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Materials development engineer skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

David Nielsen Ph.D.,

David Nielsen Ph.D.

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical materials development engineer skills. We ranked the top skills for materials development engineers based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 20.8% of materials development engineer resumes contained product development as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a materials development engineer needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 materials development engineer skills for your resume and career

1. Product Development

Product development is the complete procedure of creating a product from concept until release of the final product. Product development has many stages after which a product is released into the market. Identifying the need, creating the opportunity, conceptualizing a product, and providing a solution, all are different stages of product development.

Here's how materials development engineers use product development:

Decreased product enhancement cycle time by 4 weeks by utilizing lean product development methodology.
Assisted new product development engineers in selecting materials for their prototype design.

2. Quality Standards

Quality standards are a specific level of standards of products that are set by the companies for the customers that have to be met and maintained throughout the process until the time of delivery. Quality standards are information that includes the customer's requirements, guidelines, and characteristics for the needed final product or service.

Here's how materials development engineers use quality standards:

Analyzed material requirements and ensured that vendor-supplied parts and components met specifications and Caterpillar's quality standards including APQP and PPAP.
Traveled to materials manufacturing plants to evaluate production methods and quality standards against specifications (prior to Acquisition Reform).

3. Mechanical Properties

The properties that determine the mechanical strength, aptitude, and potential of materials that are used to manufacture a piece of mechanical machinery. Mechanical properties of materials that need to be kept in mind are; strength of the material that keeps it from breaking down, the toughness of the material that enables it to absorb energy without fracturing, and hardness that keeps the material from deforming despite external pressure.

Here's how materials development engineers use mechanical properties:

Developed system armor solutions and coordinated mechanical properties of metals with suppliers to meet threat requirements supplied by customer.
Included establishment of material physical and mechanical properties for design and development of life prediction methodologies.

4. R

R is a free software environment and a language used by programmers for statistical computing. The R programming language is famously used for data analysis by data scientists.

Here's how materials development engineers use r:

Attended Steven R Schmidt Design of Experiments training.
Lean Engineering- 8D, A3 Sheets, 3 R, 5W, FMEA analysis, DMAIC & 6-Sigma6.

5. Material Suppliers

Here's how materials development engineers use material suppliers:

Coordinate with material suppliers to establish material specification requirements, facility auditing and resolving supply chain and quality related issues.
Experience interacting and coordinating customer, supplier and internal departmental material related activities with material suppliers.

6. Test Methods

Test methods are the steps in which thorough testing is conducted in a laboratory setting.

Here's how materials development engineers use test methods:

Utilized standard test methods and developed testing protocols to characterize in process and aged material properties.
Develop and utilize test methods to characterize material properties.

7. DSC

DSC - Differential Scanning Calorimetry is a thermo-analytical technique used to measure how much energy a sample absorbs or releases while heating or cooling. Thus, DSC measures the amount of heat required to increase the temperature of a sample as a function of temperature or time.

Here's how materials development engineers use dsc:

Performed tensile, bending, fatigue test and XRD, DSC analysis for polymer samples Evaluated the overall performance of synthesized polymers
Analyzed and characterized raw materials and finished goods using GPC, DSC, Instron, viscometry, and optical microscopy.

8. Failure Analysis

Failure Analysis is a step-by-step process of determining the reason for a particular machine or equipment failure by way of checking, identification, and examination. It means conducting a test within the system and perform a maintenance check that leads you to a conclusion. A failure analysis takes place to prevent further damages.

Here's how materials development engineers use failure analysis:

Led vendor selection for failure analysis (FA) services and tool purchases.
Operated electrical failure analysis laboratory.

9. Extrusion

Here's how materials development engineers use extrusion:

trained and supervised operator in extrusion of thermoplastic polyurethane film.
Developed proposals for in-house extrusion coating options that included the product offering and capital proposal.

10. Prototyping

Here's how materials development engineers use prototyping:

Developed best-known method that is now in customer fabrication line as key candidate for prototyping.
Stream-lined company design and prototyping activities and managed transitions between internal and subcontracted manufacturing with clear, referenced, design filing.

11. Material Properties

Here's how materials development engineers use material properties:

Evaluated competitor's products through various reverse engineering techniques to determine material properties and various manufacturing process specifications.
Collaborated with Quality Engineers to improve product integrity by analyzing material properties of finished goods.

12. Production Processes

Here's how materials development engineers use production processes:

Optimized existing production processes to improve efficiency and performance
Coordinated with Quality Assurance and Quality Engineering teams to define and implement quality controls within production processes and software programs.

13. SEM

Search Engine Marketing, SEM, is a set of digital marketing tools, techniques, and strategies that help optimize website and page visibility and reach potential website visitors through search engine result pages (SERPs). The aim is to appear more and better positioned among the search results when an Internet user searches for the brand keywords.

Here's how materials development engineers use sem:

Transferred and Developed new SEM practices for material characterization.
Performed failure analyses using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and optical microscopy methods.

14. DOE

DOE, DOX, or design of experiments is a term used to refer to a part of applied statistics whose main focus is to conduct and observe controlled tests with the ultimate goal of understanding and explaining how information and results might vary under different hypotheses and circumstances and how such variables affect the results and tests. Design of experiments is used in marketing, politics, various sciences, and, of course, experiments.

Here's how materials development engineers use doe:

Lead chip package interaction underfill DOE team to develop predictive models to increase risk and reliability assessment accuracy.
Performed DOE to understand iGC capabilities for future use as a product quality and development tool.

15. Technical Data

Technical data refers to both scientific and technical nature and information recorded and presented in any form other than financial and management information but includes manuals and instructional materials, as well as technical data formatted as a computer database.

Here's how materials development engineers use technical data:

Provided engineering analysis and recommendations to the development of technical data for production applications determining solutions for field engineers.
Provided product engineering field support and technical data to race team engineers and NASCAR personnel.

What skills help Materials Development Engineers find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on materials development engineer resumes?

David Nielsen Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Arizona State University

Relevant real-world experience (i.e., internships); computational skills like programming; statistical analysis.

What soft skills should all materials development engineers possess?

David Nielsen Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Arizona State University

Communication, teamwork, decision-making.

What hard/technical skills are most important for materials development engineers?

David Nielsen Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Arizona State University

Strong fundamental understandings of mass and energy balances, as well as thermodynamics; data analysis.

What materials development engineer skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Peter Rosado

Associate Professor of Chemistry, Georgia College and State University

I tell students to call their "gap" year more of a "Developmental" year. If a graduate desires to have such a year, they should focus on their whole as a goal, which means not only developing their professionalism but have other experiences. For example, travel to another country, learn a new language, intern at a company outside of the US, get involved further in the field of study. What stands out in candidates is how they made use of their time, skills that they acquired, and how they could weave them into the position they are applying for. That the candidate has had experiences outside of their comfort zone tells me, as an employer, that they are flexible and can adapt to situations that are new and unpredictable.

What type of skills will young materials development engineers need?

Kristine Horvat Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, University of New Haven

Students graduating with bachelor's degrees in engineering need strong communication skills. From writing emails, creating technical reports, and presenting results to others, engineers need to express their thoughts in a professional, technical manner. This is why we integrate learning communication skills across all undergraduate years at the University of New Haven. Also, having an entrepreneurial mindset is essential for engineers to see the bigger picture, to find ways to create value and identify opportunities when solving different problems in their field. Engineers and chemical engineers work with people of various backgrounds and expertise; therefore, viewing their work to understand the other stakeholders for a project can help them create connections and best drive a project forward.

Engineers capable of viewing the world through this lens will be very successful and sought out by employers. At the University of New Haven, in connection with the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN), we strive to facilitate the development of this mindset throughout our engineering courses. More specific to chemical engineering, potent chemical kinetics, thermodynamics, and unit operations are needed. Gaining hands-on skills through laboratory courses, research opportunities, and internships is very important, and an ability to create programs and simulate chemical processes is a must-have for graduates. In terms of programming, Excel skills are beneficial and adaptable.

What technical skills for a materials development engineer stand out to employers?

Rick Wise Ph.D.

Director, Materials Science and Engineering, University of Arkansas

Materials Science and Engineering graduates with MS and/or PhD degrees are expected to have a working knowledge of materials characterization equipment and how to interpret measurement results. Most will have an in-depth knowledge of materials used in a particular field (electronics, photonics, nanomaterials, energy, biological, etc.), in the fabricatoin/processing of those materials, and how to control and optimize the properties to meet the desired application. Especially valued is the capability to combine that knowledge with creativity to bring about innovations which help solve problems and create markets.

Do you want to know more?

List of materials development engineer skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a materials development engineer resume and required skills for a materials development engineer to have include:

Product Development
Quality Standards
Mechanical Properties
R
Material Suppliers
Test Methods
DSC
Failure Analysis
Extrusion
Prototyping

Material Properties
Production Processes
SEM
DOE
Technical Data
SPC
Sigma
ASTM
Scanning Electron Microscopy
Process Control

Quality Issues
Lab Scale
Capacitors
Nike
Physical Properties
Cost Savings
Development Stage
Analysis Techniques
ISO
Product Quality

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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