Development Engineer III

Overview

Job Description First Solar reserves the right to offer you a role most applicable to your experience and skillset.

• Perform material and device research to enhance thin film solar cell performance and stability and to reduce manufacturing cost.
• Responsible for projects or functions that are highly complex require significant innovation and critical to department objectives.
• Plan, execute and characterize development engineering experiments in the laboratory and manufacturing environment with strategic foresight. Drives actions with strategic foresight.
• Applies statistical and engineering methods to optimize organizational effectiveness. Improves methods for use by others.

• Associate’s Degree in an engineering discipline or similar technical discipline and 20 years of relevant technical experience or 2 years of experience as a Development Engineer II at First Solar.
• Bachelor’s Degree in an engineering discipline or similar technical discipline and 10 years of relevant technical experience or 5 years of experience as a Development Engineer II at First Solar.
• Master’s Degree in an engineering discipline or similar technical discipline and 8 years of relevant technical experience or 3 years of experience as a Development Engineer II at First Solar.
• Ph.D. in Materials Science, Materials Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering or Polymer Chemistry and 5 years of relevant technical experience or 2 years of experience as a Development Engineer II at First Solar.

• Technical expert and innovator in one area of photovoltaic processes and/or equipment development.
• Technical Expert in Materials Science, Polymer Science, Polymer/Materials Formulation Development, Polymer Process Engineering.
• Expertise in application development and integration of materials into high performance electronic, optoelectronic, optical, MEMS, and MOEMs.
• Expertise with materials integration into PV devices a plus.
• Expert and hands on experience in laboratory or manufacturing environment.
• In depth knowledge in several fields from the list of photovoltaic device theory, materials science, process engineering, characterization techniques and other fields relevant to First Solar's technology.
• Strong sense of project ownership with hands-on and can-do attitude.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills across organizations.
• Competence with Microsoft Office Products;
  Mathematical / Data analysis software (JMP, Matlab,
  
  C).
• Experience with applying AI tools and platforms to improve productivity is desirable

• Identify opportunities for improvement in solar cell efficiency, material selection and process/equipment design through engineering, scientific or empirical methods.
• Improve state of the art techniques for material analysis, statistical analysis of data, or execution planning of experiments. Develop a work plan that have unclear solution paths.
• May be responsible to determine and evaluate material specification for improved performance. May be responsible to determine and evaluate tool/equipment specifications.
• Effective communicator with internal and external partners and customers. Effective team members that can support cross-functional projects and take ownership of sub-deliverables.
• May train, mentor and manage junior and peers on specific subject matters.
• Comply with Company's Environmental, Quality, Safety or any other policies that have been enforced. Contributes to continuous improvement of said policies.
• Other duties as assigned.
• Job description subject to change at any time.

• Reports to Senior Member – Technical Staff.
• May have direct reports.

• 5- 20% Must be capable of both domestic and international travel

• $84,200 - $120,000 Annually

• Will sit, stand or walk short distances for up to the entire duration of a shift.
• Will climb stairs on an occasional basis.
• Will lift, push or pull up to 37 pounds on an occasional basis.
• Required to use hands to grasp, lift, handle, carry or feel objects on a frequent basis.
• 20/40 vision in both eyes…