ALD Lab Manager

Amphiform; Berkeley (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Amphiform in San Francisco is seeking a senior lab lead to build and own a vacuum deposition lab, driving the ALD process development and safety compliance. You will stand up the lab, commission the Beneq TFS200, and guide early reactor development for pilot-scale production.

You will manage lab operations, vendor relationships, and technician hiring, with a focus on scalable processes, regulatory readiness, and quality systems in a startup environment.

Qualifications

• Five+ years hands-on with vacuum deposition equipment in fab, national lab, or cleanroom.
• Installed, commissioned and serviced an ALD system (Beneq TFS200 preferred).
• Strong vacuum and mechanical competence: turbomolecular pumps, foreline traps, leak detection.
• Pyrophoric and toxic precursor handling experience.
• Gas delivery infrastructure and safety sign-off experience.

Responsibilities

• Stand up a lab from scratch: power, cooling, exhaust, seismic anchoring, floor loading, contractor management.
• Install and commission Beneq TFS200: leveling, utilities, pump-down, leak check, bake-out, baseline growth.
• Run and optimize the tool: PM schedules, chamber maintenance, precursor changes, calibration, data SPC.
• Hire and manage technicians as we grow; own lab procurement and budget; vendor relations.
• Scale to pilot line: design input on reactors, utilities headroom, throughput planning, and quality foundations.

Skills

Vacuum deposition

ALD systems

Lab management

Safety leadership

Regulatory knowledge

Vendor management

Tools

Beneq TFS200

RGA

KF/CF/VCR

Turbos

Dry pumps

Job description

Amphiform (amphiform.com) is building next-gen energy materials for AI data centres, defence and space: light, abundant and powerful. We achieve that by creating a new type of matter: hybrid materials, built atomic layer by atomic layer, where every atom has a pre-programmed purpose.

We just closed a $5.5+1m pre-seed led by General Catalyst and Main Object, with Thomas Wolf (Hugging Face), Charlie Songhurst, and others.

You will be the first person on the ground in San Francisco and you'll own the lab.

This is three jobs in sequence. First you build a lab from an empty shell. Then you run it as the person every experiment depends on. Then you scale it from one research reactor into a multi-tool pilot line, much of it custom-built.

We are looking for someone who has done at least the first two.

Phase one. Stand up

• Join the fit-out: power, process cooling, exhaust and make-up air, seismic anchoring, floor loading, contractor and landlord management.
• Help with regulatory path: Hazardous Materials Business Plan and CUPA registration, SFFD permits, hazmat quantity limits, chemical waste contracts and EPA ID, CalARP screening where applicable.
• Install and commission our Beneq TFS200: uncrate to first wafer. Levelling, utilities, pump-down, leak check, bake-out, plasma source, then a qualified Al₂O₃ baseline with growth-per-cycle and uniformity measured and signed off against spec.

Phase two. Running

• TFS200: PM schedules, chamber cleans and swaps, precursor cylinder changes, foreline and pump maintenance, MFC and valve calibration, RF matching, spares inventory, and the service relationship with Beneq.
• Keep the tool qualified. Witness wafer monitoring, SPC on growth rate and uniformity, drift detection before it becomes a lost month of data.
• Support the research team's process runs and teach them to run the tool safely themselves.
• Own lab procurement, vendor relationships, consumables, calibration schedules, sample and data tracking, and the lab budget.
• Hire and manage technicians as we grow.

Phase three. Scaling

• We will be building custom reactors. You will help specify them, then integrate, plumb, wire, and commission them: chamber design input, gas delivery, controls, safety interlocks.
• Take us from one research tool to a pilot line: layout, utilities headroom, throughput planning, documentation and quality system foundations.
• Prepare the ground for production: SEMI S2/S8, ISO 9001, tech transfer discipline.

What we need

• Five or more years hands-on with vacuum deposition equipment, in a fab, national lab, or research cleanroom.
• You have installed, commissioned and serviced an ALD system yourself.Beneq TFS200 or TFS-series is a strong preference.
• Real vacuum and mechanical competence.Turbos and dry pumps, foreline traps, KF/CF/VCR, helium leak detection, RGA. You diagnose from symptoms, not from a service contract.
• Pyrophoric and toxic precursor handling.TMA, DEZ, TDMAT/TEMAH, silanes, ozone. You have handled these without incident and you know why.
• Gas delivery infrastructure.Cabinets, VMBs, purge sequences, gas detection, abatement, and the permitting that comes with them.
• You are willing to be the person who signs off on safety.

Plus

• Semiconductor equipment engineering background — Applied Materials, Lam, TEL, ASM, Intel, Micron, TSMC.
• You have built a reactor, or a significant part of one.
• Metrology depth: spectroscopic ellipsometry, XRR, SEM/EDS, XPS, in-situ QCM.
• Python for tool data, SPC, and automation.
• You have stood up a lab or fab in California and dealt with a CUPA before.
• Electrochemistry or fuel cell / electrolyser test hardware.
• Startup experience.

Not required

• A PhD.
• Fuel cell or catalysis background.