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Materials Engineers

It's a bright outlook for

This career will grow rapidly in the next few years.

Learn more about what they do.

Evaluate materials and develop machinery and processes to manufacture materials for use in products that must meet specialized design and performance specifications. Develop new uses for known materials. Includes those engineers working with composite materials or specializing in one type of material, such as graphite, metal and metal alloys, ceramics and glass, plastics and polymers, and naturally occurring materials. Includes metallurgists and metallurgical engineers, ceramic engineers, and welding engineers.

Related: Chemical Engineers Industrial Engineers Manufacturing Engineers Materials Scientists Mechanical Engineers

Industries: Manufacturing Professional, Science, & Technical

Summary
Details

Replicate the characteristics of materials and their components, using computers.
Review new product plans, and make recommendations for material selection, based on design objectives such as strength, weight, heat resistance, electrical conductivity, and cost.
Determine appropriate methods for fabricating and joining materials.
Guide technical staff in developing materials for specific uses in projected products or devices.
Conduct training sessions on new material products, applications, or manufacturing methods for customers and their employees.
Modify properties of metal alloys, using thermal and mechanical treatments.
Solve problems in a number of engineering fields, such as mechanical, chemical, electrical, civil, nuclear, and aerospace.
Perform managerial functions, such as preparing proposals and budgets, analyzing labor costs, and writing reports.
Supervise the work of technologists, technicians, and other engineers and scientists.
Perform managerial functions, such as preparing proposals and budgets, analyzing labor costs, and writing reports.
Teach in colleges and universities.
Plan and evaluate new projects, consulting with other engineers and corporate executives, as necessary.
Monitor material performance, and evaluate its deterioration.
Conduct or supervise tests on raw materials or finished products to ensure their quality.
Present technical information at conferences.
Design processing plants and equipment.
Write for technical magazines, journals, and trade association publications.
Supervise production and testing processes in industrial settings, such as metal refining facilities, smelting or foundry operations, or nonmetallic materials production operations.
Plan and implement laboratory operations to develop material and fabrication procedures that meet cost, product specification, and performance standards.
Plan and evaluate new projects, consulting with other engineers and corporate executives, as necessary.
Perform managerial functions, such as preparing proposals and budgets, analyzing labor costs, and writing reports.
Plan and evaluate new projects, consulting with other engineers and corporate executives, as necessary.
Teach in colleges and universities.
Analyze product failure data and laboratory test results to determine causes of problems and develop solutions.
Design and direct the testing or control of processing procedures.
Evaluate technical specifications and economic factors relating to process or product design objectives.
Review new product plans, and make recommendations for material selection, based on design objectives such as strength, weight, heat resistance, electrical conductivity, and cost.

Critical Thinking
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
Systems Analysis
- Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it.
Management of Financial Resources
- Making spending decisions and keeping track of what is spent.
Quality Control Analysis
- Testing how well a product or service works.
Instructing
- Teaching people how to do something.
Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or display screens to make sure a machine is working.
Troubleshooting
- Figuring out what is causing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs to not work.
Coordination
- Changing what is done based on other people's actions.
Management of Personnel Resources
- Selecting and managing the best workers for a job.
Equipment Maintenance
- Planning and doing the basic maintenance on equipment.
Social Perceptiveness
- Understanding people's reactions.
Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the right tools.
Science
- Using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems.
Monitoring
- Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.
Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs.
Complex Problem Solving
- Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
Equipment Selection
- Deciding what kind of tools and equipment are needed to do a job.
Writing
- Writing things for co-workers or customers.
Learning Strategies
- Using the best training or teaching strategies for learning new things.
Systems Evaluation
- Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
Judgment and Decision Making
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.
Management of Material Resources
- Managing equipment and materials.
Speaking
- Talking to others.
Service Orientation
- Looking for ways to help people.
Operation and Control
- Using equipment or systems.
Programming
- Writing computer programs.
Mathematics
- Using math to solve problems.
Active Listening
- Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
Persuasion
- Talking people into changing their minds or their behavior.
Active Learning
- Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.
Technology Design
- Making equipment and technology useful for customers.
Time Management
- Managing your time and the time of other people.
Reading Comprehension
- Reading work-related information.
Operations Analysis
- Figuring out what a product or service needs to be able to do.
Negotiation
- Bringing people together to solve differences.

Information Ordering
- Ordering or arranging things.
Multilimb Coordination
- Using your arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down.
Visual Color Discrimination
- Noticing the difference between colors, including shades and brightness.
Perceptual Speed
- Quickly comparing groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
Static Strength
- Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying.
Stamina
- Exercising for a long time without getting out of breath.
Oral Expression
- Communicating by speaking.
Arm-Hand Steadiness
- Keeping your arm or hand steady.
Oral Comprehension
- Listening and understanding what people say.
Dynamic Flexibility
- Quickly and repeatedly bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Originality
- Creating new and original ideas.
Sound Localization
- Noticing the direction that a sound came from.
Auditory Attention
- Paying attention to one sound while there are other distracting sounds.
Inductive Reasoning
- Making general rules or coming up with answers from lots of detailed information.
Dynamic Strength
- Exercising for a long time without your muscles getting tired.
Selective Attention
- Paying attention to something without being distracted.
Visualization
- Imagining how something will look after it is moved around or changed.
Wrist-Finger Speed
- Making fast, simple, repeated movements of your fingers, hands, and wrists.
Trunk Strength
- Using your lower back and stomach.
Written Expression
- Communicating by writing.
Problem Sensitivity
- Noticing when problems happen.
Deductive Reasoning
- Using rules to solve problems.
Category Flexibility
- Grouping things in different ways.
Finger Dexterity
- Putting together small parts with your fingers.
Gross Body Equilibrium
- Keeping your balance or staying upright.
Reaction Time
- Quickly moving your hand, finger, or foot based on a sound, light, picture or other command.
Mathematical Reasoning
- Choosing the right type of math to solve a problem.
Depth Perception
- Deciding which thing is closer or farther away from you, or deciding how far away it is from you.
Speed of Limb Movement
- Quickly moving your arms and legs.
Speech Clarity
- Speaking clearly.
Gross Body Coordination
- Moving your arms, legs, and mid-section together while your whole body is moving.
Written Comprehension
- Reading and understanding what is written.
Peripheral Vision
- Seeing something to your side when your are looking ahead.
Rate Control
- Changing when and how fast you move based on how something else is moving.
Control Precision
- Quickly changing the controls of a machine, car, truck or boat.
Manual Dexterity
- Holding or moving items with your hands.
Speech Recognition
- Recognizing spoken words.
Hearing Sensitivity
- Telling the difference between sounds.
Time Sharing
- Doing two or more things at the same time.
Far Vision
- Seeing details that are far away.
Memorization
- Remembering words, numbers, pictures, or steps.
Extent Flexibility
- Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Response Orientation
- Quickly deciding if you should move your hand, foot, or other body part.
Fluency of Ideas
- Coming up with lots of ideas.
Near Vision
- Seeing details up close.
Night Vision
- Seeing at night or under low light.
Number Facility
- Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
Glare Sensitivity
- Seeing something even if there is a glare or very bright light.
Flexibility of Closure
- Seeing hidden patterns.
Spatial Orientation
- Knowing where things are around you.
Speed of Closure
- Quickly knowing what you are looking at.
Explosive Strength
- Jumping, sprinting, or throwing something.

Design
- Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
History and Archeology
- Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
Sales and Marketing
- Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
Biology
- Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
Chemistry
- Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
Economics and Accounting
- Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
Sociology and Anthropology
- Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
Communications and Media
- Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
Mechanical
- Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
Therapy and Counseling
- Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
Psychology
- Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
Food Production
- Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
Education and Training
- Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
Telecommunications
- Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
Fine Arts
- Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
Foreign Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
Philosophy and Theology
- Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
Medicine and Dentistry
- Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
Public Safety and Security
- Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
Mathematics
- Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
Administration and Management
- Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
Administrative
- Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
English Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
Geography
- Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
Building and Construction
- Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
Physics
- Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
Production and Processing
- Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
Engineering and Technology
- Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
Law and Government
- Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
Transportation
- Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
Computers and Electronics
- Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
Customer and Personal Service
- Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Personnel and Human Resources
- Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.

Education

Bachelor's degree

Work Experience

No work experience

Training

No on-the-job training

Education and Training Opportunities

Washington Annual Salary

140810/yr

Washington Hourly Wage

67.7/hr

Currently Employed

730

Yearly Projected Openings

Realistic: People interested in this work like activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They do well at jobs that need:

Integrity
Analytical Thinking
Attention to Detail
Innovation
Persistence
Achievement/Effort

Abrasion testers
Accelerometers
Ageing ovens
Ammeters
Analytical balances
Atomic absorption AA spectrometers
Benchtop centrifuges
Binocular light compound microscopes
Borescope inspection equipment
Bubble columns
Calorimeters
Chromatographic scanners
Colorimeters
Compression testers
Concrete or cement testing instruments
Coordinate measuring machines CMM
Crucible furnaces
Depth gauges
Diffractometers
Digital cameras
Drying cabinets or ovens
Electromagnetic field meters
Electrometers
Electron microscopes
Electronic toploading balances
Extensometers
Fatigue testers
Filtering machinery
Flow transmitters
Flowmeters
Fume hoods or cupboards
Gas chromatographs
Graphic recorders
Grinders
Grinding or polishing machines
Gyratory crushers
Hardness testers
Heated walk in environmental or growth chambers
High pressure liquid chromatograph chromatography
High vacuum combustion apparatus
Homogenizers
Horizontal turning center
Hydraulic press frames
Immersion circulators
Impact testers
Impedance meters
Induction dryers
Infrared dryers
Infrared imagers
Infrared spectrometers
Injection molding machines
Ion exchange apparatus
Isolation glove boxes
Jaw crushers
Laboratory balances
Laboratory blenders or emulsifiers
Laboratory box furnaces
Laboratory burets
Laboratory crushers or pulverizers
Laboratory evaporators
Laboratory microwave ovens
Laboratory mills
Laboratory mixers
Laboratory separators
Laboratory vacuum pumps
Laminators
Lasers
Leak testing equipment
Linear position sensors
Load frame
Mass spectrometers
Metal band sawing machine
Metal testing instruments
Optical diffraction apparatus
Optical vacuum coating equipment
Orbital shakers
Orbital shaking water baths
Oscilloscopes
Permeability testing apparatus
Personal computers
Photo attachments for microscopes
Photometer
Plaster or mortar mixers
Pneumatic sanding machines
Polarizing microscopes
Porosimeters
Portable data input terminals
Positioning jig
Power saws
Programmable tube furnaces
Protective gloves
Pycnometers
Reflectometers
Roll crushers
Safety glasses
Scanning electron microscopes
Scanning probe microscopes
Semiconductor process systems
Sonometers
Spectrofluorimeters or fluorimeters
Spectrometers
Spectrophotometers
Steam autoclaves or sterilizers
Stereo or dissecting light microscopes
Strain gauges
Tensiometers
Tension testers
Test sieves
Thermal differential analyzers
Thermo gravimetry analyzers
Thickness measuring devices
Tracer or duplicating or contouring lathe
Traveling column milling machine
Tube furnaces
Turbidimeters
Twin screw extruder
Ultrasonic examination equipment
Vacuum ovens
Vibration testers
Vibratory plates
Viscosimeters
Water conditioners
Wear testers
pH meters

Analytical or scientific software
Cloud-based data access and sharing software
Computer aided design CAD software
Computer aided manufacturing CAM software
Data base user interface and query software
Development environment software
Electronic mail software
Enterprise resource planning ERP software
Graphics or photo imaging software
Internet browser software
Object or component oriented development software
Office suite software
Presentation software
Process mapping and design software
Spreadsheet software
Word processing software

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