Employment

Terrapin Works is primarily student-run, one of the reasons we have been so successful in establishing a large presence on campus and integrating our services into the curriculum here. We believe in hiring hardworking, passionate student employees. Our only requirements are a good work ethic & that our staff put school before work when necessary - an engineering major is not required to work with us. Note, however, that this is a primarily engineering-focused job.

All student employees begin their time at Terrapin Works in the lab corresponding to the specialization. There, they will learn the basics of their specialization and how our organization operates. After completing introductory training, employees are given the option to stay within their specialization, or learn a new specialization in another lab. Every semester, employees will be given the option to pick which specialization they want to focus on (a “home base”), so whichever specialization you pick is not restrictive!

We accept applications on a rolling basis, with hiring cycles occuring in two main periods. We have recently changed our hiring cycles, resulting in the Fall 2025 semester having a longer wait. Applications for each Fall semester close on July 30th. Applications for each Spring semester close on December 31st.

Interested In Applying? 

Apply Here

Terrapin Works is seeking highly motivated and skilled student technicians with an interest in all 3D Printing/Additive Manufacturing technologies. 

Position responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

  • Staffing Terrapin Work’s Spaces
  • Running customers jobs through a number of different 3D printing technologies
  • Maintenance and troubleshooting of equipment
  • Upkeep of the space
  • Interacting with customers
  • Answering customer inquiries about rapid prototyping & 3D printing 

Desired Skills (not required):

  • 3D Printing Experience
  • CAD Experience

Terrapin Works is seeking highly motivated and skilled students with experience in Computer Aided Design (CAD) and general mechanical design, to work on design, prototyping, and consultation for internal and external design projects.

The design team is made up exclusively staff promoted from other tracks. Applicants can no longer be hired directly onto the design team.

 

Position responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

  • Determining problem formulations, ideating design solutions, and making decisions based on problem criteria.
  • Performing detailed Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Analysis of parts and assemblies.
  • Selecting appropriate materials based on project demands and criteria.
  • Presenting design decisions and possibilities to internal and external stakeholders.
  • Converting CAD files into engineering drawings for presentation and manufacturing.
  • Working across many manufacturing spaces and technologies to put together functional prototypes to be delivered to customers.

Required Skills:

  • Experience with at least one CAD package (e.g. Solidworks, Autodesk Fusion 360, Autodesk Inventor, Siemens NX, etc.)
  • Experience with at least one prototyping/manufacturing method (3D-printing, woodworking, machining, sheet metal bending, etc.)
  • Experience working in a team and keeping to deliverable deadlines.

Desired Skills

  • Additional CAD packages
  • Additional manufacturing and prototyping experience
  • Experience with version control systems
  • Experience with the product design process

Terrapin Works is seeking highly motivated and skilled student electronics developers/designers to assist in the design, troubleshooting, debugging, integration and implementation of electronics based systems.

 

Position responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

  • Training and Staffing Terrapin Work’s Spaces
  • Training and Staffing the Instructional Electronic Shop (IES) and helping students who come in asking for help.
  • Training staff and students on lab equipment such as oscilloscopes, function generators, and soldering stations.
  • Running customer jobs on our PCB manufacturing equipment
  • Answering customer inquiries about electrical design and prototyping

Required Skills:

  • Basic Breadboarding and Circuit Prototyping
  • Experience with Microcontroller Prototyping (such as Arduino)
  • Electronics Rework, debugging, and documentation
  • Electronics lab and test equipment experience (such as soldering irons, oscilloscopes, and function generators)

 Desired Skills:

  • PCB design and manufacturing experience
  • Microcontroller Design Experience
  • SMB or SMT Soldering Experience

Terrapin Works is seeking highly motivated and skilled students with an interests in hands  on work in a woodshop with some of the following equipment:

 

  • Miter
  • Drill Press
  • Band Saw
  • Jointer
  • Planer
  • Table Saw

Job duties include:

  • Ensuring the safety of the students using the space
  • Maintenance and troubleshoot of equipment
  • Upkeep of the space
  •  Assisting the students with their projects
    • Training and supervising to use of equipment
    • Coaching on design ideation and manufacturing

Required Skills

  • Problem Solving
  • Teamwork
  • Punctual

Desired Skills (not required)

  • Woodworking and hand tool
  • Design and CAD experience

Terrapin Works is seeking highly motivated and skilled student machine shop managers interested in machine shop usage and training, as well as gaining knowledge in subtractive manufacturing.

 

Positional responsibilities will include but are not limited to

  • Operation and maintenance of manual machine tools such as…
    • Drill Press/Drill Mill
    • Horizontal/Vertical Band Saws
    • CNC Machines (Router, Lathe, Mill)
    • Belt and Disk Sander
    • Ironworker
    • Welding
    • Waterjet
    • Lathe
  • Training and supervision of students and staff in proper machine shop usage
  • Assisting students and staff with design ideation and parts manufacturing
  • Answering customer inquiries about the lab, subtractive manufacturing, and Terrapin Works
  • Giving new student tours of the lab
  • Running customer jobs on our machines

Required Skills

  • Basic knowledge of mechanical part design (CAD)
  • Teamwork and Problem Solving skills
  • Willingness to learn!

Desired Skills (Not Required)

  • Experience with operating machine tools
  • Extensive experience with CAD and CAM
  • Experience with operating CNC machines
  • Experience with part design and manufacturing

Terrapin Works is seeking highly motivated and skilled students with a strong background in graphic design and marketing to help with internal and external events, outreach, and graphics for software and web based systems.

 

Job duties include:

  • Creating graphics and marketing material for:
    • The Terrapin Works website
    • Outreach materials
    • Internal software and design projects
  • Participating in and helping to organize and market events, including:
    • External and internal classes, hosted by Terrapin Works
    • Conferences, Maryland Day, and other outreach events
    • Internal “Lab Bonding” events
  • Problem Solving
  • Teamwork

The Social Media Coordniator will curate, oversee, and manage all social media and outreach accounts for Terrapin Works.

Job Duties Include:

  • Develop social media strategy and create storyboards
  • Communicate with student staff to curate and share social media content
  • Facilitate interactions with the community via social media platforms
  • Monitor social Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) (i.e. SEO / engagement) as they relate to interactions with users to improve future performance
  • Create documentation in Dozuki to train student employees on content curation and management of social media platform
  • Train student employee(s) on content curation and management of social media platforms
  • Participate in outreach activities to promote Terrapin Works services and recruit employees (i.e. Engineering Picnic, First Look Fair)

 

Working at Terrapin Works not only taught me about whole fields of manufacturing I would have barely learned about from my courses, it allowed me to use them in making practical embodiments of engineering principles.
TW is a great place to start with to learn about manufacturing. I went from not knowing anything about additive manufacturing to basing my research on it  after training here and working for just a few months.

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