Solar Design Engineer Jobs in Lowell, MA (NOW HIRING)

At Active Surfaces, our mission is bold: to unlock clean energy in places traditional solar can't reach. Our technology, born from nearly a decade of materials science research at MIT, enables ultra-lightweight, flexible solar modules that install on rooftops, walls, and industrial surfaces once considered off-limits. With our platform, the built environment itself becomes a source of clean power.

Since our founding, we've rapidly emerged as one of the most exciting startups in climate tech, merging breakthrough science with advanced manufacturing. Backed by leading global investors and strategic partners — including J-POWER, Sabancı, and Lendlease — and having already deployed a paid pilot with a Fortune 500 partner, we're scaling quickly to support a growing pipeline of deployments and commercial opportunities through 2028.

We're expanding our team to support this next phase of rapid growth. These key hires will join a world-class group with deep expertise in semiconductor and perovskite research, roll-to-roll manufacturing, and commercial leadership across the energy sector.

Let's be direct about what this is. We're a small team taking on a genuinely hard problem—and we hire accordingly. This is a high-intensity, early-stage environment where the pace is fast and the work you do is load-bearing: it directly determines whether we scale or we fail. We look for people who hold themselves to an exceptionally high bar, want deep ownership, and are energized rather than daunted by the ambiguity of tough problems. The work is demanding; the upside—in impact, in career growth, and in equity—is meant to match it. Few people get to materially change whether clean energy reaches places solar never could. If that's the room you want to be in, you'll be surrounded by people who feel the same.

How we work:

• Tackle hard problems first — we front-load the hardest work to minimize wasted iteration cycles and accelerate learning.
• Stay curious and creative — we thrive in ambiguity and push the boundaries of innovation and are always questioning the status quo.
• Thrive on feedback — we use it to grow quickly, as individuals and as a team - to make ourselves and our products better.
• Act today, not tomorrow — we move with urgency and a bias toward action, after all, climate change isn't slowing down.
• Trust the team and be trustworthy — we communicate openly and show up reliably for one another. We strive to make all our contributions perfect so that our peers and colleagues can do the same.

If you hold yourself to that bar and want to shape the future of solar alongside us, we want to meet you.

As a Test Engineer, you sit at the intersection of product and engineering — and at the intersection of testing and reliability. You own how we measure whether our solar devices work, how long they last, and whether they meet spec. Your work spans lab-scale characterization of solar cells and the reliability and qualification of large-area products. Reporting to the Founder & Chief Technology Officer (CTO), you build the test and reliability infrastructure that tells the rest of the company the truth about our products. The data you generate directly drives design decisions.

Above all else, we value someone who is a quick, enthusiastic learner, creative problem solver and willing to push the bounds of what would normally be considered 'standard'. As our company quickly grows its technical capabilities, we are looking for a team member who can grow and scale with us!

This role is eligible for visa sponsorship and relocation. This job will be located full-time on site in Woburn, MA at our Headquarters and Manufacturing Development site.

• Design and build test fixtures, instrumentation setups, and data acquisition systems that capture high-quality, repeatable data — from lab-scale cells to large-area modules.

• Plan and execute test and characterization campaigns across solar cells and large-area products, including instrumentation selection and acceptance criteria.

• Characterize devices using JV/I-V, EQE/IPCE, electroluminescence (EL) imaging, and flash/LIV testing; correlate lab-scale results with large-area product performance.

• Own reliability and qualification testing — accelerated lifetime, damp heat, thermal cycling, UV and light-soak exposure — driving toward relevant PV module standards (e.g., IEC 61215 / 61730).

• Develop and maintain test protocols, procedures, and reports; keep rigorous records of configurations, calibrations, and results.

• Automate data acquisition and repetitive test sequences (LabVIEW, Python, or similar) to scale throughput and consistency.

• Perform failure analysis and root-cause investigations; feed findings back to the engineering and manufacturing teams.

• Analyze and interpret data to guide decision-making across product and engineering.

• Influence hardware design for testability — flag instrumentation access and design choices that make products easier to qualify, and push back on unnecessary complexity in test setups.

• Enforce and continuously improve lab safety practices for electrical, high-voltage, and environmental-chamber work.

• Be data-driven and experimentally rigorous — rely on evidence, not speculation — and hold peers to the same.

• One of: a B.S. with 2+ years of hands-on test engineering experience (internships and academic research count toward this), or an M.S./Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, Chemistry, or a related field.
• Hands-on experience designing and executing test plans, including instrumentation selection and test fixture design.
• Experience testing and characterizing solar cells, semiconductor devices, or similar single-heterojunction devices (e.g., OPVs, OLEDs, TFTs, thin-film sensors) — or a strong desire to learn.
• Experience with electrical and optoelectronic characterization and DAQ systems (JV/I-V, EQE, EL imaging, flash/LIV, UV-Vis, PL/PLQE, microscopy); understanding the setup and limits of these techniques is preferred.
• Familiarity with reliability, environmental, and qualification test methods, and an interest in PV module standards.
• Proficiency with data acquisition and analysis tools (Python, MATLAB, LabVIEW, or similar).
• Comfort working with high-voltage, high-temperature, or otherwise hazardous equipment, with a demonstrated safety-first mindset.
• Clear technical writing and the ability to communicate findings to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Extensive laboratory experience — planning and conducting experiments following proper protocols, analyzing data, and self-driving optimization.
• Demonstrated ability to work with multiple materials and openness to exploring new material systems and methods.
• Eager to contribute and learn in a collaborative, dynamic, and fast-paced start-up environment.
• A strong, almost perfectionist attitude toward maintaining controls and reducing process variation (Six Sigma certification a plus).

• Expertise in perovskite solar cells and/or organic photovoltaics (OPVs).
• Experience with PV module reliability and qualification standards (IEC 61215, 61730) and accelerated aging.
• Experience building automated test systems and instrument control (e.g., Keithley 2400/2600 GPIB (IEEE-488), Ethernet or USB control).
• Experience using laser spectroscopy or building spectroscopic systems for studying optoelectronic materials.
• Experience with cleanrooms, gloveboxes, and vacuum equipment.
• Experience setting up electrical breadboard test systems.
• Statistical process control, DOE, or Six Sigma methods.
• Experience with prototyping hardware (Arduino, Raspberry Pi, ESP32) or PLCs using IEC 61131-3 standard languages.
• Experience with mechanical design (SolidWorks, Autodesk, Onshape) and prototyping (3D printing, basic machining, or CAM) for test fixtures.
• Experience with electrical layout (Altium, KiCad).
• A willingness to 'tinker', or experiment to drive value and generate new ideas.

All full-time employees are eligible for an annual performance bonus of up to 50% of base salary, assessed and dispersed every six months. The structure is intentionally non-linear — top performers earn disproportionately more, and we want it that way. This isn't stack-ranked: if everyone is exceptional, everyone earns at the top. Your individual contribution is the primary driver, with additional bonuses tied to both department and company outcomes. If you're a top performer, this is where we want that to pay off. Consistent high performance also influences base salary increases, with similar non-linear structures — so the compounding effect over time is significant, and can result in very quick salary and professional growth.

Base salary offers are given based on the experience level of the candidate but applicants should expect base salary levels in-line with their experience level for the Boston area. We are willing to hire multiple exceptional candidates with this posting.

• Top-tier health, dental and vision insurance (90% covered)

• 15 days vacation (20 once seniority is reached). Unlimited sick leave

• Commute reimbursement (75%)

• Wellness program ($50/month)

• Cell Phone Reimbursement ($50/month)

• 401K Matching (up to 5%)

• Equity + re-ups based on performance