Sr TM FRP Metallurgist

Job details

Designation: Assistant General Manager

Location: India Maharashtra Hindalco, Taloja

Organization: Metals

Job Purpose:

The position is to

(1) Leverage materials and microstructure knowledge to developing new alloys and applications with properties in line with customer requirements.

(2) Drive applied R&D in FRP consistent with business strategic targets and customer requirements.

(3) Develop FRP process-microstructure-property understanding for critical products for developing processes and properties

Key Result Areas/Accountabilities:

Key Result Areas/Accountabilities

Supporting Actions

Alloy & Product Development

Lead development of new aluminum alloy systems for FRP applications.
Design alloys for automotive body sheet, battery enclosures, cooling plates, busbars, packaging, cookware, architecture, marine, and industrial applications.
Develop next-generation high-strength, high-formability, corrosion-resistant, and sustainability focused products.
Support qualification and commercialization of new products with manufacturing plants and customers.
Drive recycling-tolerant alloy development initiatives.

Customer & Application Development

Translate customer requirements into material specifications.
Define microstructural targets required to meet customer performance requirements.
Support customer trials and industrial validation.
Collaborate with OEMs, suppliers, and fabricators.
Provide technical support during product approval and qualification.

Computational Materials Development

Process development

Develop metallurgical operating windows and best practices.
Support manufacturing plants through scientific problem solving and process optimization.
Support and improve process capability and robustness of rolling and associated plant processes such as casting, homogenization, hot rolling, cold rolling, annealing and surface treatments.
Support productivity, and quality improvement initiatives.
Work directly with plant technical teams to implement process improvements.

Failure Analysis

Lead investigations of manufacturing defects and customer complaints on product performance.
Conduct laboratory studies to determine root causes.
Recommend corrective and preventive actions.
Build technical databases and metallurgical knowledge repositories.

Project management and execution

Work with stakeholders to scope the project appropriately
Work with the team and ensure proper project resource management
Work closely with external project partners and vendor management
Keep track of project financials e.g. potential revenue, cost, incremental EBIDTA, cashflow and NPV
Follow and strengthen stage gate project management and execution e.g. charters, milestone planning, stage gate, QBR etc

Technical development of self and others

Attend technical conferences, review technical and academic literature, attend supplier webinars, interact with experts, visit plants etc to stay abreast of technological advancements in the field of aluminium metallurgy, rolling and heat treatments
Provide trainings to FRP mill operation engineers, operators on operation, scientific principles and latest technology
Present research findings at forums like manthan, downstream summits etc
Provide customized mentoring to team members and technical colleagues at HIC and downstream business

External and internal customer insight generation

Pursue design thinking and identify the key pain points of the internal/external customer
Develop keen understanding of the key functionality of product/technology to be developed
Quantify the value generated for the customer upon attainment of the key technical specifications/features of the product/technology

Capability enhancement and development

Maintenance and enhancement of existing lab and pilot capabilities along with the lab-in-charge
Identify opportunities for external collaboration for capability enhancement
Identify and prepare capex proposals for in-house capability development

Knowledge creation and dissemination

Document the key research findings in high quality, peer reviewed, publication worthy tech memo
Document and record inventions in Invention Record and work with legal team for patent filing where applicable
Present non-sensitive research findings in international journals, conferences to more widely disseminate knowledge and showcase Hindalco R&D capabilities