Principal Welding Engineer - Metallurgy
Posted date [2026-07-07]
(ID: 47679)
McDermott is a global engineering and construction company delivering advanced solutions for the energy sector. The company focuses on transforming energy resources into essential products through innovative, technology-driven approaches across the full project lifecycle, from concept to decommissioning. With operations in more than 30 countries, McDermott combines a skilled workforce, specialized marine assets, and international fabrication capabilities to support large-scale energy projects. The organization plays a key role in developing efficient, reliable, and sustainable energy infrastructure worldwide.... |
Job Description and Requirements
Principal Welding Engineer - MetallurgyJob Snapshot
Role: Principal Welding Engineer - Metallurgy
Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Industry: Oil and Energy
Function: Metal Fabrication and Welding
Experience: 8+ years in welding engineering, metallurgy, materials, or subsea pipeline projects
Job Type: Full-time
Position Overview
Principal Welding Engineer - Metallurgy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates is an Oil and Energy opportunity for a senior welding and materials specialist who can lead welding engineering strategy, qualification planning, metallurgical support, consumable selection, technical problem solving, and welding technology development for major onshore, offshore, fabrication, marine, and subsea projects. This role requires deep expertise in welding, metallurgy, materials, subsea pipelines, quality control, procedure approval, and fit-for-purpose evaluations within complex energy project environments.
Job Details
Country: United Arab Emirates
City: Dubai
Industry: Oil and Energy
Function: Metal Fabrication and Welding
Salary: 32000-48000
Estimated salary range based on similar jobs in the
job city; please confirm the final offer with the employer.
Gender: Any
Candidate Nationality: Any
Job Type: Full-time
Role Context
The Principal Welding Engineer provides specialist technical leadership for welding engineering, metallurgical consultation, project qualification planning, fabrication support, offshore campaign readiness, and welding technology improvement. The role helps ensure that welding procedures, consumables, materials, execution plans, quality decisions, and technical evaluations are aligned with project schedules, client requirements, certifying authority expectations, and operational needs. By guiding welding engineers, supporting fabrication and marine teams, resolving complex technical issues, and driving practical innovation, this position directly improves weld quality, execution reliability, workforce capability, and project delivery confidence.
Key Responsibilities
* Guide the welding engineering discipline and provide metallurgical consultative welding services to operations teams and project management teams for onshore and offshore projects.
* Lead preparation of project welding qualification execution plans covering required weld procedures, qualification schedules, consumables, materials, and technical scope.
* Establish priorities aligned with project schedules and review welding engineering progress against execution needs.
* Review and approve project weld procedures through direct and indirect coordination with customers and certifying authorities.
* Select appropriate electrodes and welding consumables based on physical properties, chemical properties, corrosion resistance, weldability, project economics, and application requirements.
* Review project schedules, material control reports, and welding consumable estimates to identify changes needed in the welding execution plan.
* Manage welding school facility activities supporting workforce training, welding methodology improvement, and good workmanship practices.
* Support the development, improvement, and implementation of automatic welding systems.
* Review technical inputs and estimates for bids through the welding engineering group.
* Estimate, requisition, monitor, and forecast project-specific welding consumable requirements, including DOE consumables.
* Complete readiness reviews for important offshore campaigns and ensure welding requirements are understood before execution.
* Work with fabrication management, yard welding teams, marine groups, and automatic welding system teams on future research and development initiatives.
* Evaluate new technology related to welding ferrous and non-ferrous materials for possible project and operational use.
* Maintain technical contact with internal and external groups, including Global Welding Group, TWI, DNV, EWI, welding equipment manufacturers, consumable manufacturers, and similar organizations.
* Resolve metallurgical, welding, and quality-related problems by investigating failure causes and prescribing fit-for-purpose technical solutions.
* Initiate fit-for-purpose evaluations for nonconforming work and support practical technical disposition.
* Evaluate the performance of welding engineers reporting directly to the role and recommend training, classification, and compensation-related actions where applicable.
* Visit vendor facilities for technical evaluation, welding capability review, or project-specific technical assessment.
* Monitor projects during execution to ensure welding engineering support, procedure control, consumable planning, and technical issue resolution remain effective.
* Liaise with operations managers, discipline managers, project teams, customers, field engineers, QC and NDT engineers, engineering groups, certifying authorities, consulting firms, bidding teams, and project management stakeholders.
* Apply specialist welding knowledge to solve complex problems independently while recommending best practices for the wider welding discipline.
Ideal Profile
* Master’s degree in Welding, Welding Engineering, Metallurgy, Materials, or a closely related discipline is preferred.
* Bachelor’s degree in Welding, Metallurgy, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.
* Minimum 8 years of direct experience in welding engineering, metallurgy, materials, subsea pipelines, fabrication, offshore projects, or oil and gas construction.
* Strong technical knowledge of welding procedure qualification, weld procedure approval, welding consumable selection, metallurgy, corrosion behavior, and materials performance.
* Experience supporting onshore, offshore, marine, fabrication yard, or subsea pipeline projects.
* Practical understanding of ferrous and non-ferrous materials, weldability, welding economics, and corrosion-related welding decisions.
* Experience with automatic welding systems, welding technology development, welding school support, or workforce capability improvement is valuable.
* Ability to investigate welding failures, metallurgical issues, quality concerns, and nonconforming work.
* Strong experience working with customers, certifying authorities, QC teams, NDT teams, vendors, fabrication teams, and marine operations stakeholders.
* Ability to prepare technical input for bids, project execution plans, readiness reviews, welding estimates, and engineering decisions.
* Chartered Engineer, Senior Member of The Welding Institute, professional body membership, or equivalent recognition is preferred.
* Welding inspection qualification is preferred.
* Strong leadership capability with the ability to guide welding engineers, influence technical decisions, and support discipline development.
* Excellent communication skills for explaining complex welding and metallurgical matters to technical and project stakeholders.
* Independent working style with sound judgment, strong technical discipline, and the ability to manage limited guidance in complex project situations.
Skills Set
* Welding engineering
* Metallurgy
* Materials engineering
* Subsea pipelines
* Welding procedure qualification
* Weld procedure approval
* Project welding execution plans
* Welding consumable selection
* Electrode selection
* Corrosion properties
* Weldability assessment
* Ferrous materials
* Non-ferrous materials
* Automatic welding systems
* Welding technology development
* Offshore campaign readiness
* Fabrication support
* Marine welding support
* Onshore project support
* Offshore project support
* Welding school management
* Workforce welding training
* Fit-for-purpose evaluation
* Nonconformance evaluation
* Failure investigation
* Metallurgical problem solving
* Quality issue resolution
* QC coordination
* NDT coordination
* Vendor technical evaluation
* Bid support
* Consumable estimation
* DOE consumable forecasting
* Certifying authority coordination
* TWI coordination
* DNV coordination
* EWI coordination
* Project execution monitoring
Why Join Us
This opportunity gives a senior welding specialist the chance to influence critical welding engineering decisions across complex oil and energy projects involving fabrication, offshore execution, subsea pipelines, marine operations, and advanced materials. The role offers strong technical authority, exposure to global welding technology networks, involvement in bid and execution strategy, and the ability to guide engineering teams while improving welding quality, workforce capability, and project delivery performance.
About the Company
McDermott International, Ltd is a global engineering, procurement, construction, installation, and technology company serving the oil and energy sector. The company supports offshore, subsea, onshore, and energy transition projects across the energy value chain. In Dubai, McDermott International, Ltd offers opportunities for welding, metallurgy, and engineering professionals who want to contribute to safe, sustainable, and technically advanced energy infrastructure delivery.
Gender: Any
Candidate Nationality: Any
Job Type: Full-time
Role Context
The Principal Welding Engineer provides specialist technical leadership for welding engineering, metallurgical consultation, project qualification planning, fabrication support, offshore campaign readiness, and welding technology improvement. The role helps ensure that welding procedures, consumables, materials, execution plans, quality decisions, and technical evaluations are aligned with project schedules, client requirements, certifying authority expectations, and operational needs. By guiding welding engineers, supporting fabrication and marine teams, resolving complex technical issues, and driving practical innovation, this position directly improves weld quality, execution reliability, workforce capability, and project delivery confidence.
Key Responsibilities
* Guide the welding engineering discipline and provide metallurgical consultative welding services to operations teams and project management teams for onshore and offshore projects.
* Lead preparation of project welding qualification execution plans covering required weld procedures, qualification schedules, consumables, materials, and technical scope.
* Establish priorities aligned with project schedules and review welding engineering progress against execution needs.
* Review and approve project weld procedures through direct and indirect coordination with customers and certifying authorities.
* Select appropriate electrodes and welding consumables based on physical properties, chemical properties, corrosion resistance, weldability, project economics, and application requirements.
* Review project schedules, material control reports, and welding consumable estimates to identify changes needed in the welding execution plan.
* Manage welding school facility activities supporting workforce training, welding methodology improvement, and good workmanship practices.
* Support the development, improvement, and implementation of automatic welding systems.
* Review technical inputs and estimates for bids through the welding engineering group.
* Estimate, requisition, monitor, and forecast project-specific welding consumable requirements, including DOE consumables.
* Complete readiness reviews for important offshore campaigns and ensure welding requirements are understood before execution.
* Work with fabrication management, yard welding teams, marine groups, and automatic welding system teams on future research and development initiatives.
* Evaluate new technology related to welding ferrous and non-ferrous materials for possible project and operational use.
* Maintain technical contact with internal and external groups, including Global Welding Group, TWI, DNV, EWI, welding equipment manufacturers, consumable manufacturers, and similar organizations.
* Resolve metallurgical, welding, and quality-related problems by investigating failure causes and prescribing fit-for-purpose technical solutions.
* Initiate fit-for-purpose evaluations for nonconforming work and support practical technical disposition.
* Evaluate the performance of welding engineers reporting directly to the role and recommend training, classification, and compensation-related actions where applicable.
* Visit vendor facilities for technical evaluation, welding capability review, or project-specific technical assessment.
* Monitor projects during execution to ensure welding engineering support, procedure control, consumable planning, and technical issue resolution remain effective.
* Liaise with operations managers, discipline managers, project teams, customers, field engineers, QC and NDT engineers, engineering groups, certifying authorities, consulting firms, bidding teams, and project management stakeholders.
* Apply specialist welding knowledge to solve complex problems independently while recommending best practices for the wider welding discipline.
Ideal Profile
* Master’s degree in Welding, Welding Engineering, Metallurgy, Materials, or a closely related discipline is preferred.
* Bachelor’s degree in Welding, Metallurgy, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.
* Minimum 8 years of direct experience in welding engineering, metallurgy, materials, subsea pipelines, fabrication, offshore projects, or oil and gas construction.
* Strong technical knowledge of welding procedure qualification, weld procedure approval, welding consumable selection, metallurgy, corrosion behavior, and materials performance.
* Experience supporting onshore, offshore, marine, fabrication yard, or subsea pipeline projects.
* Practical understanding of ferrous and non-ferrous materials, weldability, welding economics, and corrosion-related welding decisions.
* Experience with automatic welding systems, welding technology development, welding school support, or workforce capability improvement is valuable.
* Ability to investigate welding failures, metallurgical issues, quality concerns, and nonconforming work.
* Strong experience working with customers, certifying authorities, QC teams, NDT teams, vendors, fabrication teams, and marine operations stakeholders.
* Ability to prepare technical input for bids, project execution plans, readiness reviews, welding estimates, and engineering decisions.
* Chartered Engineer, Senior Member of The Welding Institute, professional body membership, or equivalent recognition is preferred.
* Welding inspection qualification is preferred.
* Strong leadership capability with the ability to guide welding engineers, influence technical decisions, and support discipline development.
* Excellent communication skills for explaining complex welding and metallurgical matters to technical and project stakeholders.
* Independent working style with sound judgment, strong technical discipline, and the ability to manage limited guidance in complex project situations.
Skills Set
* Welding engineering
* Metallurgy
* Materials engineering
* Subsea pipelines
* Welding procedure qualification
* Weld procedure approval
* Project welding execution plans
* Welding consumable selection
* Electrode selection
* Corrosion properties
* Weldability assessment
* Ferrous materials
* Non-ferrous materials
* Automatic welding systems
* Welding technology development
* Offshore campaign readiness
* Fabrication support
* Marine welding support
* Onshore project support
* Offshore project support
* Welding school management
* Workforce welding training
* Fit-for-purpose evaluation
* Nonconformance evaluation
* Failure investigation
* Metallurgical problem solving
* Quality issue resolution
* QC coordination
* NDT coordination
* Vendor technical evaluation
* Bid support
* Consumable estimation
* DOE consumable forecasting
* Certifying authority coordination
* TWI coordination
* DNV coordination
* EWI coordination
* Project execution monitoring
Why Join Us
This opportunity gives a senior welding specialist the chance to influence critical welding engineering decisions across complex oil and energy projects involving fabrication, offshore execution, subsea pipelines, marine operations, and advanced materials. The role offers strong technical authority, exposure to global welding technology networks, involvement in bid and execution strategy, and the ability to guide engineering teams while improving welding quality, workforce capability, and project delivery performance.
About the Company
McDermott International, Ltd is a global engineering, procurement, construction, installation, and technology company serving the oil and energy sector. The company supports offshore, subsea, onshore, and energy transition projects across the energy value chain. In Dubai, McDermott International, Ltd offers opportunities for welding, metallurgy, and engineering professionals who want to contribute to safe, sustainable, and technically advanced energy infrastructure delivery.
