Equipment Engineer: Solar Screen Printing Fab

T1 Energy; Georgia; On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

T1 Energy is building a G2 TOPCon solar cell fab in Rockdale, Texas, and we’re hiring Equipment Engineers to own metallization tools from install to high‑volume production. This is an on‑site, day shift role for a 24/7 facility with on‑call rotations, cleanroom work, and a fast‑paced startup environment.

You’ll own PM schedules, diagnose tool issues, and lead safety and process improvements with EHS and Process Engineering.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, or Mechatronics Engineering, or an associate degree with equivalent hands‑on experience.
• 3+ years of hands‑on equipment engineering in semiconductor, solar, or similar high‑volume manufacturing.
• Hands‑on repair of screen printers, belt dryers, or firing furnaces, including print heads, squeegees, screen and stencil mounting, vision alignment, belt drives, and thermal zones.
• Component‑level troubleshooting from electrical schematics, pneumatic drawings, P&IDs, and PLC/HMI diagnostics.
• A track record of eliminating a chronic equipment failure, not just repairing it again.
• Safe working practice with metallization pastes and solvents, high-temperature belt furnaces, and LOTO.
• Preferred: solar cell (TOPCon, PERC, or HJT) or semiconductor fab experience.
• Preferred: greenfield tool install, SAT, and ramp experience.

Responsibilities

• Own OEE, availability, MTBF, and MTTR for your toolset.
• Be first on the tool when it goes down. Make it safe, diagnose the failed component, and restore it.
• Close root cause on chronic failures, wafer breakage, and leaks using 8D, FMEA, and Pareto, and verify the fixes hold.
• Analyze alarm histories, maintenance records, and tool data in JMP, SQL, Python, or Excel to spot failure trends before they cause downtime.
• Own the PM schedule, refine vendor PM procedures, and set critical‑spares levels, then adjust both from failure history.
• Keep interlocks, over-temperature protection, exhaust and abatement interfaces, and paste and solvent handling controls working across the print line. You’ll do this together with EHS.
• Work with Process Engineering on print alignment, wet weight, screen and stencil life, and firing profile hardware.
• Bring tools through install, SAT, and qualification into production. Write down the procedures and train the technicians who run them.

Skills

Hands-on

Failure analysis

Decision making

Communication

Detail-oriented

Education

Bachelor in Mechanical / Electrical / Chemical / Mechatronics or related field

Associate degree with hands-on experience

Tools

Screen printers

Belt dryers

Firing furnaces

Print heads & squeegees

Job description

T1 Energy is building a G2 TOPCon solar cell fab in Rockdale, Texas, and we’re hiring Equipment Engineers to own metallization tools from install to high‑volume production. This is an on‑site, day shift role for a 24/7 facility with on‑call rotations, cleanroom work, and a fast‑paced startup environment.

You’ll own PM schedules, diagnose tool issues, and lead safety and process improvements with EHS and Process Engineering.