Senior Materials Engineer — Solar Cell Materials Leader

InvestedintheMission; Bastrop (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

SpaceX is seeking a Sr. Materials Engineer (Starlink) to own consumables for ingot through wafer and cell fabrication, setting the technical bar for sourcing, qualification, and production hand-off.

You will apply first-principles thinking to solve materials and supply-chain challenges at scale. Lead cross-functional qualification programs, collaborate with supply chain, process engineering, quality, and production to reduce risk, improve yield, and cut cost.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in materials science, chemical engineering, or a STEM field.
• 5+ years of experience in materials engineering, materials selection, process materials, supplier qualification, or manufacturing materials support.

Responsibilities

• Own and drive strategy for consumable materials across ingot, wafer, and/or solar cell manufacturing lines—from supplier selection and technical evaluation through qualification, production hand-off, and long-term lifecycle management.
• Lead cross-functional efforts with supply chain, process engineering, quality, and production to source, qualify, and dual-source critical materials that reduce risk and support aggressive scale and cost targets.
• Define and own material requirements, specifications, and acceptance criteria; ensure they accurately reflect process needs, quality standards, and manufacturability at rate.
• Architect and execute rigorous material qualification programs—including characterization, process trials, reliability assessment, and production-readiness reviews—then drive clean hand-off into manufacturing.
• Lead root cause investigations to first principles and implement durable, data-driven corrective actions with urgency.
• Apply deep materials fundamentals across metals, polymers, crystals, coatings, and other process consumables to anticipate failure modes, guide selection, and unlock performance or cost gains.
• Identify and champion path-finding material opportunities that deliver measurable improvements in yield, reliability, uptime, and cost.
• Mentor peers and partner teams on materials problem solving, engineering judgment, and qualification best practices.
• Communicate technical status, risks, and strategic recommendations to leadership.
• Champion a culture of safety, quality, and extreme ownership in all materials and manufacturing activities.

Skills

Materials engineering

Materials characterization

Supplier qualification

Process materials

Cross-functional collaboration

First principles thinking

Education

Bachelor's degree in materials science, chemical engineering, or STEM

Master’s degree or PhD preferred

Tools

SEM-EDS

XRD

FTIR

XPS

Optical microscopy

Mechanical testing

Job description

SpaceX is seeking a Sr. Materials Engineer (Starlink) to own consumables for ingot through wafer and cell fabrication, setting the technical bar for sourcing, qualification, and production hand-off.

You will apply first-principles thinking to solve materials and supply-chain challenges at scale. Lead cross-functional qualification programs, collaborate with supply chain, process engineering, quality, and production to reduce risk, improve yield, and cut cost.