Materials Engineer

Empower Your Future: At MetOx International, we’re pioneering the next era of energy security and abundance through breakthrough superconducting technology. As a Staff Materials Engineer focused on high-temperature superconducting (HTS) materials, you'll join a multidisciplinary team advancing the materials science that enables next-generation superconducting wire. Your work will directly influence superconducting performance, manufacturing capability, and the commercialization of one of the world's most transformative energy technologies.

Based at our global headquarters in Houston, TX, the Staff Materials Engineer provides technical leadership in the development, characterization, optimization, and scale-up of high-temperature superconducting materials and related complex oxide systems that support MetOx's manufacturing platform. Working closely with Process Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Equipment Engineering, Quality, and R&D, this role combines advanced materials science, thin-film engineering, and process development to establish technical direction, improve manufacturing robustness, and accelerate the commercialization of next-generation superconducting technologies.

Key Responsibilities

Materials Development Strategy

• Leads the materials strategy supporting MetOx's HTS manufacturing platform and long-term technology roadmap.
• Develops a first-principles understanding of the relationships between MOCVD process conditions, film growth, microstructure, and superconducting performance.
• Defines microstructural targets (texture, defects, interfaces, pinning centers, and composition) required to maximize in-field critical current and manufacturing robustness.
• Identifies and evaluates new precursor chemistries, deposition approaches, and characterization methods to improve performance, yield, and scalability.
• Drives the transition of laboratory discoveries into robust, high-volume manufacturing processes.

Project & Experiment Leadership

• Designs and leads experimental programs to establish processing-structure-property relationships in HTS thin films.
• Develops MOCVD process windows through systematic experimentation, physics-based modeling, and statistical analysis.
• Applies advanced characterization techniques, including XRD, SEM, TEM, EBSD, AFM, Raman spectroscopy, and XPS, to identify performance-limiting mechanisms.
• Leverages large manufacturing datasets using multivariate statistics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to correlate tool parameters, diagnostics, and film performance.
• Develops new in situ and ex situ diagnostic methods to improve understanding and control of film growth.