Head of Manufacturing
Location: South San Francisco, CA
Type: Full-time/On-site
About the Company
Our client is a company building the energy core of Space 3.0 and frontier tech.
The team is pioneering ultra-light, power-dense solar platforms based on next-generation 2D semiconductors, enabling a step-change in how and where solar power can be deployed — from satellites and high-altitude aircraft to lunar and Martian infrastructure.
Spun out of Stanford University, the company combines breakthroughs in materials science, device physics, and scalable manufacturing to deliver the most power-efficient and lightweight solar technology ever built. With over $370M in LOIs/off-take agreements and a clear roadmap from pilot (2026) to gigawatt-scale production by 2030, this team is on a mission to power the next generation of space and terrestrial systems.
The company is backed by leading deep-tech investors and advised by industry pioneers. The headquarters and pilot facility are in South San Francisco, CA, where the team is scaling across R&D, manufacturing, and systems integration.
About the role
The Head of Manufacturing will be one of the company’s first technical leaders and a key contributor to the design and scale-up of its coating processes.
You will transform lab-scale ink formulations into uniform, functional thin films that form the foundation of the company’s photovoltaic architecture.
Your work will center on developing and optimizing slot-die, blade, and related coating methods for solution-processed semiconductors and charge-transport layers. You’ll collaborate closely with materials and device teams to link film quality to photovoltaic performance and guide the transition from R&D to pilot-line production.
What You’ll Do
- Develop, refine, and scale solution-based coating protocols (slot-die, blade, micro-gravure, etc.) for multilayer PV films.
- Translate ink formulations into high-quality coatings with controlled wetting, drying, thickness, uniformity, and continuity.
- Characterize thin films for their optical (UV/Vis, ellipsometry, etc), electrical (4-point probe, Hall effect measurement, kelvin probe, IV, etc) and physical (AFM, SEM, profilometry, etc) properties to guide process optimization.
- Study the influence of ink chemistry and rheology, substrate surface energy and ink wetting, drying kinetics, and post-deposition processing on film continuity and performance.
- Collaborate with device and materials teams to link material inputs and deposition parameters to photovoltaic metrics (Jsc, Voc, FF, stability, etc).
- Help design and scale experimental setups — including deposition/drying systems (IR/convection drying, air-knife systems, and web handling, etc) as well as film characterization systems.
- Document process parameters, yield data, and continuous-improvement learnings in a reproducible framework.
- Contribute to safety, workflow, and process documentation as the company scales toward pilot-line production.
Qualifications
- M.S. or Ph.D. in Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, Applied Physics, or related field.
- 5+ years of hands-on experience with solution-processed thin-film deposition (slot-die, blade, spin, or similar).
- Proven ability to produce continuous, uniform thin films (<500 nm) from nanoparticle or molecular inks.
- Strong understanding of wetting, viscosity, solvent systems, and drying kinetics in thin-film processing.
- Experience with photovoltaic or semiconductor thin-film materials strongly preferred.
- Familiarity with scaling processes from lab to pilot and integrating process control and in-line metrology.
- Comfort working in a startup R&D environment — self-driven, experimental, and hands-on with equipment.
- Excellent communication and data documentation skills; ability to work cross-functionally with materials, process, and device teams.
What Defines Success
- Excellence in Execution: You bring rigor, precision, and attention to detail to every experiment.
- Collaborative Energy: You elevate those around you through positive engagement and open communication.
- Candor and Trust: You communicate with clarity and integrity to enable faster iteration and collective learning.
- Curiosity and Adaptability: You embrace the unknown as an opportunity to explore, experiment, and improve.
- Mission Focus: You are motivated by impact and driven to help build technology that advances the clean energy future.
Berkner Group has been retained to execute this search. If you were contacted by Berkner Group, please reply to the person who contacted you. If you are applying to a job posting, please email your resume and a brief introduction to [email protected]. Please include your name and the title for this position (“[Your name] - Head of Manufacturing - 8XY8W3RR”) in the subject line of your email. We look forward to hearing from you!
