Process Engineer, Thin Films

Role details

About Periodic Labs Periodic Labs is building an autonomous laboratory for high-throughput materials discovery. Our work combines advanced chemistry, robotics, automation, AI, and materials science to accelerate scientific discovery while maintaining high standards of environmental, health, and process safety.

About the Role

Periodic Labs is building AI that can both simulate science and verify its own predictions. Verifying those predictions experimentally requires a lab that runs reliably - qualified tools, samples prepared to spec, and data logged the same way every time. We are standing up a dedicated thin-film lab in Menlo Park with a suite of deposition and characterization tools, and are hiring a Process Technician to own day-to-day tool operation, sample preparation, and first-line maintenance.

This is the role that keeps throughput high and variance low: you run the SOPs, you cut and prep the coupons, you keep the tools in spec, and you partner with process engineers when an experiment calls for something outside the standard flow. This is a contract position, on-site, with the possibility of extension or conversion as the lab scales.

What You'll Do

Run deposition tools to SOP. Execute recipes on vacuum-based thin-film deposition systems. Load and unload, verify chamber state and process conditions, confirm the run matched setpoints, and log the result. Prepare samples. Dice and cleave coupons from full wafers; handle mounting and cross-section prep for imaging. Clean and prep substrates per workflow-specific recipes — wet cleans, oxide strip, dehydration bake, substrate and source conditioning. Operate characterization tools. Collect and log structural, optical, and electrical film data. Recognize when a scan, fit, or image indicates a tool problem rather than a material result, and escalate rather than re-run blind.

Perform first-line and preventive maintenance. Chamber opens and cleans, source and consumable changes, shield and liner swaps, pump-down and leak checks, calibration checks, and PM scheduling. Work with vendors and facilities on service visits and keep maintenance history complete. Keep the tools qualified. Run qual and monitor samples on a set cadence, track thickness, uniformity, and rate against baseline, and flag drift early. Maintain SPC-style charts where they exist and help build them where they don't. Support non-standard work.

When engineers need a one-off — an unusual stack, an off-recipe parameter sweep, a new substrate geometry, an unproven prep sequence — you help scope what the tool can safely do, run it, and document what actually happened. Document everything. Every run is a potential data point for our models. Record what you did rather than what the recipe said, capture failures and fixes alongside successes, and meet the metadata standards our data pipeline depends on. Own lab safety and housekeeping. Chemical handling and waste, gas and precursor changes, lockout/tagout, cleanroom protocol and gowning discipline, and spares and consumables inventory - including at partner facilities we use during ramp.

You Will Thrive in This Role If You Have 3+ years of hands-on experience operating thin-film deposition and/or metrology equipment in a semiconductor fab, R&D line, or equipment supplier environment. You have spent real time at a tool, not adjacent to one. Working knowledge of at least one deposition technique at the level of practical detail: what a bad pump-down looks like, when a source needs conditioning, why a recipe that ran fine last week is now off-rate. Sample prep skill with delicate materials — dicing or cleaving, mounting, cross-sectioning, and cleaning without introducing artifacts.

Comfort with basic metrology data: reading a thickness map, sanity-checking a film measurement, spotting delamination or particles in an image. Mechanical aptitude and hands-on maintenance instinct. You are comfortable inside a chamber, with fittings and fasteners, and with following a service procedure precisely. Rigorous documentation habits and attention to detail. You understand why "what I intended" and "what I did" are different records. Cleanroom experience and full respect for protocol, chemical safety, and contamination control. The ability to work independently, prioritize across several engineers' requests, and escalate anomalies early.

Especially Strong Candidates May Also Have Associate degree or technical certificate in a related field, or equivalent military or industry training. Experience in a high-mix, low-volume R&D environment where the recipe changes daily and no two lots are identical. Vacuum system troubleshooting, RF matching and plasma tuning, or mass flow and pressure control calibration. Experience with LIMS, MES, or other systems for tracking samples, runs, and characterization results, and the instinct to treat logging as part of the experiment. Wafer-level metrology experience: thickness and resistivity mapping, stress and warpage, at wafer scale rather than coupon scale.

Familiarity with in-situ or real-time process monitoring during deposition. Prior work at university nanofabrication facilities or shared cleanrooms, including facility safety training and tool reservation systems. Mechanics Engagement type: Contract position.

Initial term of 6 months with potential to extend or convert based on lab needs and performance Minimum education: High school diploma or equivalent, plus relevant hands-on experience; technical degree or certificate preferred Location: On-site in Menlo Park, CA Schedule: Standard weekday shift, with occasional flexibility for tool PM windows, vendor installs, or time-critical experiments Compensation: $45-$65 per hour Work authorization: Must be authorized to work in the U.S. for the duration of the contract.

Visa sponsorship is not available for this position We’re building a team of the world’s best - the scientists, engineers, and problem-solvers who don’t just follow the frontier, they define it. If you’re driven to bring AI to life in the physical world and make discoveries that have never been made before, you belong here.