#Working3D: Six Questions to Understand the Job of R&D Engineer

With the rise of industrial additive manufacturing, many companies are looking to hire profiles specialized in these new technologies, capable of fully making the most of its advantages. This is what we have seen on our dedicated job board, where more than 900 job offers related to the 3D sector were published last year. To continue exploring the world of work, we offer #Working3D, a series of articles that aim to present the different jobs available in the additive manufacturing market. If you’re interested in working in this field, then you’ve come to the right place! After discovering the role of Emilien Goetz at Siemens and Lorenzo Mastria at Roboze, today we explored one of the fields particularly interesting for a market in constant search of innovation. We met Maria Montero, R&D engineer at the Royal Netherlands Aerospace Center (NLR).

3DN: Could You Introduce Yourself?

Maria Montero Sistiaga

My name is Maria Montero Sistiaga and since 2020 I have been an R&D Engineer at Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR). My background is in materials engineering and I have a doctorate degree in Materials Engineering from the University of Leuven (KU Leuven). At NLR, I focus on bringing AM technologies to a higher level, mainly laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) and directed energy deposition (DED).

3DN: How Did You Discover Additive Manufacturing?

During my bachelor’s degree, in 2011, I had the opportunity to go on Erasmus to KU Leuven (Belgium) for my bachelor thesis. There, I spent a year working with 3DSystems (former Layerwise) and KU Leuven on the process optimization of tantalum and tungsten. This was my very first experience with AM, and since then I haven’t left the AM world. It was very enriching to be part of such a pioneering group on AM, the group of Prof. Kruth and Prof. Van Humbeeck at KU Leuven.