Space Solar Materials Engineer

Starpath; Hawthorne (CA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, vision, and retirement

Paid time off and holidays

Professional growth and training

Job summary

Starpath is seeking a Chemical / Materials Engineer for space solar applications. You will support chemistry development, characterize materials, and help scale bench processes into production on Earth and beyond.

The role emphasizes hands-on experimentation, data analysis, and collaboration with senior chemists to improve device encapsulation and performance under extreme space conditions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science, applied physics, or related discipline.
• 1+ years of hands-on experience with thin-film photovoltaic, optoelectronic, polymer, or related materials (internship and academic research applicable).
• Working knowledge of materials characterization techniques and the ability to interpret chemical, thermal, and electrical data.
• Demonstrated ability to run experiments, collect and analyze data, and draw conclusions from bench work.

Responsibilities

• Support development and optimization of chemistries and processes across cell materials, polymer encapsulation, and barrier systems
• Run experiments, characterize materials, and analyze data to inform chemistry and process decisions
• Build and maintain lab workflows, sample tracking, and characterization pipelines that support fast iteration
• Perform materials and device characterization using techniques such as XRD, XPS, FTIR, DSC, TGA, SEM, photoluminescence, IV, and stability/degradation testing
• Partner with senior chemists on root-cause investigations connecting chemistry to device and encapsulation performance
• Support scale-up of bench-level chemistry into stable, reproducible processes on the manufacturing line
• Contribute to environmental stability strategies - moisture, oxygen, thermal, UV, and radiation tolerance
• Maintain lab safety, chemical inventory, and contamination control practices
• Push back on unnecessary complexity - simplify chemistries, reduce process steps, and cut overhead wherever it doesn't add value

Skills

Experimentation & data analysis

Materials characterization

Lab workflow & data pipelines

Python / MATLAB

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in chemistry / chemical engineering / materials science / physics

Tools

XRD

XPS

FTIR

DSC

TGA

SEM

Photoluminescence

IV / EQE

Job description

Starpath is seeking a Chemical / Materials Engineer for space solar applications. You will support chemistry development, characterize materials, and help scale bench processes into production on Earth and beyond.

The role emphasizes hands-on experimentation, data analysis, and collaboration with senior chemists to improve device encapsulation and performance under extreme space conditions.