Senior CVD Equipment Engineer for High-Volume Solar Cells

SpaceX; Bastrop (TX); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

SpaceX in Bastrop, TX seeks a Sr. CVD Equipment Engineer to own the PECVD tools for silicon heterojunction solar cell production at scale.

You will ensure tool availability, uptime, and reliability while partnering with process engineers to meet production goals for Starlink manufacturing. The role demands hands-on ownership of high-throughput PECVD equipment, strong failure analysis, and the ability to lead preventive maintenance programs across a 24/7 production environment.

Qualifications

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

Responsibilities

• Install, qualify, maintain, and continuously improve high-throughput PECVD equipment for heterojunction silicon solar cell manufacturing
• Drive equipment reliability and uptime to support very large volume production with minimal downtime
• Run experiments and analyze data to improve capacity (UPH), reduce tool to tool variation, and improve defect performance
• Develop and execute robust preventive and predictive maintenance strategies, spare parts programs, and tool matching protocols for high-volume manufacturing
• Lead root cause analysis and corrective actions on all equipment-related issues, including vacuum systems, RF generators, gas delivery, temperature control, and automation
• Partner closely with Process Engineers to implement new process requirements on existing and future equipment platforms
• Evaluate and select next-generation high-throughput PECVD tools capable of supporting 1GW+ per tool scale production
• Work with vendors on equipment design improvements, upgrades, and custom solutions tailored to heterojunction solar cell requirements
• Establish equipment performance metrics (OEE, MTBF, MTTR) and implement statistical process control for hardware stability
• Ensure all equipment meets cleanroom, safety, and high-reliability manufacturing standards
• Analyze production processes and machinery from a first principles, physics-based approach
• Attend meetings to communicate factory state to leadership with respect to the team’s equipment

Skills

CVD/PECVD ownership

Equipment uptime improvement

Root cause analysis

Project management

Cleanroom practices

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering

Tools

Vacuum systems

RF plasma systems

Gas delivery

Mass flow controllers

Temperature control hardware

Automation systems

CDA controlled valving

Robotics transfer modules

Pyrophoric gas handling

RPS unit qualification

Impedance matching systems

Job description

SpaceX in Bastrop, TX seeks a Sr. CVD Equipment Engineer to own the PECVD tools for silicon heterojunction solar cell production at scale.

You will ensure tool availability, uptime, and reliability while partnering with process engineers to meet production goals for Starlink manufacturing. The role demands hands-on ownership of high-throughput PECVD equipment, strong failure analysis, and the ability to lead preventive maintenance programs across a 24/7 production environment.