R&D Engineer

Operational Duties:

In the context of innovation projects:

• Collaborate with operations, marketing, and sales teams to identify and define innovation projects (technical and market objectives).

• Propose innovation opportunities based on technical knowledge of customer processes, monitoring of the state-of-the-art (modelling tools, refractories, ceramics, raw materials, customer processes), and results from previous research.

• Define R&D actions (key stages, sequencing, timeline, research and development content, lab and modelling work) to achieve the general objectives of ongoing projects.

• Conduct or supervise necessary lab tests and analyses related to R&D or modelling activities defined in the innovation projects.

• Communicate research progress and present results and conclusions clearly and suitably for different stakeholders.

• Contribute to industrialization, define parameters and specifications for quality control, participate in pilot/customer trials and commercial launch of developed solutions.

In the context of technical support activities using modelling:

• Help define (technical and economic objectives) and select requests for research work, technical support, modelling or structure optimization received by the R&D department.

• Conduct or oversee lab-scale tests and characterizations required for research or modelling studies.

• Design and build test benches, specific or innovative lab characterization techniques necessary for modelling studies.

• Write internal (confidential data) and external (non-confidential) research reports.

• Present technical findings of modelling work to internal/external clients and make practical proposals on product formulation, refractory lining, or structural design.

General Missions:

• Show scientific curiosity and analytical thinking; contribute to expanding the department’s knowledge base.

• Keep up to date with scientific progress and intellectual property in numerical modelling applied to ceramics, refractories, associated technologies, and customer processes.

• Understand Calderys’s characterization technologies and propose/implement technical optimizations.

• Analyze obtained results and draw conclusions.

• Attend key refractory-related scientific conferences/events, write publications, and present results.

• Contribute to patent writing.

• Ensure proper archiving of research data and product data in Calderys's technical data management systems.

Functional Management:

• Plan, organize, and supervise tasks assigned to lab technicians at Calderys laboratories.

• Provide continuous training to lab technicians in characterization techniques, maintain high knowledge levels in refractories, and contribute to skill transfer.

• Support Quality and HSE tasks assigned to lab technicians.

• Help identify research partners (private, academic, clients, suppliers), build and monitor collaborative research projects.

• Manage collaborative projects and supplier relationships related to modeling.

Quality Missions:

• Conduct internal/external training as needed.

• Ensure complete entry of technical data from tested products in archiving systems (e.g., Excel, PDM).

• Knowledge of standards related to refractories (EN1402 and derivatives, ASTM, JIS, ISO).

Health, Safety, and Environmental (HSE) Missions:

• Apply and enforce lab safety policies and all current HSE rules and procedures.

• Evaluate and ensure risk assessments for lab work units.

• Enforce chemical product waste management protocols.

Minimum Education Required:

Master’s Degree (Bac +5) in Mechanical Engineering , post-graduation/Ph D in material science/Ceramics/Refractories  with simulation experience 3-5 yrs

Additional and/or Specific Knowledge:

• Knowledge in thermo-mechanical and fluidic simulation

• Expertise in simulation software (preferably Ansys (mechanical and fluent), but it could be other software 

• Refractory materials characterization techniques (RUL, WStest, mechanical testing at high/low temperatures)

• Powder technology, inorganic chemistry, mineralogy, ceramics, dispersion and rheology of concentrated suspensions