Founding Engineer — Materials R&D

Role details

Founding Engineer — Materials R&D

Billerica, MA | Full-time | On-site

Cortheon is an MIT spinout reinventing investment casting, starting with the materials and processes that determine what foundries can make. We’re combining the design freedom of 3D printing with the economics of casting so engineers can design metal parts for performance, not the limits of conventional tooling.

Our SynthCast materials and 3D printed patterns are engineered to work with existing precision metal foundry workflows and we are partnering with foundries across the country. We develop the materials and tooling while our foundry partners cast the final metal parts.

From more efficient marine propulsion to lighter aerospace and automotive components and better data center cooling, our goal is to make optimized metal parts practical to manufacture at scale.

The Role

We’re looking for a founding engineer to help lead our materials R&D team and build out our materials portfolio. You’ll develop new resins that expand what resin 3D printing can do, taking promising material concepts from early formulations through characterization, application testing, and scale-up. You’ll work directly with the founders and will lead technical projects independently. As we grow, you’ll shape our R&D capabilities and help hire, lead, and inspire future engineers and scientists.

This is your opportunity to be a leading voice at Cortheon. Are you ready to step up?

What You’ll Do

• Develop and refine resin formulations with advanced capabilities for 3D printing and investment casting, connecting material chemistry to performance in the printer and the foundry.

• Design experiments, prepare and mix formulations, and investigate how ingredients, processing conditions, and curing behavior affect material properties.

• Characterize rheological, mechanical, thermal, and other relevant properties. Develop useful test methods and use the results to guide the next round of experiments.

• Work closely with the engineering team and foundry partners to evaluate printability, dimensional accuracy, surface finish, and casting performance. Investigate failures and turn what you learn into better materials.

• Scale promising formulations from small lab batches to repeatable production, addressing mixing, consistency, stability, raw material sourcing, and quality control.

• Build clear formulation records, testing procedures, and safe lab practices so successful experiments become methods the team can repeat.

Who We’re Looking For

We’re looking for an outstanding materials developer with strong experimental instincts, natural leadership traits, and a practical, hands-on approach. Above all, we want someone who can take a difficult technical problem, decide what needs to happen, and see it through without constant direction. You should be curious, resourceful, and comfortable learning new tools or skills when a project calls for them.

• Strong hands-on experience developing, formulating, and testing materials. Experience with resins, polymers, coatings, adhesives, composites, or related material systems can all be relevant.

• A solid understanding of chemistry and the relationships between composition, processing, and material properties. You should be comfortable working directly with chemicals, preparing mixtures, and troubleshooting unexpected behavior.

• Practical experience with materials characterization, designing useful experiments, and interpreting data to make development decisions.

• Experience translating lab results into reliable materials or processes, with an understanding of the challenges involved in scale-up and batch consistency.

• A track record of independently leading technical projects, careful lab and chemical-handling habits, and clear communication with teammates, suppliers, and partners.

*We prefer several years of relevant industry experience, roughly 3-5 or more, but make exceptions for exceptional talent. Recent graduates with unusually strong hands-on project experience are encouraged to apply.*

Materials science, chemical engineering, chemistry, mechanical engineering, and related backgrounds are all relevant. A specific degree matters less than demonstrated ability to develop materials and solve practical technical problems.

Useful, but Not Required

Experience with 3D printing, especially resin printing, photopolymers, chemical synthesis, organic chemistry, polymer synthesis, investment casting, or metal casting.

Other relevant experience would include CAD skills, programming capability, robotics, and lab automation. You do not need experience in all of these areas.

Compensation

We expect to find a candidate within the salary range of $100,000 to $150,000 plus equity, commensurate with experience level.

Location

This is a full-time, 40-hour-per-week, exempt, on-site role in Billerica, Massachusetts.

How to Apply

Apply on LinkedIn with your resume and send a short note about your background and why you’d like to join Cortheon to [email protected]. If you’ve developed something interesting – a new material, formulation, manufacturing process, test method, machine, or other technical project– we’d love to hear more about it. Photos, papers, and test results are welcome.

Are you metal enough to cast your future with Cortheon?