience with heat treatment processes and resulting microstructural transformations.
- Knowledge of mechanical testing methods and material behavior including:
- Experience performing metallographic evaluations and failure investigations.
- Familiarity with manufacturing processes such as forging, casting, machining, welding, and heat treatment.
- Ability to interpret industry specifications, material standards, and engineering drawings.
Nice to have
- Hydrogen embrittlement assessment.
- High-pressure gaseous hydrogen applications.
- Materials compatibility and degradation mechanisms in hydrogen service.
- Material selection and qualification for hydrogen compression, transportation, storage, or combustion systems.
- Testing and characterization of steels and stainless steels exposed to hydrogen environments.
- Metallurgical expertise
- Root cause analysis
- Technical leadership
Compensation
- $120,600.00 - $180,900.00
- Please note that salary is only one component of total compensation at Caterpillar.
- Compensation and benefits offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, job level, market location, job-related knowledge, skills, individual performance and experience.
Benefits
- This is a summary list of benefits.
- Medical, dental, and vision benefits*
- Paid time off plan (Vacation, Holidays, Volunteer, etc.)*
- Health Savings Account (HSA)*
- Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)*
- Health Lifestyle Programs*
- Voluntary Benefits and Employee Discounts*
- Incentive bonus*
- Disability benefits
Company info
- When you join Caterpillar, you're joining a global team who cares not just about the work we do - but also about each other.
- We are the makers, problem solvers, and future world builders who are creating stronger, more sustainable communities.
- We don't just talk about progress and innovation here - we make it happen, with our customers, where we work and live.
- Together, we are building a better world, so we can all enjoy living in it.
- Along with our customers and the communities we work and live in, we are building a better world for tomorrow.
- We are seeking a highly motivated Materials Engineer to provide technical leadership and engineering support for metallic materials used across gas turbines and gas compressor products.
This listing is sourced directly from Solar Turbines's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.