Engineer IV - Manager for Design & Fabrication Services (DFS)

• Resume (preferably in PDF Format)
• Questionnaire (embedded in application): In place of a cover letter, applicants will be asked to respond to a small set of short-answer questions focused on engineering leadership, technical judgment, and experience relevant to this role in the form of a questionnaire, as part of the job application. Please limit your responses to 2 or 3 paragraphs.

Background Checks: Conducted for candidates selected for hire. Learn more.
Work Location: This position requires a hybrid modality of 3 days/week onsite in our Boulder location(s) at a minimum. Regardless of flexible work arrangements, UCAR requires ALL positions to be performed within the U.S., excluding U.S. Territories.

What You Will Do
Here is a brief summary of what one would expect to be generally responsible for in this role.
Key Responsibilities

• Lead and manage the DFS group, including engineering and fabrication staff.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for mechanical engineering and fabrication support across NSF NCAR.
• Provide technical oversight and engineering guidance for complex mechanical design and fabrication efforts.
• Guide project planning, execution, risk management, and prioritization across multiple concurrent efforts.
• Support proposal development, budgeting, and long-range planning efforts for DFS resources and capabilities,
• Foster staff development through mentoring, feedback, and training while maintaining realistic schedules and costs.

Who We'd Love To Join Our Team
Successful candidates will ensure their application materials speak to the following criteria:
Education and Experience (Required):

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering with at least nine (9) years of relevant engineering experience; or

• Master's degree in Engineering with at least seven (7) years of experience; or

• PhD degree in Engineering with at least five (5) years of experience; or

• An equivalent combination of education and experience.

Experience should include leading complex engineering projects from concept through fabrication, and providing technical direction or supervision for engineering teams.

Desired but not required:

• Experience securing funding through proposal development or grant writing.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (Required):
Leadership, Decision Making and Problem Solving

• Demonstrated success leading mechanical engineering projects from concept through fabrication, either as a hands-on technical lead or as a responsible engineering manager.

• Applies engineering principles, expert judgment, creativity, and technical depth to solve complex and often novel mechanical engineering challenges.

• Evaluates risks and tradeoffs to balance scientific need, technical feasibility, cost, schedule, and long-term organizational benefit.

• Works effectively with broad objectives, helping define scope, priorities, and technical approaches while managing multiple concurrent efforts. .

• Assumes responsibility for the integrity of design decisions, considering technical, economic, and organizational impacts.

• Provides technical guidance and mentorship that supports staff development while maintaining effective production schedules and cost control.

• Exercises strategic judgment to determine when to innovate, when to standardize, or adjust project scope or approach.

• Contributes to long-term capability planning by identifying emerging technologies, tools, and processes.

Leadership and Management

• Proven ability to provide steady, credible leadership through clear communication, active listening, and sound decision-making.

• Provides technical expertise and leadership for the full mechanical design lifecycle, from concept development through fabrication, working collaboratively with scientists, engineers, technicians, and manufacturing staff to maintain engineering standards, processes and documentation.

• Demonstrated experience managing multiple concurrent projects using established project management tools and methods.

• Ability to communicate technical information clearly to audiences of diverse technical backgrounds.

• Demonstrated skill in budget administration, resource allocation, and schedule management.

• Proven ability to supervise mechanical design engineering and fabrication activities from design through fabrication.

• Experience serving as principal investigator, technical lead, or equivalent role with responsibility for scope, budget, and delivery.

• Commitment to fostering a collaborative, respectful, and inclusive work environment.

Engineering

• Demonstrated skill to generate and review clear, accurate mechanical drawings and documentation applying GD&T (Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing).

• Advanced proficiency in solid modeling and mechanical design, including design tables, master models, weldments, and sheet metal components (SolidWorks preferred)

• Strong knowledge of materials, finishes, and components used in scientific instrumentation.

• Expertise designing electronics packaging, including mechanical integration of PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards) and flex circuits, grounding strategies, and EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) mitigation.

• Expertise conducting or reviewing FEA (Finite Element Analysis), ensuring appropriate meshing, convergence verification, boundary condition evaluation, and interpretation of results using suitable failure theories.

• Proven ability to perform structural analysis and prepare thorough, accurate, and well-reasoned analysis reports.

• Expertise executing statistical tolerance analysis to inform design parameters such as intended gaps and part tolerances.

• Subject-matter expertise in one or more of the following areas: optics, heat transfer, lidar/radar systems, mechanisms, manufacturing processes, electronics packaging, CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics), or airworthiness standards.

Desired but not required

• Experience designing atmospheric or environmental instrumentation.

• Knowledge of electrical and aerospace engineering and airworthiness considerations for aircraft instrumentation.