Materials Engineer
Location: Mountain View, CA
Compensation: $180–260k depending on experience, plus meaningful early-employee equity.
About Atum Works
We are building the world's first scalable 3D lithography foundry: technology that could fundamentally change how advanced computing systems are built and the material basis of our world.
The world is changed by small groups of unusually capable people working on an ambitious problem together. We are looking for the next core team member that will redefine advanced packaging and shape the trajectory of Atum Works.
Position Summary
As a Materials Engineer, you will work directly with the founders and engineering team to develop and evaluate materials and engineering processes for Atum’s technology.
This is a highly hands-on, mission-critical role. You are defining how materials behave, fail, and scale in our system.
Much of this role is navigating a large design space of materials and processes and rapidly converging on what works.
Your work will directly impact conductivity, strength, reliability, and lifetime.
You are here to increase learning rate and converge on scalable solutions.
As the company enters its next phase, you will help transition processes from early R&D into manufacturing.
This role is scoped flexibly and may be leveled from senior individual contributor to Director or VP depending on experience and scope. Regardless of level, this is a highly hands-on role focused on building, experimenting, and driving materials decisions directly.
Qualifications
We are looking for someone unusually good at understanding and controlling materials systems.
This role is best suited for someone who can move quickly from first principles to practical insight.
Strong background in Thin Film Mechanics, Metallurgy, Material Science, and Chemistry or related fields.
Deep experience with metals, alloys, and microstructure, including grain boundaries, diffusion, and intermetallic behavior
Strong intuition and ability to reason from first principles before relying on simulation or experimentation
Ability to build predictive, first-principles models for physical systems.
Experience developing and optimizing advanced materials processing methods
Experience designing and executing experiments, including successful DOE execution under resource limitations.
Comfort working across modeling, experiment, and process development
Deep understanding of characterization working principles and limitations
High ownership and ability to operate independently
Preferred
Experience in setting up massive automation from scratch, with proven ability to increase learning rate and speed (e.g., 10x faster) with documented metrics.
Strong foundations in probability and statistics, and the underlying assumptions of applicable models
Experience with reliability, lifetime engineering, and verification
Experience in semiconductors, packaging, MEMS, or advanced manufacturing
Experience working on interconnects, substrates, or similar systems
Experience transitioning processes from R&D to manufacturing
Familiarity with multi-physics modeling or simulation approaches
Experience working across industry and academia
Track record of IP papers, patents, publications, or impactful technical contributions.
Benefits
Medical, dental, vision, and 401k
Equal Opportunity Employer
We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment regardless of any protected characteristic under applicable federal, state, or local laws.