Composites Technician

Composites TechnicianThe Bike Shop, part of the Hardware Engineering directorate, serves as a rapid-prototyping and product-development hub supporting engineering teams across the organization. Our mission is to provide fast, high-quality prototypes, early-stage demonstration hardware, and hands-on development support that accelerates engineering solutions throughout the product lifecycle. We offer a broad range of in-house capabilities including mechanical and electrical fabrication, engineering and test support, and procurement coordination, enabling teams to quickly move from concept to demonstrated intent.We are seeking a highly skilled Composites Technician to join our prototyping operations and support the growing demand for advanced composite structures. This role plays a key part in planning, fabricating, and delivering composite components that meet stringent engineering requirements. Working closely with the composites team, the technician will perform hands-on fabrication—ranging from layups and mold making to trimming, bonding, finishing, and integration—while ensuring projects meet quality, schedule, and performance goals. This is a dynamic, highly collaborative environment where each day brings new challenges, miscellaneous fabrication tasks, and the opportunity to contribute directly to innovative engineering solutions.What You Will DoRead and interpret engineering drawings, models, and specifications. Understand tolerances, ply schedules, fiber orientations, and surface-finish requirements to ensure parts meet design intent.Estimate fabrication tasks (labor hours, material costs, lead times) in a timely manner while identifying manufacturability issues and tooling required. You will use your skills to communicate and negotiate technical requirements.Initiate quoting and ordering of raw materials, hardware, and machine tools for each project.Perform hands on fabrication in composites shop, including but not limited to mold making, vacuum forming, woodworking, silicones, part marking/stencil making, carbon fiber layups, fiberglass work, etc.Perform trimming, sanding, bonding, installing inserts like Helicoils, Keenserts and assembly operations.Carry out wet layup, prepreg layup, bagging, curing, demolding, part trimming, drilling, bonding using adhesives/films, paint/stenciling and final part finishing.Perform mechanical/electro-mechanical integration.Responsible for doing final inspection of the composite parts and also final close out of projects.All around hands on mechanical fabrication, this is a very fluid role that could require different mechanical skills every day.Qualifications You Must Have:Typically requires an AA/AS degree, (or another 2-year post high school training) and a minimum of eight (8) years of experience in a manufacturing or composites shop environment.Experience with composites and woodworking.Experience with adhesives and silicones.Experience with reading fabrication drawings.Qualifications We Value:Highly organized, efficient and able to manage multiple tasks and deadlines effectively.Strong communications and interpersonal skills and the ability to work cohesively in a multi-disciplined teaming environment.Experience using 3D CAD programsKnowledge of materials, machining processes, plating, hardware, inserts, etc.Experience working with small engines