Senior Research Engineer

Established nearly two centuries ago, FM is a leading mutual insurance company whose capital, scientific research capability and engineering expertise are solely dedicated to property risk management and the resilience of its policyholder-owners. These owners, who share the belief that the majority of property loss is preventable, represent many of the world’s largest organizations, including one of every four Fortune 500 companies. They work with FM to better understand the hazards that can impact their business continuity to make cost-effective risk management decisions, combining property loss prevention with insurance protection.

We are looking for a research engineer to assess the risks of complex industrial equipment and systems, and to develop risk mitigation and loss prevention methodologies accordingly.

The researcher will join the equipment and material science team of FM Research in Norwood, MA, closely working with team members and under the general guidance of an FM team lead. The research engineer is expected to bring solid engineering and/or research experience and support research proposals. 

Responsibilities include:

• Review loss data in various formats and develop trends and insights for major industrial equipment such as gas turbines, steam turbines, wind turbines, generators, transformers, boilers and pressure vessels, and other rotating or stationary heavy-duty machinery in high hazard industries and renewable industries.
• Work closely with the team lead, staff engineering, and operation engineering to support understanding of contributing factors and root causes of major equipment losses as needed, provide expert input on technical issues and engineering risk assessment.
• Assess/evaluate risk mitigation technologies and develop in-house methodologies, to prevent or reduce equipment loss, including tools or job-aids using physics-based and/or data analytics driven approaches.
• Support the development and revisions of relevant FM Operating Standards.
• Develop, operate, maintain, and troubleshoot tools and testing setups including equipment, devices, instrumentation, network, and software, for various electromechanical applications such as equipment condition monitoring.
• Support the development of condition monitoring experiments and test cases using various hardware and software-based methods, to evaluate system efficacy and emulate/simulate/analyze faulty or failure conditions of complex equipment and engineering systems.
• Develop solid and fluid mechanics models (FEA and/or CFD) as needed to assess thermal and mechanical properties of systems, components, and material coupons.
• Lead or support experimental works for the evaluation of mechanical properties of systems, components, and coupons, interpret and evaluate test results.
• Develop research technical reports or memos under the guidance of technical lead.
• Propose and develop feasible, relevant, and value-added research topics or project ideas including potential collaborations with internal and external entities.

• Doctoral degree in mechanical engineering (or other fields of science and engineering with the right experience / exposure) with at least 5 years of industrial experience or a Master degree with at least 10 years of industrial experience, in the field of mechanical engineering, preferably rotating machinery.
• Strong hands-on knowledge and experience in several engineering functions related to industrial equipment including product design, analysis, testing, operation, maintenance, inspection, continuous monitoring, and troubleshooting. The focus is placed on turbines, generators, transformers, boilers and pressure vessels, electromechanical systems, HVAC systems, and other rotating or stationary equipment, as well as the complex systems/processes consist of these machines and associated peripherals and accessories.
• Strong engineering fundamentals such as heat transfer, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, engineering mechanics especially vibration/dynamics and mechanics of failure, at material, component, and system levels, engineering design and analysis with software and programming, as well as instrumentation and experimentation.
• Knowledge and experience in data modeling/analytics including physics or rule-based methods, statistical methods, machine learning and AI methods, for applications in risk assessment, risk differentiation, fault detection and diagnostics, etc.
• Strong accountability, through strength in attention to details, problem-solving, result delivery, and sufficient project management skills.
• Strong self-driven work ethics and work under general advisory but not close supervision.
• Strong verbal and written communication including presentation skills, facing management and leaders, colleagues, advisors, customers, collaborators, and technology providers/vendors.
• Strong collaboration and team working spirit, receptive, transparent, and respectful.

The final salary offer will vary based on geographic location, individual education, skills, and experience. The position is eligible to participate in FM’s comprehensive Total Rewards program that includes an incentive plan, generous health and well-being programs, a 401(k) and pension plan, career development opportunities, tuition reimbursement, flexible work, time off allowances and much more.

FM is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to attracting, developing, and retaining a diverse workforce.

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