Senior R&D Technician, Space PV Prototyping

At Tandem PV, we are a team of people who are passionate about building a more sustainable world by bringing cost effective solar panels onto the market. We’re scaling metal-halide perovskite solar technology to make best-in-class mechanically stacked tandem modules. We have built efficient, durable cells, monolithic multi-cell submodules, and packaged modules with our scalable, low-cost process. Our next focus is expanding our team to work in our new pilot manufacturing facility.

As a Senior R&D Technician, Space PV Prototyping, you will work with our engineers and technicians to build prototype solar devices for spacecraft on ultrathin and flexible substrates: preparing substrates, running deposition, coating and patterning tools, laminating covers, and measuring results. Much of what you handle is a fraction of a millimeter thick and hard to replace, so careful execution, exact adherence to written procedures and meticulous records are central to the role.

Your work produces the consistent, well-documented sample sets that our development and test campaigns depend on.

• Clean, inspect, photograph and log substrates, and keep accurate inventory of limited, high-value materials.

• Load and run sputter and evaporation processes, including bake-outs and controlled pump-down and vent sequences.

• Coat and thermally process device layers to fixed recipes, and flag anything that looks different from previous runs.

• Set up and run laser patterning steps, then inspect the result under a microscope and measure electrical isolation.

• Laminate cover materials, including very thin ones, and inspect for voids and edge-seal quality; handle ultrathin substrates and release them from carriers once formally qualified.

• Perform routine metrology: sheet-resistance mapping, transmittance, profilometry, optical microscopy, luminescence imaging and current-voltage measurement.

• Keep run logs and per-part travelers (tools, recipes, temperatures, vacuum cycles, operator, timestamps), and prepare and ship sample batches to external test partners.

• Build, label, mount and wire coupon sets for test campaigns and exposure chambers, and perform routine tool care, including early warning when a tool starts to drift.

• Steady hands and patience for delicate manual work; this is the single most important qualification for the role.

• Meticulous documentation habits: detailed, legible and consistent notes of processing conditions.

• Follows written procedures exactly, and speaks up when a procedure does not match what is actually in front of you.

• Problem-solving orientation and the ability to work autonomously once trained, as part of a team in a scientific or technical environment.

• Adaptability across a wide range of laboratory tasks and willingness to learn new concepts, tools and measurements.

• Comfortable with basic laboratory arithmetic, unit conversion, and reading a specification or drawing.

• Ability to perform the essential functions of the position, with or without reasonable accommodation, including working in a cleanroom environment while wearing required PPE and gowning; working on your feet for extended periods as required by laboratory activities; occasionally lifting, carrying, or moving materials weighing up to approximately 25 pounds; and safely working in laboratory and manufacturing environments where solvents, chemicals, and Class 4 laser systems may be present.
  
  Employees will be required to follow applicable safety procedures and complete required safety training.

• Laboratory, cleanroom, semiconductor, display or precision manufacturing background, including handling thin glass, silicon wafers or display panels.

• Operation of vacuum systems,…