Job Description

Nearly every material humanity uses at scale is cast from a liquid or cut from a solid. But the highest-performing materials — carbides, borides, diamond — don’t melt and can’t be cut, which leaves the most ambitious designs stuck in CAD. Light Materials is scaling up a process that grows finished, complex parts of these extreme materials, in shapes and compositions nobody else can produce — for vehicles that fly faster, engines that burn hotter, and chips that run cooler.

The role

This is a chance to build hardware that has never existed before alongside some seriously good engineers and scientists. You’ll take subsystem concepts that have been proven in principle and drive them to working hardware: detailed design, component selection, fabrication, assembly, and testing. Because every machine here is novel, none of this is routine. Expect real responsibility from day one and a steep trajectory: engineers who execute well here take ownership of entire subsystems quickly. And you’ll do it all surrounded by experts in materials, lasers, and process engineering — the kind of environment that makes strong engineers dramatically better, fast.

What you’ll do

• Turn early concepts for machines that exist nowhere else — roboticized laser reactors, specialized vacuum chambers, custom scientific equipment — into detailed, buildable designs
• Own the engineering that makes hardware actually work: component selection, CAD and drawings, materials and tolerances, wiring, and assembly
• Build, test, and debug your designs on the bench and on the production floor, then iterate fast on what you learn
• Work shoulder to shoulder with experienced engineers and subject-matter experts in materials science, process engineering, and applications — and take on bigger pieces of the machine as you prove them out

What we’re looking for

• B.S. or M.S. in mechanical, electrical, or mechatronic engineering, or equivalent hands-on experience
• Strong mechanical design fundamentals (CAD, simulation, design for fabrication)
• Fluency with practical electronics: wiring, soldering, and programming microcontrollers
• A track record of building real hardware — research labs, competition robotics, internships, or ambitious personal projects
• Rigor and pride in the details — you know that wall thicknesses and fastener choices are where good designs succeed or fail
• You pick things up fast and want more ownership, not less
• Genuine excitement about building something completely new as part of a small, fast-moving, deeply interdisciplinary team

Nice to have experience with

• Machining, 3D printing, or other fabrication skills
• Laser optics or machine vision
• Thermal or fluid simulations
• Industrial processes at high temperature, high pressure, or vacuum

Logistics

All employees work in person at our R&D lab in Sunnyvale, CA.

• Competitive salary, meaningful equity, and full benefits.

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