Associate R&D Engineer

Light Materials; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary and meaningful-equI

Job summary

Light Materials, based in Sunnyvale, CA, invites a hands-on scientist to run experiments on our custom furnace equipment and guide a proof-of-concept process toward industrial maturity.

You will work closely with the Director of Process Development, design experiments, analyze results, and document findings that influence the company’s growth trajectory in a fast-moving R&D setting.

Qualifications

• Rigorous, organized experimental habits and clear written documentation.
• Comfort working around furnaces, compressed gases, and vacuum equipment after training.
• Real curiosity — you want to understand why the process behaves the way it does, not just follow the recipe.

Responsibilities

• Run furnace tools end to end, prepare fixtures, execute recipes, monitor runs, and document results.
• Characterize samples using analytical tools.
• Keep meticulous experiment logs and flag anomalies.
• Help keep a fast-moving R&D lab running: equipment maintenance and practical work.

Skills

Experimental rigor

Documentation

Analytical thinking

Education

B.S. in chemical engineering or related field

Tools

Furnace operation

Vacuum systems

Gas handling equipment

Python basics

Job description

Nearly every material humanity uses at scale is cast from a liquid or cut from a solid. But the highest-performing materials — carbides, borides, diamond — don’t melt and can’t be cut, which leaves the most ambitious designs stuck in CAD. Light Materials is scaling up a process that grows finished, complex parts of these extreme materials, in shapes and compositions nobody else can produce — for vehicles that fly faster, engines that burn hotter, and chips that run cooler.

The role

This is a chance to do frontier materials science with your own hands. Working closely with our Director of Process Development, you’ll run experiments on our custom furnace equipment and help take our proof-of-concept process to industrial maturity. Your data and observations will directly impact the company’s growth and direction — in a process this new, a sharp observation in the lab can change the whole roadmap. As you master the process, you’ll take on experiment design, analysis, and process questions of your own.

What you'll do

• Run our furnace tools end to end — prepare and load fixtures, execute recipes, monitor runs, and document results — on a process nobody else in the world operates
• Characterize samples using a suite of analytical tools
• Keep meticulous experiment logs and flag anomalies
• Help keep a fast-moving R&D lab running: equipment maintenance, upkeep, and the practical work that makes good science possible
• Take on increasing ownership of experiment design and analysis as you build experience on the team

What we're looking for

• B.S. in chemical engineering, materials science, mechanical engineering, physics, or a related field — or equivalent hands-on laboratory experience
• Rigorous, organized experimental habits and clear written documentation
• Comfort working around furnaces, compressed gases, and vacuum equipment after training
• Real curiosity — you want to understand why the process behaves the way it does, not just follow the recipe

Nice to have experience with

• Furnace, vacuum, or gas-handling equipment
• Materials characterization (SEM, XRD, optical microscopy)
• CVD, PVD, or other deposition processes
• Python or basic data analysis

Logistics

All employees work in person at our R&D lab in Sunnyvale, CA. Competitive salary, meaningful equity, and full benefits.