Aerospace Welding EngineerHouston, TX
About the Position:The Aerospace Welding Engineer will own and support welding and joining processes used to manufacture mission-critical spaceflight hardware. This role will translate design requirements into qualified, repeatable production processes; provide hands-on support to welders, technicians, suppliers, and inspectors; and ensure welded assemblies meet drawing, material, workmanship, and program requirements. The ideal candidate combines strong welding metallurgy and process-engineering fundamentals with practical experience delivering high-reliability aerospace hardware.
Responsibilities:- Develop, qualify, release, and maintain welding procedures and supporting documentation, including WPS, PQR, and welder or operator qualifications, for applicable fusion, resistance, and solid-state joining processes.
- Serve as the technical authority for welding of flight and ground-support hardware, providing direction from design and material selection through fabrication, inspection, acceptance, and delivery.
- Review engineering drawings, weld symbols, specifications, joint designs, tolerances, and material callouts for producibility and compliance with program requirements.
- Establish and control essential process variables, tooling, shielding, cleanliness, fit-up, filler materials, heat input, preheat or post-weld heat treatment, and environmental controls.
- Evaluate weld metallurgy, distortion, residual stress, defect mechanisms, and compatibility for aluminum, stainless and high-strength steels, titanium, nickel-based alloys, and other aerospace materials.
- Define inspection and acceptance plans in partnership with Quality and NDE personnel, including visual, dimensional, penetrant, radiographic, ultrasonic, leak, proof, and metallographic examinations as applicable.
- Lead weld-related nonconformance investigations and root-cause analyses; develop repair procedures, corrective actions, and recurrence-prevention plans with Design, Stress, Materials and Processes, Quality, and Manufacturing teams.
- Support fracture-critical and pressure-system hardware reviews, design-for-manufacture trades, risk assessments, first-article builds, process capability studies, and production readiness reviews.
- Provide shop-floor support during setup, tack welding, welding, rework, repair, inspection, and test; train and mentor welders, technicians, and engineers on approved practices.
- Qualify and monitor external welding suppliers, review supplier procedures and records, and resolve technical issues affecting quality, schedule, or configuration control.
- Maintain complete, auditable manufacturing records and traceability for procedures, personnel qualifications, materials, equipment calibration, consumables, inspection results, and as-built configuration.
Requirements:- Bachelor's degree in Welding Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical field.
- 3+ years of engineering experience developing or supporting welding and joining processes for aerospace, defense, pressure systems, or other high-reliability hardware.
- Working knowledge of aerospace welding standards and qualification practices, including AWS D17.1/D17.1M and customer or program-specific requirements; ability to apply ASME Section IX or equivalent codes when required by the hardware.
- Experience creating and qualifying welding procedures and interpreting procedure qualification, welder qualification, and production weld records.
- Strong knowledge of welding metallurgy, joint design, weldability, heat treatment, distortion control, and common weld discontinuities and failure mechanisms.
- Hands-on experience with relevant process such as GTAW, GMAW, OTW Etc.
- Proficiency in reading engineering drawings, weld symbols, specifications, material certifications, and GD&T.
- Experience leading technical investigations, documenting objective evidence, and communicating dispositions and corrective actions across engineering and production teams.
- Ability to work cross-functionally and manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, high-mix, low-volume manufacturing environment.
Preferred Requirements: - Master's degree in Welding Engineering, Materials Science, Metallurgy, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
- International Welding Engineer, AWS Certified Welding Engineer, AWS Certified Welding Inspector, or equivalent certification.
- Experience with NASA-STD-5006, NASA-STD-6016, AWS D17.2/D17.2M, or other spaceflight materials and process specifications.
- Experience welding thin-wall tanks, tubing, pressure vessels, propulsion components, structural assemblies, or other fracture-critical flight hardware.
- Experience with titanium, nickel-based superalloys, stainless steels, high-strength steels, or dissimilar-metal joints.
- Familiarity with NDE method selection, weld process automation, statistical process control, metallographic evaluation, and laboratory failure analysis.
- ERP/MES and engineering collaboration experience using tools such as Boltline, Confluence, JIRA, or similar systems.
