Microsoft
Principal Quantum Materials Engineer
$143K–$304K
West Lafayette, IN · On-site · Principal · Full-time · Posted Sep 21, 2026
- Experience
- Required: 8+ years with a bachelor’s, 6+ years with a master’s, or 3+ years with a doctorate in industry or R&D; equivalent experience accepted. Preferred: 12+ years in specified deposition and characterization areas; education-based preferred alternatives are bachelor’s plus 12+ years, master’s plus 8+ years, or doctorate plus 5+ years, or equivalent experience.
- Education
- Bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate in Materials Science, Electrical Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, or related field; or equivalent experience.
About the job
Leads development of superconductor and dielectric materials and thin-film processes to improve the performance and scalability of topological qubits.
What you'll do
- Develop thin-film deposition protocols for superconductor-semiconductor heterostructures and semiconductor-dielectric interfaces, controlling materials and interface properties.
- Design experiments connecting deposition conditions and materials properties to device outcomes, and guide materials-related fabrication and integration decisions.
- Lead deposition-tool and diagnostic development and collaborate across teams; use AI tools and agents to accelerate materials discovery and optimization.
What they ask for
- Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science, Electrical Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, or related field plus 8+ years’ relevant experience; or master’s plus 6+ years; or doctorate plus 3+ years; or equivalent experience.
- Meet Microsoft Cloud Background Check requirements.
- Provide citizenship, U.S. permanent residency, or other protected-status documentation for export-control eligibility assessment, with citizenship verified using a valid passport where required.
- Ability to leverage AI tools and design AI agents/copilots for research and experiment workflows.
Nice to have
- 12+ years of experience with thin-film deposition, including at least one of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), atomic layer deposition (ALD), or reactive sputtering.
- Experience with thin-film structural characterization, metal-semiconductor interfaces, hybrid materials or III-V/high-k interfaces, RF performance optimization, or interdisciplinary materials/process optimization.
Pay
USD $142,800 - $274,800 per year (base salary); USD $188,000 - $304,200 per year (base salary)
Tools
thin film deposition, RHEED, spectroscopy, molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), atomic layer deposition (ALD), reactive sputtering, ellipsometry, x-ray diffraction
AI focus
Uses modern AI tools and designs or leverages AI agents/copilots for experiment planning, log analysis, protocol templating, data interpretation, knowledge retrieval, performance modeling, and task automation.
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative