Responsible for ensuring the integrity and performance of metal materials through established metallurgical practices. This role develops, implements, and maintains metallurgical procedures and standards necessary to support and ensure high-quality manufacturing outcomes and regulatory compliance.

Essential Functions:

• Conduct metallurgical sampling and analysis of incoming steel shipments to verify microstructure cleanliness and conformance to specified mechanical properties. 
• Sample and test products subjected to internal manufacturing and heat- treating operations for structure and analysis: Forging, Heat Treating, and Machining.
• Develop, establish, and maintain heat-treating procedures across all product lines.
• Execute failure analyses on field returns and evaluate competitors’ products for benchmarking.
• Monitor heat-treating operations and related procedures to ensure consistent product integrity and adherence to metallurgical standards.
• Drive metallurgical-related continuous improvement initiatives focused on yield, throughput, and waste reduction and identify opportunities to optimize heat-treat cycles, reduce distortion, improve hardness consistency, or eliminate scrap.
• Support Quality Assurance initiatives by contributing metallurgical expertise to root cause analysis and the development of preventive and corrective actions across manufacturing processes
• Maintain current certifications for hazardous material requirements associated with consumer products produced by Channellock such as Prop65, REACH and RoHS.
• Evaluate products performance through metallurgical and functional analysis, including: Functional Specification, Strength, Wear, Structure, Competitors’ products, and Failure Analysis from field returns
• Advise and provide metallurgical guidance to New Product Development and Process Improvement committees, including recommendations regarding design criteria, material selection, and heat-treating requirements. Lead or contribute to structured root-cause analyses for material or heat-treat-related defects.
• Conduct competitive product evaluations to benchmark metallurgical characteristics and performance. 
• Identify and assess emerging technologies or metallurgical processes that may enhance product quality, manufacturing efficiency, or throughput.
• Compile and interpret metallurgical test data; prepare technical reports summarizing findings, trends, and recommendations.
• Maintain accurate records of testing, sampling, and analysis to support traceability and quality audits.
• Maintain ISO documentation as it pertains to heat treating and material testing and maintain standard operating procedures (SOPs) for metallurgical testing equipment.
• Represent Channellock’s interests through committee and membership in such groups as ASME, HTI, MTI.

• Metallurgical Degree and minimum 5 years’ experience with ferrous metals. 
• Laser Heat Treating experience with minimum 2 years’ experience. 
• Assist in the specification, purchase and installation of various types of Heat Treating and metal processing equipment. 
• Familiarity with metallurgical analysis tools such as optical microscopy, hardness testing, SEM, or spectroscopy.
• Knowledge of ISO quality systems and regulatory standards including Prop 65, REACH, and RoHS.
• Ability to interpret engineering drawings, material specifications, and heat-treating standards.
• Ability to work with all levels of management in resolving production problems.