Staff Materials Engineer, Metals

Our mission at Oura is to empower every person to own their inner potential. Our award-winning products help our global community gain a deeper knowledge of their readiness, activity, and sleep quality by using their Oura Ring and its connected app. We've helped millions of people understand and improve their health by providing daily insights and practical steps to inspire healthy lifestyles.

Empowering the world starts with living our values and empowering our team. As a quickly growing company focused on helping people live healthier and happier lives, we ensure that our team members have what they need to do their best work — both in and out of the office. 

The Staff Metals and Alloys Engineer acts as the principal technical expert for metallic material systems and their integration into high-performance hardware, with a critical emphasis on Color, Material, and Finish (CMF). This role drives the strategic selection and development of alloys, surface treatments, and coatings to achieve superior mechanical performance, scratch resistance, reliability, and aesthetic quality for next-generation consumer electronics. The engineer will lead multi-functional efforts to qualify new metallic materials and fabrication processes, ensuring components meet rigorous demands while maintaining quality and reliability.

Core Technical Responsibilities

This position requires deep metallurgical expertise to solve complex materials challenges across the product lifecycle:

Physical Metallurgy & Alloy Design

• Alloy Selection: Lead the development and characterization of high-performance alloys (e.g., Titanium, Steel and non-ferrous alloys) for critical wearable device components and outer housings
• Phase Transformations: Apply deep knowledge of phase diagrams and kinetics to optimize heat treatment cycles, ensuring desired microstructural phases and mechanical properties.
• Strengthening Mechanisms: Implement advanced strengthening strategies such as precipitation hardening, work hardening, and grain refinement to enhance component durability.

Manufacturing & Thermal Processing

• Process Optimization: Partner with manufacturing teams to refine metal forming processes including MIM, 3D printing, forging, extrusion, and precision casting for high-volume production.
• Thermal Management: Design and validate thermal processing routes to manage residual stresses, improve dimensional stability, and optimize grain structure.
• Surface Metallurgy: Collaborate on the interaction between bulk metal properties and secondary surface treatments to ensure robust adhesion and finish quality.

Surface Engineering & Advanced Coatings

• Lead the development, characterization, and qualification of advanced thin film coatings and surface treatments, including PVD, CVD, Platings, and Anodizing, to optimize CMF and wear resistance on Titanium components.
• Drive innovation in coatings and finishes to achieve superior scratch resistance and reliability under long-term user wear.
• Collaborate with design and manufacturing teams to develop optically clear, scratch resistant coatings for metallic surfaces.

Characterization & Forensic Analysis

• Microstructural Analysis: Utilize advanced metallographic techniques (SEM, EBSD, XRD) to characterize grain size, phase distribution, and crystalline orientation.
• Failure Analysis: Perform deep-dive root cause investigations of metallic failures, including fatigue, stress corrosion cracking (SCC), and brittle fracture.
• Mechanical Testing: Establish comprehensive testing protocols for tensile, hardness, and toughness evaluation to correlate microstructure with real-world performance.

Key Technical Challenges

• Improving the scratch resistance of Titanium PVD finishes to meet premium consumer standards.
• Developing and qualifying optically clear, scratch resistant coatings for functional metal surfaces.
• Strength-to-Weight Optimization: Developing lightweight metallic solutions that maintain structural integrity under extreme loading conditions.
• Ensuring consistent metallurgical and coating properties across global supply chains during rapid production ramps.
• Balancing the mechanical and reliability requirements of alloys with the rigorous cosmetic standards required for premium consumer finishes.

Candidate Qualifications

• 10+ years of deep expertise in metallurgy, metals engineering, or surface engineering, specifically focused on alloy development and advanced coatings/finishes for high-volume manufacturing.
• Formal Metallurgist qualification or degree in Metallurgical Engineering, Materials Science, or a related field; Masters or PhD preferred, but not required.
• Proven track record of shipping complex metallic components in the consumer electronics, medical, aerospace, or automotive industries.
• Expertise in the metallurgy of Titanium
• Demonstrated ability to translate fundamental materials science into scalable engineering solutions for mass production

Benefits 

At Oura, we care about you and your well-being. Everyone here at Oura has a ring of their own and we are continually looking to improve employee health.

What we offer:

• Competitive salary and equity packages
• Health, dental, vision insurance, and mental health resources
• An Oura Ring of your own plus employee discounts for friends & family
• 20 days of paid time off plus 13 paid holidays plus 8 days of flexible wellness time off
• Paid sick leave and parental leave

Oura takes a market-based approach to pay, which may vary depending on your location. US locations are categorized into tiers based on a cost of labor index for that geographic area. While most offers will be closer to the starting range, successful candidates' pay will be determined based on job-related skills, experience, qualifications, work location, internal peer equity, and market conditions. These ranges may be modified in the future.

• Region 1: $198,050 - $267,950