Y-12/UTK Joint Professor and Distinguished Chair in Advanced Manufacturing, Spring 2027

Role details

The Y-12 National Security Complex and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) invite applications for the position of Distinguished Chair in Advanced Manufacturing. This joint appointment represents a rare leadership role that bridges national security, academia, and the industry enterprise. The Distinguished Chair will serve simultaneously as a senior leader at Y-12, shaping the future of national security innovation and secure prototyping, and as a full professor at UTK, contributing to one of the nation’s fastest-growing engineering colleges.

In this dual capacity, the Distinguished Chair will have the opportunity to influence research direction, inspire the next generation of engineers, and directly impact national security readiness through advanced manufacturing breakthroughs. The Distinguished Chair will provide the technical and strategic leadership for the National Security Prototyping Center (NSPC), which is a UT and Y-12 collaboration going beyond the shared facility, solving complex manufacturing problems by taking ideas from first principles to pilot-scale manufacturing processes, validated through development of qualified prototypes.

The NSPC intends to make transformative progress that enables the United States to realize national security products faster than its adversaries – dramatically reducing the deployment time for high value, qualified components from decades to a matter of months.

Developments in advanced manufacturing leveraging smart factory principles will span topics such as hybrid additive and subtractive manufacturing, precision machining, convergent manufacturing, casting, forging, metrology, robotics, automation, in-process sensing and control, qualification and certification, integrated internet of things, digital twins, joining, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and expeditionary manufacturing. This position reflects a bold vision: to leverage the unparalleled ecosystem of East Tennessee that operates at the nexus of extraordinary facilities and strong regional and national partnerships.

In addition to directing world-class capabilities in the 100,000 ft 2 NSPC facilities, the Distinguished Chair will coordinate efforts with facilities at the Y-12 National Security Complex, a cornerstone of the U.S. nuclear security enterprise with unmatched expertise in secure manufacturing stewardship, and UTK’s Tickle College of Engineering, a top-ranked and rapidly growing engineering college with state-of-the-art facilities such as the Zeanah Engineering Complex, Defense and Development Applied Research Center (D 2 ARC), and the Institute for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing (IAMM).

The position will also engage regional collaborators such as Manufacturing USA’s Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI), Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF), and a strong cohort of industry partners. For this position, we seek an established leader who combines technical excellence with the ability to inspire teams and drive impact. The successful candidate will be visionary and forward-thinking, with a proven track record of leading innovations in manufacturing.

They will have demonstrated experience in implementing smart factory principles to transition prototypes into qualified products and navigating industry and national security environments. They will be collaborative and people-focused, committed to teamwork and multi-partner projects. They will also be a strategic communicator, equally comfortable engaging with engineers on the floor, executives in boardrooms, and leaders in government. The Distinguished Chair will be an employee of the University of Tennessee with their primary appointment at the rank of full professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department within the Tickle College of Engineering.

The Chair will also have a joint research faculty appointment with the Y-12 National Security Complex under the supervision of the Y-12 Senior Director for Nuclear Security Innovations. The Y-12 National Security Complex was established in 1943 during the Manhattan Project to enrich uranium for the first atomic bomb. Today, the facility plays a critical role in maintaining the U.S. nuclear deterrent by manufacturing, refurbishing, and dismantling weapon components.

Additionally, Y-12 secures strategic global materials to prevent proliferation, supplies enriched uranium to fuel the Nuclear Navy, and undergoes extensive site modernization to support long-term national security, defense, and global non-proliferation objectives. The Tickle College of Engineering (TCE) is experiencing an unprecedented period of growth and success, including adding over 30 new faculty to the college over 4 years as part of ambitious hiring campaigns led by Chancellor Donde Plowman and Dean Matthew Mench. The college has set records in research expenditures, enrollment, incoming student GPA, intellectual property development, and USNWR rank in the past three years.

With approximately 4,800 undergraduate and 1,500 graduate students, the college sits 28th among public universities in the most recent U.S. News and World Report graduate rankings. Knoxville, TN is a vibrant city with a beautiful and walkable downtown, active neighborhoods, an effervescent nightlife that includes numerous theaters and museums, a rich live music scene across all genres, and eclectic restaurants. Knoxville is nestled in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, surrounded by lakes and the Tennessee River, providing amazing access to various outdoor activities.

Knoxville is within easy driving distance of four major metropolitan areas that regularly host larger cultural and entertainment events.

Minimum Qualifications

• Terminal degree (PhD or equivalent) in a science or engineering discipline with a research emphasis on advanced manufacturing and at least 10 years of post-PhD leadership experience across national security, academia, or industry.
• Proven leadership of multi-disciplinary teams involving parties that span government, academia, or industry.
• Proven collaboration with industry with demonstrated ability to transition novel manufacturing technologies to application.
• Experience successfully navigating qualification and certification requirements.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Ability to obtain a high-level DOE or DOW security clearance.

Preferred Qualifications

• Internationlly recognized with at least 20 years of experience in the area of advanced manufacturing.
• Proven leadership of large multi-disciplinary teams involving parties that span government, academia, and industry.
• Demonstrated ability to transition novel manufacturing technologies to a qualified and certified product for national security or energy applications.
• Successful record of teaching and mentoring graduate and undergraduate students.
• Demonstrated record of publishing in relevant journals, of securing and executing externally funded research with federal and industrial sponsors.
• Experience working in a classified research or manufacturing space.
• U.S. citizen holding a high-level DOE or DOW security clearance.