Staff Mechatronics Engineer

Light Materials; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Equity

Full benefits

Job summary

Light Materials is seeking a staff mechatronics engineer to own core subsystems of a novel production process—machines with no playbook and no off-the-shelf equivalents. You’ll take your designs from bench prototype to production floor, delivering demonstrable results in weeks rather than years, and continue pushing them as our machines scale.

You’ll collaborate with world-class experts in materials science, process engineering, and applications, shaping how the entire facility runs and

Qualifications

• 10+ years of industry experience in mechatronics or related field.
• Strong CAD, simulation, and testing skills.
• Comfort designing and debugging circuit boards.
• Experience with motion control/robotics.
• Proficient in Python and embedded targets; Git-based workflows.

Responsibilities

• Invent and build machines that exist nowhere else—roboticized laser reactors and vacuum chambers.
• Instrument a brand-new production process end to end, with safety and data pipelines.
• Design operator interfaces and integrate with the facility control systems.
• Collaborate with materials science, process engineering, and applications specialists to push scale and capability.

Skills

Robotics

CAD

PCB design

Python

Embedded systems

Git workflows

Mechanical fundamentals

Education

B.S./M.S. in mechanical, electrical, or mechatronic engineering

Tools

Job description

About Light Materials

Nearly every material humanity uses at scale is cast from a liquid or cut from a solid. But the highest-performing materials — carbides, borides, diamond — don’t melt and can’t be cut, which leaves the most ambitious designs stuck in CAD. Light Materials is scaling up a process that grows finished, complex parts of these extreme materials, in shapes and compositions nobody else can produce — for vehicles that fly faster, engines that burn hotter, and chips that run cooler.

About Light Materials

Nearly every material humanity uses at scale is cast from a liquid or cut from a solid. But the highest-performing materials — carbides, borides, diamond — don’t melt and can’t be cut, which leaves the most ambitious designs stuck in CAD. Light Materials is scaling up a process that grows finished, complex parts of these extreme materials, in shapes and compositions nobody else can produce — for vehicles that fly faster, engines that burn hotter, and chips that run cooler.

The role

This is a rare opportunity to build hardware that has never existed before. As our staff mechatronics engineer, you’ll own core subsystems of a novel production process — machines with no playbook and no off-the-shelf equivalents, and wide-open room for creative engineering. You’ll take your designs from bench prototype all the way to the production floor, see them running within weeks rather than years, and keep pushing them further as our machines grow in scale and ambition — all alongside world‑class experts who are as obsessed with this problem as you are.

What you'll do

• Invent and build machines that exist nowhere else: novel roboticized laser reactors, specialized vacuum chambers for extreme process conditions, and custom scientific equipment
• Instrument a brand-new production process end to end — safety systems, sensors, and data pipelines that turn a neat idea into a real factory
• Design the control interfaces our operators rely on every day, and watch your work shape how the entire facility runs
• Sharpen your designs in daily collaboration with subject-matter experts in materials science, process engineering, and applications — people you’ll learn from constantly, and who will lean on your expertise in turn

What we're looking for

• B.S. or M.S. in mechanical, electrical, or mechatronic engineering with 10 years of industry experience
• Expert mechanical prototyping skills (CAD, simulation, testing)
• Comfort designing and debugging your own circuit boards
• Experience with motion control/robotics
• Strong programming skills in Python and on embedded targets, with fluency in Git-based workflows
• Strong technical fundamentals
• A track record of taking ambitious engineering projects from first sketch to working hardware
• Genuine excitement about building something completely new as part of a small, fast-moving, deeply interdisciplinary team

Nice to have experience with

• Machine vision
• Laser optics
• Thermal or fluid simulations
• Industrial processes at high temperature, high pressure, or vacuum

Logistics

All employees work in person at our R&D lab in Sunnyvale, CA. Competitive salary, meaningful equity, and full benefits.