High-Throughput Wet Etch Engineer — Solar Cells

SpaceX; Bastrop (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

SpaceX is seeking a Wet Etch Equipment Engineer to own and scale wet chemical texturing and preclean equipment for silicon solar cell manufacturing in Starlink production lines. You will partner with process teams to ensure tool availability, uptime, and robust maintenance strategies.

This role demands hands-on control of chemical systems, safety compliance, and cross-functional collaboration. Ideal candidates have 5+ years in high-volume semiconductor or solar manufacturing, experience with

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, or related.
• 2+ years owning and maintaining chemical process equipment in high-volume manufacturing.
• Experience handling hazardous chemicals safely.
• 5+ years owning and maintaining chemical process equipment in solar/semiconductor manufacturing.
• Strong expertise in chemical delivery systems, wet process equipment, pumps, filtration, temp control hardware, robotics, and automation.
• Experience with heterojunction silicon solar cell manufacturing equipment.
• Proven track record improving uptime in 24/7 production.
• Experience scaling equipment from pilot to very high volume production.
• Proficient with JMP and Minitab; reliability engineering principles.
• Strong project management and cross-functional collaboration.
• Familiar with high-reliability manufacturing standards for aerospace.

Responsibilities

• Install, qualify, maintain, and improve high-throughput texturing and preclean equipment.
• Drive reliability and uptime to support large-volume production; run experiments and analyze data.
• Develop and execute preventive and predictive maintenance strategies and spare parts programs.
• Lead root cause analysis and corrective actions on equipment issues.
• Partner with Process Engineers to implement new requirements on equipment.
• Evaluate next-gen texturing tools for 1GW+ per tool scale production.
• Collaborate with vendors on equipment design improvements and custom solutions.
• Establish OEE, MTBF, MTTR; implement SPC for hardware stability.
• Ensure equipment meets cleanroom, safety, and high-reliability standards.
• Attend meetings to communicate factory state to leadership.

Skills

Chemical process equipment

Wet process equipment

Pumps

Filtration

Temperature control

Robotics

Automation

JMP

Minitab

Project management

Aerospace standards

Texturing tool architecture

Hazardous chemical handling

HJT equipment experience

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science

Tools

JMP

Minitab

Job description

SpaceX is seeking a Wet Etch Equipment Engineer to own and scale wet chemical texturing and preclean equipment for silicon solar cell manufacturing in Starlink production lines. You will partner with process teams to ensure tool availability, uptime, and robust maintenance strategies.

This role demands hands-on control of chemical systems, safety compliance, and cross-functional collaboration. Ideal candidates have 5+ years in high-volume semiconductor or solar manufacturing, experience with