Materials Project Manager
Devens, MA
R&D – Materials /
Full-time /
On-site
The Materials Department at CFS supports design engineers, supply chain, and manufacturing by selecting materials, unambiguously defining materials and their properties, validating and measuring those materials and their properties, and conducting R&D to develop new materials and processes to enable fusion power deployment. The work is undertaken in support of delivering SPARC, the net energy tokamak under construction in Devens, MA, and ultimately in designing the ARC fusion power plant. These devices pose unique materials challenges including neutron fluxes produced by deuterium-tritium fusion, high heat loads, molten salt coolant systems, complex component topologies, high magnetic fields, and high cryogenic mechanical loads. The Materials Department is seeking to hire a Materials Project Manager to administer a portfolio of projects and engineering support activities in the domain of materials and processing technologies. In addition to managing and roadmapping the materials projects portfolio, this role will be responsible for data tracking and reporting to department and division leadership.
This team member will:
- Manage a large portfolio of small to medium materials-focused projects for a diverse set of design, manufacturing, and R&D stakeholders to maintain program objectives and hold overall schedules & budget
- Work with CFS collaborators to ensure objectives and timelines are communicated and agreed upon; ensure proper analysis is accomplished to predict testing results in a timely manner to inform the test, manufacturing, operations, and development programs
- Coordinate cross department communication to maintain the master schedule for the interconnected projects and to manage risk and mitigate it properly when the opportunity arises or elevate project concerns when mitigation is not an option
- Administer the CFS-wide Materials Engineering Support request infrastructure, dispositioning issues to the appropriate technical leads
- Manage the effort burden and task allocation between domain specific materials and processing technical teams supporting multiple projects simultaneously
- Ask the right questions of the technical team to ensure we are driving towards tests that will maximize learning in a timely manner for future design efforts
- Work with the Open Innovation department at CFS to leverage external government/industry/academia support for materials project(s)
- Coordinate within the R&D division for resources to support materials project(s)
- Act as a mentor to materials department staff and impart best practices
- Work with procurement to ensure accurate/lean system level purchases that meet your projects timelines and keep the general cost / schedule / learning cycle moving
- Grow and lead a team of engineers through the management of and accomplishment of your project's objectives
- Manage relationships with external collaborators including but not limited to external testing facilities, MIT, other US government or international laboratories and facilities as might be required
The ideal candidate will have most, if not all, of these requirements:
- Bachelor's degree in an engineering or applied science discipline + 5 years experience managing project / program teams
- At least 5 years experience managing the development of technical projects
- Experience using project/product management tools and tracking of projects
- Experience in system-level design
- Fantastic and clear communication and organizational skills
- Resource estimation and projection
- Strong time management skills
- Self - motivation and autonomy
- Agile project management and task execution
- Ability to manage cross-functional teams in a matrix environment
Additional experience and/or qualifications:
- Experience applying for and capturing government proposals, and the subsequent management of the effort with the government PM
- Experience making and justifying decisions in fast paced engineering settings
- Communicating with technical teams at vendors and suppliers
- Taking under-defined problems and driving them to a state of completion
- Operating in a flexible, service-oriented engineering domain team
- Basic understanding of materials and processing
- Ability to regularly lift up to 50 lbs
- Perform activities such as stooping, typing, standing, sitting, and welding for extended periods of time
- Dedication to safety to mitigate industrial hazards that may include heat, cold, noise, fumes, strong magnets, lead (Pb), high voltage, and cryogenics
- Willingness to travel or work required nights/weekends/on-call occasionally
- #LI-Onsite
