Laser-Processing Scientist

About Light Materials

Frontier technologies demand parts that handle ever-greater power densities—think hypersonics, fusion, and chip cooling. But the best materials for the job resist melting and cutting, leaving the most sophisticated designs practically unmanufacturable. Light Materials is scaling up a solution: a reimagined process that yields complex parts directly from gas, in shapes and materials nobody else can produce. Our small team is currently building out a first-of-a-kind facility and shipping demo parts to early customers.

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 make materials from gaseous inputs—and internalize its limits and opportunities
• Build a suite of diagnostics (optics, online sensors, etc.) and run experiments to extend the process to higher throughputs, larger parts, new geometries, and different materials
• Reconfigure software and hardware as needed to make prototype parts for early customers
• Identify architectural tradeoffs and communicate them to the team
• Set 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 interest
• Strong hands-on experimental skills: you design, build, and run your own experiments
• Excellent technical fundamentals
• Experience with laboratory optics
• Proficiency with common programming languages
• A track record of taking on hard technical problems and delivering solutions
• A fast pace and a desire to build something completely new

Nice to have experience with

• High-power laser systems
• CAD tools and 3D printing
• CVD, PVD, epitaxy
• GCMS

Logistics

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