Sr Materials Engineer, Wet Processing (Ingot/Wafer)
Bastrop, TX · 5+ years experience · Posted Sep 21, 2026
At a glance
- Experience
- 5+ years experience
- Location
- Bastrop, TX
About the role
- As a Sr. Materials Engineer for wet processing at SpaceX, you will set the technical bar for the chemistry, materials, and surface-quality outcomes of the wet steps that turn silicon ingots into production-ready wafers.
- You will own the wet-process strategy from path-finding through golden-line and high-volume hand-off, solving hard contamination, etch, and supply-chain problems for Starlink solar cell manufacturing.
Responsibilities
- Own and drive strategy for wet-process materials and chemistry across silicon ingot and wafer production, including degumming, saw-damage etch, cleaning, surface conditioning, and silicon recycle/reclaim.
- Lead cross-functional efforts with process, equipment, quality, production, supply chain, and water treatment to source, qualify, and dual-source critical wet chemicals and consumables.
- Define and own chemical requirements, bath recipes, concentration windows, lifetime limits, and acceptance criteria.
- Architect and execute rigorous wet-process qualification programs including characterization, process trials, reliability assessment, and production-readiness reviews.
- Serve as the primary technical escalation for wet-process, contamination, and surface-quality issues, leading root cause investigations and corrective actions.
- Apply deep materials and surface-chemistry fundamentals to anticipate failure modes, guide selection, and unlock performance or cost gains.
- Identify and champion path-finding opportunities that deliver measurable improvements in wafer quality, cell efficiency, yield, uptime, and cost.
- Stand up wet-process and wet-lab capability at a high technical bar, owning bath monitoring strategy, filtration and chemical-delivery requirements, data integrity, and SPC.
- Mentor peers and partner teams on wet-process problem solving, engineering judgment, and qualification best practices.
- Communicate technical status, risks, and strategic recommendations to leadership while championing safety, quality, and extreme ownership.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in materials science, materials engineering, chemical engineering, or a STEM discipline.
- 5+ years of professional experience in wet chemical processing, surface chemistry, semiconductor/PV wafer processing, process materials, or manufacturing materials support.
- Willingness to travel to other SpaceX sites and/or vendors as needed (up to 25%).
- Ability to lift up to 25 lbs unassisted.
- Ability to stand/walk for extended periods in the lab and on the manufacturing floor.
- Willingness to work extended hours and weekends as needed to support manufacturing, tool bring-up, and critical milestones.
- Must be comfortable working in a production and laboratory environment using hazardous chemicals such as acids, alkalis, oxidizers, and solvents.
- Must be able to wear appropriate PPE for lab and electro-chemical manufacturing environments.
- Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. lawful permanent resident, Refugee, or Asylee, or be eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State to conform to U.S. Government export regulations.
Preferred qualifications
- Master's or PhD in materials science, materials engineering, chemical engineering, or in a related technical discipline.
- Proven track record owning silicon wet processes from development through qualification and high-volume production.
- Deep hands-on experience owning bath chemistry on wet benches or inline wet tools in a 24/7 manufacturing setting.
- Strong expertise in contamination control and linking surface/chemical state to minority-carrier lifetime and downstream cell performance.
- Strong expertise in materials characterization and linking material/process variables to performance.
- Experience partnering with supply chain on technical sourcing, supplier development, dual-sourcing, and reducing single-source risk for critical wet chemicals and consumables.
- Experience with chemical delivery systems, wet-process equipment, pumps, filtration, temperature control, and hazardous chemical handling/abatement.
- Comfortable with data analysis and SPC for bath and wafer metrics.
Workplace
- Travel required up to 25%
Skills
- Python
- JMP
- MATLAB
- ICP-MS
- TXRF
- VPD
- FTIR
- TOC
- SEM-EDS
- XPS
