Robert Best

Senior Materials Engineer at National Gas Transmission

Rugby, England, United Kingdom

About

An experienced Materials Engineer, with a focus on business process improvement and implementation. Significant technical knowledge of sheet materials, FMEA and Six Sigma. Strong communication skills gained through working in international environments. Excellent leadership qualities gained through the successful delivery of projects of various sizes. Keen interest in sustainable technologies.

Experience

  • National Gas (Full-time · 3 yrs 5 mos)
    • Senior Materials Engineer
      Jan 2026 - Present · 6 mos

      Senior Materials Engineer within Hydrogen & New Products team.

    • Hydrogen Innovation Engineer
      Feb 2023 - Jan 2026 · 3 yrs

  • Hydrogen Innovation Engineer at National Grid
    Dec 2021 - Jan 2023 · 1 yr 2 mos

  • Jaguar Land Rover (Full-time · 8 yrs 9 mos)
    • Lead Engineer - Materials & Capacity Planning, Tooling & Pressed Parts Group
      Jul 2017 - Dec 2021 · 4 yrs 6 mos

      My work centres on the approval of new sheet metal materials and associated technologies, plus new supply routes and suppliers. This involves the characterisation of material for simulation; the review of existing processes and systems; verification of business cases for material introductions; and confirmation of capability of suppliers to meet forming and press shop operational requirements. The scope covers forming lubricants and sheet metal coatings as well as the sheet metal substrates.

    • Project Engineer
      Apr 2013 - Jun 2017 · 4 yrs 3 mos

      Development and approval of materials for use in the car body. I worked on the introduction of new high-strength alloys for structural parts and high-formability alloys for skin panels. This entailed generating test plans and overseeing the testing and analysis of the material for manufacturability (forming; joining; paint), in-service performance (e.g. crash and fatigue; corrosion) and end-of-life (recycling). I also carried out several supply route approvals, which involved assessing data from specific production sites and comparing to existing routes.

  • Materials Engineer at Alstom Power
    Aug 2008 - Apr 2013 · 4 yrs 9 mos

    Technical leader in quality improvement projects and work package owner/project manager for research projects. The projects I was involved in varied in size from £15k to £1M, with overall project durations of 6 months to 14 years. My role included preparation of funding bids and proposals, creation of work programmes and maintenance of safe working practices including risk assessments. In collaboration with the legal department I took part in negotiations of intellectual property (IP) and non-disclosure agreements (NDA) with external partners. I also managed projects involving small teams and provided guidance to PhD and MEng students and new graduate colleagues.

  • Student Placement at Intelligent Energy
    Jul 2007 - Dec 2007 · 6 mos

    • 6-month industrial project at a leading PEM fuel cell business • Project brief involved the creation of a methodology and test rig capable of investigating the degradation of fuel cell components and assessing their suitability for fuel cell systems • Project aims demonstrated by successful design, build and operation of test rig and an accompanying 25,000 word project report and presentation