Metallography Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Location: Chickasha, Oklahoma (on-site) · Type: Full-time
About ADP
American Drillpipe is a family-owned domestic drill pipe manufacturer building its manufacturing and quality systems around API Spec 5DP and API Spec Q1. We are constructing a dedicated laboratory and developing a full in-house materials-testing capability — Charpy V-notch impact, tensile, hardness, metallography, chemical composition, and specimen preparation — alongside a wet fluorescent MT and shear-wave UT inspection booth on our friction-weld line.
The role
This is a greenfield, hands-on leadership position.
You will help design and stand up our materials laboratory, commission its equipment and methods, and then own its technical operation. You will lead our in-house NDE program alongside our contracted ASNT Level III, and hold acceptance authority for laboratory and inspection results as American Drillpipe enters production.
Nearly every decision about how these systems will operate is still open. We are looking for someone who wants to build the program, not inherit one.
What you'll do
Stand up the laboratory
- Define the laboratory scope and recommend which testing capabilities should be brought in-house versus retained with an outside laboratory, if any.
- Specify, evaluate, procure, install, and commission equipment for Charpy impact, tensile, hardness, metallography, chemical-composition testing, and specimen preparation
- Establish laboratory layout, sample flow, utilities, safety controls, tooling, fixtures, reference materials, and environmental requirements
- Develop and validate testing methods using representative specimens, certified reference materials, repeatability studies, and split-sample correlation with an independent laboratory
Run the NDE program (MT / UT)
- Commission and operate the in-line wet fluorescent MT and shear-wave UT booth — reference standards, equipment checks, calibration, performance verification, and inspection records
- Administer ADP's employer-based NDE program with technical oversight from our contracted ASNT Level III
- Support employee training, examinations, practical demonstrations, qualification records, and employer certification under ADP's written practice
- Manage the transition from contracted third-party inspection to in-house NDE release
Write the system
- Write controlled procedures and work instructions based on API 5DP and applicable ASTM or ISO methods
- Define specimen location, orientation, preparation, conditioning, dimensional verification, calculations, acceptance criteria, reporting, and retest handling
- Build the calibration, intermediate-verification, preventive-maintenance, and measurement-traceability program
- Establish sample identification, traceability, test-reporting, record-review, and data-integrity controls
- Write laboratory procedures 17025-aware so that accreditation remains a straightforward future step
Own acceptance and lead the team
- Serve as the accountable authority for laboratory results and inspection acceptance — including incoming acceptance, holds, and nonconformance disposition — reporting to the Director of Quality, who retains final product release
- Recruit, train, evaluate, and lead laboratory and inspection technicians; cross-train so neither function is single-pointed
- Integrate laboratory and NDE controls into the API Q1 quality management system
- Support internal audits, API certification and licensing audits, customer audits, investigations, and corrective actions
What you need
- Substantial hands-on experience in mechanical or materials testing — tensile, Charpy impact, hardness, metallography, or closely related metals testing
- Documentable hands-on experience with magnetic particle and ultrasonic examination of pipe, tubular products, welds, or similar components
- Experience commissioning, verifying, troubleshooting, or maintaining laboratory or inspection equipment
- Ability to turn product specifications and standardized test methods into controlled procedures, work instructions, forms, and records
- Technical records that withstand customer, regulatory, or third-party audit
- Ability to train personnel and objectively evaluate practical competency
- Comfortable working in a startup environment with very little existing structure, hands-on through program development and early production
- Full-time on-site in Chickasha, Oklahoma
Particularly valuable experience
- Drill pipe, OCTG, tubular products, friction welding, or oilfield manufacturing
- API Spec 5DP or API Spec Q1; ISO 9001 or ISO/IEC 17025 laboratory systems
- Current or previous employer certification to MT or UT Level II; ASNT NDT Level III certification
- Metallurgy, materials science, or welding engineering
- Optical emission spectroscopy and certified reference-material control
- Universal testing machines, extensometers, Charpy systems, hardness testers, and metallographic preparation
- Specimen machining, notching, dimensional inspection, and temperature conditioning
- Laboratory commissioning, method validation, or interlaboratory comparison programs
- ASQ certification or ISO 9001 Lead Auditor training
NDE qualification
American Drillpipe maintains an employer-based personnel qualification and certification program under its written practice, with technical oversight and examination support from a contracted ASNT Level III. Documented prior training, certification, and method-specific experience will be evaluated for allowable credit, and relevant qualifications will be reflected in the position level and compensation.