PVD Equipment Engineer – Solar Cells

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

Job summary

SpaceX is seeking a PVD Equipment Engineer for our Bastrop, TX solar cell production line. You will own PVD tooling, drive uptime, and partner with process teams to scale high-throughput production for heterojunction silicon solar cells used in Starlink and Starship programs.

You will lead maintenance, reliability, and continuous improvement efforts across hardware platforms, collaborating with facilities and vendors to secure robust performance and safety in a high-demand environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, chemical engineering, materials science, or other engineering discipline
• 2+ years of hands‑on experience owning and maintaining PVD or sputtering equipment in a high‑volume semiconductor, solar manufacturing, or related environment
• Experience handling flammable, toxic, corrosive, and/or hazardous chemicals and gases safely

Responsibilities

• Install, qualify, maintain, and improve high-throughput PVD equipment for heterojunction silicon solar cell manufacturing
• Drive reliability and uptime to support large-scale production with minimal downtime
• Develop and execute preventive and predictive maintenance strategies and spare parts programs
• Lead root cause analysis and corrective actions on equipment issues including vacuum systems and power supplies
• Collaborate with Process Engineers to implement new process requirements on equipment platforms
• Evaluate next-generation PVD tools for 1GW+ per tool scale production
• Coordinate with vendors on equipment design improvements and upgrades
• Establish equipment performance metrics and implement SPC for hardware stability
• Ensure equipment meets cleanroom, safety, and high-reliability standards
• Attend meetings communicating factory state to leadership

Skills

PVD equipment ownership

Root cause analysis

Project management

Data-driven optimization

High-volume manufacturing

Education

Bachelor’s degree in mechanical, electrical, chemical engineering, materials science, or related field

Tools

Vacuum systems

Sputtering targets

RF/DC power supplies

Mass flow controllers

Chamber maintenance

Job description

SpaceX is seeking a PVD Equipment Engineer for our Bastrop, TX solar cell production line. You will own PVD tooling, drive uptime, and partner with process teams to scale high-throughput production for heterojunction silicon solar cells used in Starlink and Starship programs.

You will lead maintenance, reliability, and continuous improvement efforts across hardware platforms, collaborating with facilities and vendors to secure robust performance and safety in a high-demand environment.