Senior Surface Process Engineer — Scale & Optimize Coatings

San Diego Stealth Startup; San Diego (CA); Presencial; USD 150.000 - 160.000; Jornada completa

Descripción de la vacante

San Diego Stealth Startup seeks a Staff Surface Process Engineer / Surface Chemist to develop and scale surface chemistry processes, including cleaning, coating, silanization, and other surface modifications. The role blends lab work with process engineering across deposition systems, plasma tools, and automation.

The candidate will design experiments, optimize process parameters, and transfer processes to manufacturing, while mentoring junior scientists in a fast-paced, collaborative setting.

Formación

• M.S. (+8 years) or Ph.D. (+4 years) in Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Biomedical Engineering, or related field.
• Expertise in surface processing and process development.
• Experience with coating methods including spin and dunk coating.
• Experience with plasma cleaning equipment and CMP/surface planarization.
• Experience with vapor-phase deposition processes and surface characterization.

Responsabilidades

• Develop surface processing methods including cleaning, deposition, coating, curing, and QC.
• Develop robust vapor‑phase deposition processes including silanization and other surface modification techniques, with emphasis on process uniformity, reproducibility, and manufacturability.
• Lead development, optimization, qualification, and troubleshooting of plasma cleaning processes.
• Specify, develop, optimize, and troubleshoot process equipment including vapor deposition systems, plasma tools, ovens, wet processing tools, and related automation.
• Establish process windows, critical process parameters, and statistical process controls for surface treatments.
• Design and execute statistically rigorous experiments (DOE) to understand process interactions and optimize surface performance.
• Characterize processed surfaces using ellipsometry, contact angle, AFM, optical microscopy, fluorescence imaging, profilometry, XPS, SEM, and related methods.
• Translate laboratory processes into scalable manufacturing methods with high yield and reproducibility.
• Drive equipment selection, installation, qualification, and process transfer to manufacturing.
• Mentor junior scientists and engineers while fostering rigorous experimental design, scientific curiosity, and rapid technical iteration.

Conocimientos

Surface processing

Process development

DOE

Statistical analysis

Communication

Educación

MS in related field

PhD in related field

Herramientas

JMP

Python

R

XPS

AFM

Descripción del empleo

San Diego Stealth Startup seeks a Staff Surface Process Engineer / Surface Chemist to develop and scale surface chemistry processes, including cleaning, coating, silanization, and other surface modifications. The role blends lab work with process engineering across deposition systems, plasma tools, and automation.

The candidate will design experiments, optimize process parameters, and transfer processes to manufacturing, while mentoring junior scientists in a fast-paced, collaborative setting.