Laser-Processing Scientist

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 We are looking for an outstanding experimentalist to own the science of our roboticized, laser-controlled, materials processing technology and help us scale it up. The process is new enough that basic questions are still open, and the answers translate directly into hardware — a rare regime where a good experiment can change what the machine does next month. The role is hands-on, multidisciplinary, and deeply technical, and it sits squarely on the company’s critical path: you’ll be responsible for building the physical insight that unlocks higher manufacturing throughputs, new applications, and complex geometries. What you'll do Operate our existing process, which uses laser optics and high-precision robotics to grow materials directly — and internalize its limits and opportunitiesBuild a suite of diagnostics (optics, online sensors, etc.) and run experiments to extend the process to higher throughputs, larger parts, new geometries, and different materialsReconfigure software and hardware as needed to make prototype parts for early customersIdentify architectural tradeoffs and communicate them to the teamSet technical direction for subsequent generations of our machinery, iterating with our engineers to implement your concepts What we're looking for Ph.D. in physics, materials science, or engineering — or equivalent experience and interestStrong hands-on experimental skills: you design, build, and run your own experimentsExcellent technical fundamentalsExperience with laboratory opticsProficiency with common programming languagesA track record of taking on hard technical problems and delivering solutionsA fast pace and a desire to build something completely new Nice to have experience with High-power laser systemsCAD tools and 3D printingCVD, PVD, epitaxyGCMS Logistics All employees work in person at our R&D lab in Sunnyvale, CA. Competitive salary, meaningful equity, and full benefits.