Materials R&D Engineer

We’re looking for a hands-on Materials R&D Engineer to develop and validate materials, interfaces, and fabrication approaches for a novel electrostatic actuator platform. This role combines creative experimental design, first-principles calculations, and practical lab work. As an early hire, you will directly shape the materials choices and development strategy.

What You’ll Do

Experimental Design: Identify key uncertainties, make first-principles estimates, and devise creative experiments to test ideas and guide design decisions.

Materials Development: Investigate liquid-metal interfaces, surface coatings, thin dielectrics, and bonding methods; connect material properties to actuator performance.

Lab Prototyping: Prepare samples, build test fixtures, and collaborate with our microfabrication team to turn concepts into working demonstrations.

Characterization: Develop repeatable measurements of electrical, mechanical, and surface behavior; analyze data, investigate failure modes, and iterate.

Qualifications

Experience: 3+ years of hands-on experimental R&D in materials science, applied physics, or a related engineering field.

Core technical skills:

Strong materials science fundamentals, including surface interactions, wetting, adhesion, dielectric behavior, and mechanical properties

Practical experience with thin films, surface treatments, eutectic metal solder, polymers, or microfabrication

Demonstrated ability to independently design experiments, build apparatus, select measurement techniques, and interpret results

Comfort using calculations and quantitative data analysis to evaluate ideas and prioritize experiments

What we value:

Strong problem-solving abilities with a first-principles approach to complex challenges

Clear communication and strong ownership in a startup setting

Genuine enthusiasm for robotics and physically intelligent systems

A builder mindset: rapid iteration, learning from failure, and shipping real hardware

Pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience