PVD Process Engineer, Solar Cells

About the role

SpaceX is building an internal solar cell production line to power both Starlink satellites and Starship missions to the Moon and Mars. This position involves setting up a greenfield solar cell factory from the ground up, covering equipment procurement, facility layout, commissioning, recipe development, and team building. You will own Physical Vapor Deposition processes for depositing transparent conductive oxide layers like ITO and other thin films essential to high-efficiency silicon heterojunction (SHJ) cells.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Design, qualify, and optimize PVD sputtering processes (DC/RF magnetron sputtering) for SHJ front and back contacts at GW-scale volumes, targeting uniformity, adhesion, resistivity, and optical transmission
• Lead process development for new toolsets and materials, including target management, deposition rate tuning, and defect reduction
• Develop, implement, and maintain manufacturing processes, equipment, and facility improvements
• Apply first-principles, physics-based analysis to production processes and machinery
• Run experiments using DOE and statistical methods to diagnose and resolve manufacturing issues
• Tune process conditions and materials to improve optical and electrical cell quality
• Conduct defect characterization and root cause analysis to raise yields
• Build project plans, budgets, and cost/benefit analyses for new processes or equipment
• Activate and test machines alongside a small team of engineers and technicians
• Prepare content for technical design reviews and take full ownership of yield, uptime, and cost outcomes

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline
• 1+ years of experience in chemical engineering design, analysis, or system implementation (internship and extracurricular experience counts)
• Ability to travel frequently, including extended periods during machine buyoffs and startup
• Ability to lift 25 lbs. unassisted
• Willingness to work extended hours and weekends as needed
• Physical ability to lift, stand, climb, bend, grasp, sit, pull, push, stoop, stretch, and carry as required

Nice to have

• Master's degree or Ph.D. in chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science, environmental science, or another STEM field
• 5+ years of hands-on PVD process engineering experience, ideally in thin-film solar (SHJ, PERC, or CIGS), semiconductor, or display manufacturing
• Track record of scaling PVD processes to high-volume production (greater than 1GW/year equivalent)
• Deep knowledge of vacuum systems, plasma physics, sputtering dynamics, and thin-film characterization (XRD, SEM, Hall effect)
• Familiarity with SPC, DoE, and lean manufacturing principles
• Ability to work in a cleanroom environment
• Hands-on work with complex fluid or mechanical production systems in a professional setting
• Experience moving products from design to manufacturing and scaling to high volume with cross-functional teams
• Strong organizational, written, and verbal communication skills
• Experience with solar cell manufacturing equipment: wet chemical processing, PE-CVD, PVD machines, metallization, final test equipment, wafer inspection (evaporation tools and ALD tools are a plus)
• Background in perovskite solar cells or perovskite tandem solar cells
• Proficiency with micro-structure analysis tools (SEM, TEM, EDX, SIMS) and optical/electrical characterization tools (UV-VIS, I-V, resistance measurement)
• Expertise in SHJ-specific PVD processes, including low-temperature ITO deposition for bifacial cells
• Familiarity with advanced PVD tools and automation/integration for inline production
• Data analysis and scripting skills (Python, R, SQL) and simulation tools (e.g., SIMTRA for sputtering)
• Experience in cost-of-ownership modeling, CapEx justification, and fab ramp-ups to multi-GW scales

Skills & tools

• DC/RF magnetron sputtering
• PVD process development and optimization
• Thin-film characterization (XRD, SEM, TEM, EDX, SIMS, Hall effect, UV-VIS, I-V)
• DOE and statistical process control
• Python, R, SQL
• SIMTRA or similar sputtering simulation tools
• PE-CVD, ALD, evaporation tools
• Vacuum systems and plasma physics

Practical notes

• ITAR restriction: Applicants must be a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, U.S. lawful permanent resident (green card holder), refugee under 8 U.S.C. 1157, asylee under 8 U.S.C. 1158, or eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State
• Applicants needing reasonable accommodation for the application or interview process may contact EEOCompliance@spacex.com