Applications Engineer - Magnetics

Responsibilities

• Customer Technical Support
• Work directly with customers to understand application requirements and identify appropriate permanent magnet solutions
• Provide guidance on magnet materials, grades, coatings, and performance characteristics
• Serve as a primary technical point of contact for customer questions, clarifications, and issue resolution
• Communicate technical requirements clearly between customers and internal teams
• Drive customer programs through key milestones including sample delivery, testing, validation, and production readiness
• Track and manage technical progress of customer engagements in coordination with the commercial team
• Act as the voice of the customer internally, ensuring requirements, constraints, and performance expectations are clearly understood and executed
• Application Engineering & Magnet Guidance
• Guide customers in selecting appropriate magnet materials, grades, and configurations for new and existing applications
• Provide magnetic application support, including performance tradeoffs and basic analysis
• Evaluate customer requirements against internal manufacturing capabilities and provide DFM recommendations balancing performance, cost, manufacturability, and heavy rare earth (HRE) usage
• Translate application needs into clear technical requirements for production and materials teams
• Execution, Quality & Problem Solving
• Coordinate with R&D, manufacturing, and quality teams to ensure alignment with customer requirements
• Support prototyping, testing, and validation of magnet products in customer applications
• Support root cause investigations for customer issues and non-conforming product, including corrective actions (e.g., 8D)
• Partner with internal quality teams and customers on qualification activities (e.g., PPAP, where applicable)
• Drive timely resolution of application, performance, and quality issues across internal teams
• Operate with urgency to support fast-moving customer timelines and internal production ramp
• Customer Qualification & Program Execution
• Own technical execution of customer programs from initial engagement through qualification and production release
• Coordinate internally to ensure timely delivery of samples, test data, and technical documentation
• Support customer qualification processes, including PPAP, first article inspection, and validation testing where applicable
• Ensure alignment between customer expectations and internal execution timelines
• Responsibilities and tasks outlined are not exhaustive and may change as determined by the needs of the business

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, or related technical field
• 5+ years of experience in a customer-facing engineering, applications engineering, or product engineering role
• Experience working with manufactured components in a production environment (e.g., metals, ceramics, magnets, or similar)
• Ability to interpret technical drawings, specifications, and customer requirements
• Experience collaborating cross-functionally with manufacturing and quality teams
• Strong problem-solving skills with experience supporting root cause investigations
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to interface directly with customers
• Must be a U.S. Person due to required access to U.S. export-controlled information or facilities
• Experience in automotive, aerospace, defense, or other high-reliability industries
• Experience working with permanent magnets, particularly NdFeB materials
• Familiarity with magnetic systems or applications (e.g., motors, sensors, actuators)
• Familiarity with quality and qualification processes (e.g., PPAP, first article inspection)
• Ability to read and interpret GD&T and complex engineering drawings
• Exposure to design-for-manufacturability (DFM) concepts in a production environment
• Experience supporting root cause investigations and corrective actions (e.g., 8D, CAPA)

Additional Information

Vulcan Elements is manufacturing American rare-earth permanent magnets for a secure, resilient future. With a focus on national security and economic resiliency, we serve critical industries such as defense, aerospace, and automotive powering a high-technology future. Vulcan Elements is building a team of ambitious professionals committed to Mission Focus, Technical Excellence and Transparency. As an Applications Engineer , you will own the technical progression of customer programs from initial engagement through qualification and production. You will serve as the technical bridge between customers, commercial teams, and internal engineering-ensuring that customer requirements are translated into manufacturable, high-performance magnet solutions. This role sits within the Commercial Development team and is critical to advancing customer opportunities through the pipeline (samples → validation → qualification → production), directly supporting revenue growth and successful product execution.

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