Freelance Mems Process Engineer Jobs in Washington

Location: This role is based onsite at our headquarters in College Park, MD.
Travel: Minimal (<10%)
Job ID: 1770 

The Role: 

We are looking for a hands-on Process Engineer, Packaging to keep our College Park cleanroom production moving. You will spend approximately 70-80% of your time in the cleanroom operating, programming, troubleshooting, and improving the equipment used to build our quantum processing units (QPUs).

This is a floor-first engineering role. You will work directly with technicians and engineers to solve problems at the equipment, create and release robust recipes, train operators, and stand up new capabilities. Specific microelectronics packaging experience is valuable, but it is not the only path to success. We can teach our processes; we are looking for an experienced engineer who is driven to learn, takes pride in careful hands-on work, and does what the team needs to deliver hardware.

The role may be leveled as Process Engineer or Senior Process Engineer based on demonstrated experience and scope.

Responsibilities:

• Provide real-time sustaining engineering support in the cleanroom so QPU builds, technician work, and critical equipment stay on track.
• Personally operate, program, troubleshoot, and improve complex packaging equipment, with particular emphasis on wire bonding and die/flip-chip bonding.
• Create, validate, release, and maintain equipment recipes and process programs; use data and disciplined experimentation to establish stable operating windows.
• Investigate equipment faults, process excursions, and product failures; identify root causes, implement corrective actions, and verify that the fix is effective.
• Train and qualify operators on packaging equipment and processes, and translate practical learning into clear work instructions, travelers, and operating guidance.
• Improve existing packaging processes with respect to yield, throughput, repeatability, uptime, and capability.
• Support hands-on prototype and new-product builds from component preparation through assembly, inspection, characterization, and release.
• Handle fragile, high-value components carefully and model excellent cleanroom discipline during every build.
• Collaborate across packaging, manufacturing, QPU design, fabrication, quality, test, and external suppliers to remove blockers and deliver hardware.

Requirements:

• A bachelor's degree in an engineering or physical sciences discipline.
• 1-2 years professional experience beyond coursework and internships personally operating complex automated equipment in a production, development, or laboratory environment. 
• Evidence that you have personally diagnosed equipment or process problems, implemented fixes, and verified results.
• A genuine preference for working at the equipment and with physical hardware for most of the day.
• The ability to learn unfamiliar equipment and processes quickly while working safely and carefully.
• Clear communication skills and the ability to train operators with different levels of technical experience.
• The ability to work onsite in College Park five days per week during training and initial ramp-up. Some flexibility for limited remote work can be afforded once training is complete.
• The ability to work for extended periods in full cleanroom gowning.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Hands-on experience programming or troubleshooting wire bonders , die bonders, and/or optical packaging equipment.
• Experience in microelectronics, optoelectronics, photonics, RF/microwave hardware, MEMS, aerospace electronics, medical devices, or another precision hardware field.
• Experience with packaging processes such as solder reflow, epoxy dispense, plasma cleaning, optical inspection, profilometry/interferometry, electrical test, or UHV-compatible assembly.
• Experience selecting equipment, working directly with vendors, installing and qualifying tools, and releasing recipes for production use.
• Experience training and qualifying operators and improving a process under schedule pressure.
• Strong internal drive: you identify the next useful action, follow through without constant prompting, and close the loop.
• Low ego: no task is beneath you when it helps the team deliver; you are equally willing to troubleshoot a recipe, prepare parts, or clean a tool.
• Careful and deliberate execution: you slow down when the hardware demands it, protect fragile parts, and treat repeatability and contamination control as part of the engineering work.
• Team-first behavior: you share knowledge, respond to technician needs, communicate problems early, and optimize for the success of the build rather than personal ownership of the solution.

What success looks like

• First 30 days: learn the cleanroom workflow and independently operate several core tools while contributing to live builds.
• By 60 days: own at least one process or equipment family and resolve routine floor escalations with appropriate support.
• By three months: serve as a credible sustaining-engineering resource across most of the packaging workflow, including troubleshooting and recipe or program changes.
• By 6 months: deliver measurable improvements in equipment uptime, yield, throughput, or process capability while training and enabling others.

The total compensation package includes base, bonus, equity, and a range of benefit options found on our career site.