Human Factor Engineer Phd Jobs in Reno, NV (NOW HIRING)

Role Summary

In this role, you will own the materials and process foundation of our medium voltage Solid State Transformer products. Solid state transformers concentrate high voltage, high frequency, and high power density into a fraction of the envelope of traditional equipment - and that makes the insulation system, the potting, the coatings, and the interfaces between them the deciding factor in whether a product passes qualification and survives twenty years in the field. You will lead material selection, develop and qualify the processes that put those materials into the product at rate, and drive the characterization and failure analysis that proves they work. You will partner closely with design, manufacturing, quality, and supply chain, and you will be the technical authority on materials decisions across the platform. This is hands-on work on real hardware, with a short path from the experiment you run this quarter to the machine that ships next.

Responsibilities:

• Own material selection across dielectrics, polymers, resins, composites, and coatings, balancing electrical performance, manufacturability, cost, and long-term reliability.
• Lead process development and qualification for potting, coating, casting, molding, thin film deposition, and related processes.
• Define key process parameters, processing conditions, and processing windows, and work with manufacturing and quality to establish production feasibility and control limits.
• Own materials characterization through a combination of in-house testing and third-party labs, including dielectric, thermal, mechanical, and chemical performance.
• Lead root-cause and failure analysis on materials and process issues across design, manufacturing, and field domains, identifying the mechanism rather than the correlation.
• Source and co-develop novel materials with suppliers when commercially available options cannot meet product requirements.
• Partner with external vendors and internal teams on process equipment selection and optimization to improve material properties and processing capability.
• Influence system-level trade-offs across insulation design, thermal management, packaging, power density, cost, and manufacturability.
• Ensure materials and process solutions scale across product variants and future platforms.
• Elevate materials engineering standards through rigorous design reviews, structured experimentation, and documentation.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Materials Science and Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience in materials processing in production-relevant settings, such as coating, injection molding, casting, potting, or thin film deposition.
• Direct experience and deep understanding of polymers, resins, particles, coating formulations, and composite materials, including how they cure, age, and fail.
• Strong command of fundamental materials properties - dielectric, electrical, thermal, mechanical, and chemical - and how they trade against one another.
• Strong hands-on experimental skills and demonstrated process development capability.
• Proven ability to drive material and process development by combining data-driven metrics with fundamental mechanisms.
• Extensive hands-on laboratory and production floor experience, including leading characterization and validation activities.
• Demonstrated ability to partner with external vendors and internal teams to take a process from initial feasibility to repeatable production.
• Demonstrated ability to independently resolve complex, cross-domain technical challenges and drive cross-functional trade-off decisions.

Bonus Qualifications:

• MS or PhD in Materials Science and Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or a related field with 5+ years of industry materials processing experience.
• Experience in the development of dielectric materials.
• Deep understanding of partial discharge, dielectric breakdown, and electrical insulation materials.
• Exposure to medium-voltage power electronics systems.
• Experience taking a material or process through qualification for a high-reliability product in power, aerospace, automotive, or semiconductor.
• Experience supporting products from R&D through production release.
• Experience contributing to patents or novel materials and process techniques.