Application Lead (Vapor Pressure Precursor Chemistry) - @Entalpic

⚛️ Our company: Entalpic

We are a dedicated team at the forefront of AI, chemistry and materials science, building new ways to engineer materials and manufacturing processes at the atomic scale. We combine machine learning, computational chemistry and multi-scale physics with experimental validation to discover new materials and optimize how they are made. Our initial focus is on the semiconductor industry, where we work across thin films, interfaces and atomic-scale processes such as ALD and ALE, while continuing to develop applications in catalysis, batteries and photovoltaics.

As an AI-driven deep tech company backed by significant funding ($10M), we build on state-of-the-art research to solve real industrial challenges. Our ambition is to connect materials discovery, process optimization and device performance in a single integrated platform, working closely with leading industrial and research partners. In the long term, we believe better materials and more efficient manufacturing processes can play a significant role in reducing the energy and environmental footprint of some of the world’s most critical industries.

Join Entalpic to be part of a growing multidisciplinary team of machine learning researchers, computational scientists, chemists and experimentalists. You will work at the intersection of fundamental science and industrial innovation, with the opportunity to shape both our technology and how some of the world’s most advanced materials and devices are developed. We value scientific rigor, clear communication and simplicity, with a constant drive to learn, iterate and improve.

Co-founders: Mathieu Galtier, Victor Schmidt, Alexandre Duval

Entalpic is dedicated to equal opportunity employment and fosters an environment that is open and respectful of diversity. All applicants are encouraged to apply even if you don’t meet all this job description’s requirements. If you have passion for our mission and believe you can contribute, we want to hear from you.

🚀 Mission Highlights

As Applications Lead (Vapor Deposition Precursor Chemistry) at Entalpic, your mission will be to make our AI platform truly useful for real-world precursor discovery and atomic-scale manufacturing. You will be our experimental domain authority on precursors, connecting molecular design, deposition performance and film properties with our computational models.

You will help build the experimental backbone needed to turn AI predictions into validated discoveries: shaping our precursor development and testing strategy, developing a strong network of labs and industrial collaborators, working with software engineers to ensure that experimental data captures the chemistry and process subtleties that matter in practice.

Ultimately, you will help create a tight learning loop where AI models guide which experiments to pursue and use results to steer the next iteration — bringing this expertise into client projects, partnerships, and the broader semiconductor ecosystem.

✨ Role & Responsibilities

This position directly supports the company's mission of accelerating the discovery of new materials and manufacturing processes. You will be responsible for:

• Partnerships: own the relationships with our network of external experimental labs and industrial partners, coordinate experimental campaigns, and make sure we get high quality experimental data in a timely fashion.

• Improve quality and homogeneity of internal datasets by (a) defining gold standard protocols for experimental data generation, (b) harmonising digital data incoming from various sources, often programmatically, and feed observations to technical teams (c) hire, coordinate and animate our network of PhD collaborators for data curation

• Being our precursor chemistry domain authority: bring deep, practical command of ligand and precursor families, volatility and thermal stability, reactivity with surface, and how precursor choice maps onto film properties — including the know-how that doesn't make it into papers.

• Contribute to our experimental strategy: help define which chemistries and precursor families to explore, screen, prioritize.

• Growth: support client delivery, bring domain knowledge into our product development, contribute to partnerships conversations and represent Entalpic at conference when needed.

This role is NOT about doing experiments in a lab. It can lean either towards partnerships or towards technical work on data quality & AI platform improvement, depending on your strengths.

🤓 Expertise & Skills

• PhD in chemistry, materials chemistry, chemical engineering, or a related field (not required if your experience is strong).

• Several years of experience in vapor deposition precursor chemistry : molecular, organometallic, or coordination chemistry for thin-film deposition (ALD/CVD/PVC or a closely adjacent field); with a hands-on experimental or synthetic background at some point in your career.

• Familiarity with software programming (e.g. python) ****for analysis of chemistry/materials science characterization data. At least, a strong willingness to learn it.

• An organised, structured and data-minded approach: able to deal with many projects, define data processing conventions and spot subtleties in experimental datasets that others miss.

• Ability to communicate outside of the experimental chemistry culture, translating experimental chemistry values and constraints to other team members (eg with a computer science background). Excellent communication skills in English, and comfort in client-, partner-, and conference-facing settings.

• Ability to operate independently and drive projects in a fast-paced startup environment.

Bonus Skills:

• Exposure to LLMs, agents, data/informatics tooling, electronic lab notebooks, databases, etc

• An existing network across the precursor-supplier, equipment providers, fabs and research institutes.

📅 Recruitment Process

• Interview with the hiring manager

• Technical interview on your precursor chemistry and process expertise

• Case discussion on a real Entalpic problem (data quality / experimental strategy)

• Final interview with the CSO

🏆 Compensation & Benefits

We are a no-nonsense startup, where we favor a sustainable culture promoting work-life balance and good compensation over football tables and free food. We offer:

• A competitive salary

• Equity (BSPCE), to reflect the value you bring to Entalpic and to foster a shared journey

• Comprehensive health insurance (Alan blue)

• French level paid leave and time-off work

• Dynamic work environment: strong preference for in-person collaboration at our Paris offices, with flexibility for occasional remote work

• A relocation package and thorough visa support

• Professional development: access to conferences, internal learning sessions, and compute resources

Entalpic is dedicated to equal opportunity employment and fosters an environment that is open and respectful of diversity. All applicants are encouraged to apply, even if you don't meet all the requirements above. If you have a passion for our mission and believe you can contribute, we want to hear from you.

ℹ️ Information

• Location: Paris, France

• Start: As soon as possible

• Reporting to: Chief Science Officer