Solar Cell Quality Engineer for Space Applications

SpaceX; Bastrop (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 165,000; Full time

Job summary

SpaceX is seeking a Solar Cell Quality Engineer to own the solar cell fab quality, ensuring no defective cells escape to space. You will oversee inline and offline metrology, define tests, sampling, and acceptance logic for the factory, and drive containment when product drifts from family specifications.

You will lead analytics for metrology data, establish calibration/golden-sample programs, and work with process engineering to prevent yield loss while supporting ISO/ITAR requirements.

Qualifications

• Bachelors in engineering; internship/experience acceptable

Responsibilities

• Own quality of the solar cell fab and prevent escapes to modules and flight
• Own inline and offline cell metrology systems and define test methods, sampling, and acceptance criteria
• Define test methods, sampling frequency, acceptance criteria, and reaction plans for in-process measurements
• Own sorter/binning Definitions, grade gates, and hold/release logic
• Establish and maintain MSA/GR&R, calibration, correlation, and golden-sample programs
• Build SPC, spec limits, and OOC action plans to catch yield and reliability issues
• Own documentation for quality/metrology tools and be SME for those tools
• Partner with process and equipment engineering to catch drifts before scrap
• Collaborate with solar cell reliability to protect space-qualification envelope
• Lead root-cause analysis on quality escapes using I-V, EL/PL, etc.
• Define and track quality KPIs and report to leadership
• Mentor technicians and junior engineers; foster rigorous data interpretation

Skills

PV metrology

I‑V testing

Data analysis

Quality engineering

SPC / DOE

Lean manufacturing

Root cause analysis

Metrology lab setup

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering

Master’s or PhD in related technical discipline

Tools

Python

MATLAB

JMP

R

Job description

SpaceX is seeking a Solar Cell Quality Engineer to own the solar cell fab quality, ensuring no defective cells escape to space. You will oversee inline and offline metrology, define tests, sampling, and acceptance logic for the factory, and drive containment when product drifts from family specifications.

You will lead analytics for metrology data, establish calibration/golden-sample programs, and work with process engineering to prevent yield loss while supporting ISO/ITAR requirements.