Senior Research Scientist — AI-Driven Materials Discovery

Periodic Labs; Menlo Park (CA); On-site; USD 225,000 - 325,000; Full time

Job summary

Periodic Labs, based in the Bay Area, seeks a senior Research Scientist to design and execute high‑fidelity property measurements across electronic, magnetic, and thermal materials. You will drive high‑throughput characterization schemes and partner with AI, automation, and materials science teams to build feedback loops accelerating discovery.

As a hands‑on senior contributor, you will set measurement quality standards, own data integrity, and guide experimental design from concept to

Qualifications

• PhD in Physics or Materials Science with 5+ years of hands-on experience in physical property characterization.
• Bachelor’s degree as minimum educational requirement for the role.

Responsibilities

• Develop and perform high‑fidelity thermodynamic, transport, and spectroscopic measurements of materials.
• Design rapid property measurement schemes to scale up characterization for AI-guided discovery pipelines.
• Collaborate with AI team to implement automated data analysis and feedback loops between measurement and prediction.
• Work with engineering to develop autonomous systems for property characterization using robotics and programmable instrumentation.
• Evaluate, procure, and commission new instrumentation and develop custom measurement setups when needed.
• Define and enforce data standards, metadata schemas, and documentation practices for reproducible outputs.
• Uphold lab safety, especially around cryogenic systems, high‑field magnets, and hazardous materials.

Skills

Data analysis

Scientific writing

Experiment design

Cross-disciplinary collaboration

Python/Jupyter

Education

PhD in Physics or Materials Science

Bachelor’s degree

Tools

Python

Instrument SDKs

Cryogenic systems

Job description

Periodic Labs, based in the Bay Area, seeks a senior Research Scientist to design and execute high‑fidelity property measurements across electronic, magnetic, and thermal materials. You will drive high‑throughput characterization schemes and partner with AI, automation, and materials science teams to build feedback loops accelerating discovery.

As a hands‑on senior contributor, you will set measurement quality standards, own data integrity, and guide experimental design from concept to