Polymer Chemist - Space Solar

Polymer Chemist – Space Solar

Position Details

Location: Los Angeles (Hawthorne), CA

Employment Type: Full-time

Department: Starlight Solar

Travel: Occasional

About Starpath

Starpath develops and manufactures the technologies that will enable humans to live on the Moon and Mars. Today, we are building robotic systems that locally produce the essential commodities a lunar civilization will require at extreme scale: water, power, and oxygen. Our ultimate goal is to build and operate a self-sustaining city on Mars.

The Role

The Starlight team is focused on dramatically improving space solar power to support Starpath's core mission and the greater space economy. Starlight manufactures the lowest cost and highest performance space solar ever, which will power the majority of new satellites built on Earth and all of Starpath's equipment on the Moon and Mars.

As a Polymer Chemist on the Starlight team, you will own the polymer materials, encapsulation systems, and barrier chemistries that protect our perovskite solar cells from the space environment. You'll drive the formulation, qualification, and integration decisions that determine how well our arrays survive moisture, oxygen, thermal cycling, UV, and radiation across years on orbit — while staying compatible with the underlying perovskite chemistry.

Responsibilities

• Develop, formulate, and qualify polymer encapsulants, edge seals, barrier films, and adhesives for perovskite solar hardware
• Engineer moisture and oxygen barrier systems with ultra-low water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) and oxygen transmission rate (OTR) to protect perovskite cells
• Develop low-temperature curing and lamination processes compatible with perovskite-cell processing constraints
• Drive root-cause investigations on bonding, outgassing, delamination, and ingress-driven degradation across manufacturing and qualification testing
• Characterize polymer materials and bonded joints using techniques such as FTIR, DSC, TGA, WVTR/OTR, and lap shear/peel testing
• Evaluate polymer and encapsulation performance under space environments — vacuum outgassing (ASTM E595), thermal cycling, UV, atomic oxygen, and ionizing radiation
• Translate bench chemistry into stable, high-yield production processes in partnership with cell, panel, and manufacturing engineering
• Push back on unnecessary complexity — simplify chemistries, reduce cure times, and cut overhead wherever it doesn't add value

Required Qualifications

• Master's or PhD in polymer chemistry, chemistry, materials science, chemical engineering, or a related discipline
• 3+ years of hands-on experience with polymer encapsulants, adhesives, or barrier films for sensitive optoelectronic or electronic devices (graduate research applicable)
• Demonstrated ability to connect polymer chemistry and processing to device-level reliability outcomes

Preferred Qualifications

• PhD in a relevant discipline with a focus on encapsulation, barrier materials, or polymer chemistry for optoelectronic devices
• Direct experience formulating or qualifying encapsulation systems for moisture- and oxygen-sensitive devices (perovskite PV, OLED, OPV, or flexible electronics)
• Hands-on experience with ultra-low WVTR/OTR barrier materials, including multilayer and inorganic-organic hybrid barrier stacks
• Familiarity with low-temperature cure systems — UV, moisture cure, low-temperature thermal — compatible with perovskite processing constraints
• Experience with surface preparation, adhesion science, and bond strength testing
• Knowledge of space-grade material requirements — low outgassing (ASTM E595), UV stability, atomic oxygen resistance, and radiation tolerance
• Experience scaling polymer processes from bench to high-rate production
• Exposure to aerospace, space, or other high-reliability hardware environments

Compensation & Benefits

• Location: Los Angeles (Hawthorne), CA
• Competitive salary plus equity package; compensation scales with candidate experience
• PTO & health/dental/vision coverage included

EAR REQUIREMENTS:

• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Equal Opportunity

Starpath is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.