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Equipment Engineer

Periodic Labs· Science
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Menlo Park, CA$200k - $275kFull-timePosted 1mo ago

About the role

Engineer responsible for commissioning, qualification, and maintenance of vacuum and deposition hardware for AI-accelerated thin-film and semiconductor processing lab; collaborates across AI/ML, simulation, process engineering, and physics/chemistry to stand up scalable lab infrastructure.

Responsibilities

  • Lab Development: Contribute to the buildout and scale-up of an AI-accelerated thin-film and semiconductor processing laboratory, including commissioning deposition systems and integrating in-situ characterization and metrology tools, enabling scientists to pursue materials discovery.
  • Equipment Qualification & Troubleshooting: Establish equipment specifications, acceptance criteria, and qualification protocols for new tools; diagnose and resolve complex hardware, vacuum, and process-equipment failures.
  • Vendor & Procurement Engagement: Contribute to vendor communication and tool selection, providing technical requirements to vendors and supporting bid evaluation and technical negotiation, in coordination with the procurement team.
  • Documentation & Data: Create internal and external documentation, equipment SOPs, strategies, and technical reports, and establish standardized equipment data pipelines to feed into AI training infrastructure.
  • Equipment Reliability & Uptime: Own day-to-day equipment health and prioritize tool availability by proactively monitoring performance, troubleshooting hardware and process issues, performing root-cause analysis, and working directly with vendors to resolve failures quickly and prevent recurrence.

Qualifications

  • BS, MS, or PhD in Engineering (Mechanical, Chemical, Electrical), Materials Science, or a related field.
  • Extensive hands-on experience with vacuum systems in a semiconductor, nanofabrication, or advanced materials setting.
  • Deep expertise in high-vacuum system operation and the underlying mechanisms of deposition hardware, including plasma sources, gas delivery, and thermal management.
  • Experience integrating characterization and metrology capabilities directly into process equipment (e.g., in-situ metrology, environmental chambers).
  • Startup-ready mindset: able to operate effectively in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment while implementing industry-standard best practices.

Skills

Required:Vacuum systems operationDeposition hardware (PVD, CVD, ALD)In-situ metrology / characterization integration
Last updated Sep 16, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About Periodic Labs

From bits to atoms.

Periodic Labs is an artificial intelligence research company pioneering the next leap in scientific discovery. We operate at the intersection of machine learning and scientific experimentation under the thesis that that true understanding of the universe is only possible by interacting and experimenting on it.

artificial intelligencescientific discoverymachine learningscientific experimentation
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