periodic-labs
Research Scientist, Thin Films
$250K–$350K
Menlo Park, CA · On-site · Full-time · Posted Jul 9, 2026
- Experience
- 5+ years of hands-on experience.
- Education
- PhD in chemistry, physics, or materials science. Minimum education: Bachelor’s degree or similar experience.
- Visa sponsorship
- Visa sponsorship: Yes, we sponsor visas.
About the job
Leads thin-film synthesis and characterization to realize AI-predicted materials and support autonomous materials discovery.
What you'll do
- Develop synthesis strategies for novel thin-film materials predicted by AI.
- Determine and control material structures, defects, microstructures, and properties.
- Collaborate with AI, computational, and engineering teams on predictive models and automated laboratory hardware.
What they ask for
- PhD in chemistry, physics, or materials science, with 5+ years of hands-on experience.
- Expertise in thin-film synthesis methods such as sputtering, PLD, and MBE.
- Strong structural and chemical characterization skills, including diffraction, microscopy, and spectroscopy.
- Experience probing thin-film properties and collaborating with computational groups, especially in high-throughput materials discovery.
Nice to have
- Experience at national user facilities such as synchrotrons or neutron sources.
- Experience developing synthesis or characterization techniques, analyzing large experimental datasets, or using laboratory automation and scripting.
Pay
$250,000-350,000 USD base salary
Tools
sputtering, PLD, MBE, diffraction, microscopy, spectroscopy
AI focus
Develops synthesis strategies for AI-predicted materials and collaborates on physics- and chemistry-grounded models of materials growth and properties for autonomous discovery.
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative