---
title: 'Chemical / Materials Engineer – Space Solar at Starpath Robotics'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/chemical-materials-engineer-space-solar-starpath-robotics-hawthorne-pjhey2tmt22v'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-08'
---

# Chemical / Materials Engineer – Space Solar at Starpath Robotics

- **Company:** Starpath Robotics
- **Location:** Hawthorne, CA
- **Compensation:** $125k–$160k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Posted:** 2026-08-11
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/starpath.space/581637f9-086d-49e8-b339-b7eef25db5e9

## Job description

Chemical / Materials Engineer – Space Solar

Position Details Location: Los Angeles (Hawthorne), CA Employment Type: Full-time Department: Starlight Solar Travel: Occasional

## About Starpath

Starpath develops and manufactures the technologies that will enable humans to live on the Moon and Mars. Today, we are building robotic systems that locally produce the essential commodities a lunar civilization will require at extreme scale: water, power, and oxygen. Our ultimate goal is to build and operate a self-sustaining city on Mars.

## The Role

The Starlight team is focused on dramatically improving space solar power to support Starpath's core mission and the greater space economy. Starlight manufactures the lowest cost and highest performance space solar ever, which will power the majority of new satellites built on Earth and all of Starpath's equipment on the Moon and Mars.

As a Chemical / Materials Engineer on the Starlight team, you will work alongside our senior chemists on the materials and chemistries behind our solar cells and encapsulation systems. You'll support development, characterization, and scale-up work across cell chemistry, polymer encapsulation, and barrier systems — running experiments, building process workflows, and translating bench-scale chemistry into stable, reproducible manufacturing.

## Responsibilities

- Support development and optimization of chemistries and processes across cell materials, polymer encapsulation, and barrier systems
- Run experiments, characterize materials, and analyze data to inform chemistry and process decisions
- Build and maintain lab workflows, sample tracking, and characterization pipelines that support fast iteration
- Perform materials and device characterization using techniques such as XRD, XPS, FTIR, DSC, TGA, SEM, photoluminescence, IV, and stability/degradation testing
- Partner with senior chemists on root-cause investigations connecting chemistry to device and encapsulation performance
- Support scale-up of bench-level chemistry into stable, reproducible processes on the manufacturing line
- Contribute to environmental stability strategies — moisture, oxygen, thermal, UV, and radiation tolerance
- Maintain lab safety, chemical inventory, and contamination control practices
- Push back on unnecessary complexity — simplify chemistries, reduce process steps, and cut overhead wherever it doesn't add value

Required Qualifications

- Bachelor's or Master's degree in chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science, applied physics, or a related discipline
- 1+ years of hands-on experience with thin-film photovoltaic, optoelectronic, polymer, or related materials (internship and academic research applicable)
- Working knowledge of materials characterization techniques and the ability to interpret chemical, thermal, and electrical data
- Demonstrated ability to run experiments, collect and analyze data, and draw conclusions from bench work

## Preferred Qualifications

- Master's degree in a relevant discipline
- Direct experience with thin-film PV, OLED, OPV, or related solution-processed optoelectronic materials
- Hands-on experience with polymer chemistry — encapsulants, adhesives, barrier films, or bonded joints
- Experience with solution-processed deposition methods (spin coating, blade coating, slot-die coating) or polymer curing and lamination
- Proficiency with common characterization techniques — XRD, XPS, FTIR, DSC, TGA, SEM, AFM, photoluminescence, IV, EQE
- Experience translating bench chemistry to larger-area or pilot-scale processes
- Familiarity with glovebox operations, cleanroom protocols, and chemical safety
- Experience using Python, MATLAB, or comparable tools for data analysis
- Exposure to aerospace, space, or other high-reliability hardware environments

## Compensation & Benefits

- Location: Los Angeles (Hawthorne), CA
- Competitive salary plus equity package; compensation scales with candidate experience
- PTO & health/dental/vision coverage included

## EAR REQUIREMENTS:

- To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

## Equal Opportunity

Starpath is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

## About Starpath Robotics

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Starpath Robotics designs and manufactures robotic propellant production factories for the Moon and Mars, aiming to reduce the cost of deep-space transport and enable a self-sustaining human city on Mars.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage)
- **Headquarters**: Hawthorne, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2022
- **Founders**: Saurav Shroff (CEO & Co-Founder), Mihir Gondhalekar (Co-Founder)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Space Research and Technology, Air Transportation, Space Travel, Robotics
- **Target customers**: B2B – space agencies (NASA), commercial space companies (e.g., Starship operators), satellite operators, and future Mars/Moon infrastructure developers.
- **Mission or purpose statement**: “Building a self-sustaining city on Mars” by producing propellant and infrastructure in space.

## Products & Services
- **Rover (R10)**: Autonomous lunar ice prospecting rover that excavates and delivers hundreds of kilograms of icy regolith. Built for NASA testing and future lunar operations.
- **Refinery System**: Full-stack hardware system for producing and distributing propellant (oxygen, hydrogen, methane) from water ice on the Moon and Mars.
- **Starlight Solar**: Space-rated solar panels that are 90% cheaper than traditional alternatives, with lead times of weeks instead of months. Available for purchase now.
- **Starlight Air**: The world’s lightest space solar panel (announced March 2026). Engineered for high-efficiency power generation.
- **Shadow Voyager**: Exploration vehicle designed for permanently shadowed regions at the Lunar South Pole.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding – $12.0M (Seed round closed August 20, 2024)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: 
  - Fusion Fund (lead investor in Seed round per LinkedIn)
  - 8VC and 10 other investors (per Crunchbase)
  - Contrary, Valhalla Ventures
  - NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (testing partnership)
  - Atomic-6 (development contract for deployable lunar boom)
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Headcount grew 73.7% year-over-year to 28 employees (LinkedIn, 2026)
  - Successful thermal vacuum chamber testing at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (2025)
  - Launch of Starlight Air solar panels (2026)
  - Active hiring for technical roles including first Technical Recruiter

## Competitive Advantages
- **Ex-SpaceX founding team**: Deep expertise in space hardware and propulsion.
- **Full-stack approach**: Covers rover mining, propellant refinery, and solar power – a vertically integrated solution for in-situ resource utilization.
- **NASA collaboration**: Early access to NASA’s test facilities (e.g., 20-ft thermal vacuum chamber) and credibility.
- **Cost disruption**: Starlight solar panels claim 90% cost reduction vs. traditional space solar.
- **First-mover on lunar ice**: Autonomous rover designed to establish the first American claim to lunar ice resources.

## Strategic Focus
- **Lunar testbed**: Use the Moon as a proving ground for Mars propellant production technology, leveraging lunar water ice.
- **City-scale infrastructure**: Scale from propellant production to energy grids, mining capacity, and life support for a self-sustaining Mars city.
- **Revenue diversification**: Selling Starlight solar panels and rover services to generate near-term revenue while pursuing long-term Mars goals.
- **Talent scaling**: Aggressively hiring to grow the engineering team (technical roles are 48% of workforce).

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Startup environment with a bold mission (“build a city on Mars”). High ownership and fast iteration – interns are expected to do “whatever needs doing.”
- **Growth**: Company growing rapidly (+73.7% YoY headcount); opportunities for early employees to take on significant responsibility.
- **Technical depth**: Team includes alumni from SpaceX, Boston Dynamics, Anduril, Astrobotic – strong engineering culture.
- **Work location**: Hawthorne, CA (HQ) with additional office in Burlingame, CA. Onsite presence expected (manufacturing and testing require hands-on work).
- **Notable perks**: Not explicitly listed, but startup equity and the chance to work on hardware that goes to the Moon and Mars.
- **Recent hiring signals**: Actively recruiting Technical Recruiter, software engineers, and rover engineers – indicating scaling phase.

## Sources
1. [starpath.space](https://www.starpath.space/)
2. [starpath.space/about](https://starpath.space/about/)
3. [crunchbase.com](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/starpath-robotics)
4. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/starpathspace)

## Other roles at Starpath Robotics

- [Intern/Associate Engineer - All Roles](https://feeny.ai/job/intern-associate-engineer-all-roles-starpath-robotics-hawthorne-x72ernec0zvg) — Hawthorne, CA
- [CNC Machinist Setup & Operation – MILL](https://feeny.ai/job/cnc-machinist-setup-operation-mill-starpath-robotics-future-factory-z0f3k4xnmat8) — Future Factory
- [CNC Machinist Setup & Operation – LATHE](https://feeny.ai/job/cnc-machinist-setup-operation-lathe-starpath-robotics-future-factory-fej8ssxcxj3d) — Future Factory
- [Senior CNC Programmer & Prototype Machinist – MILL](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-cnc-programmer-prototype-machinist-mill-starpath-robotics-future-factory-0f5924ch61c5) — Future Factory
- [Senior CNC Programmer & Prototype Machinist – LATHE](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-cnc-programmer-prototype-machinist-lathe-starpath-robotics-hawthorne-thk919345d3r) — Hawthorne, CA
- [Lead Designer](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-designer-starpath-robotics-hawthorne-axk08ca5qr0j) — Hawthorne, CA
- [Senior Flight Software Engineer - Embedded Linux](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-flight-software-engineer-embedded-linux-starpath-robotics-hawthorne-6s0rba5b8hd2) — Hawthorne, CA
- [Senior Robotics Software Engineer – Lunar Rover Localization](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-robotics-software-engineer-lunar-rover-localization-starpath-robotics-sgmwr7nk47dk) — Hawthorne, CA
- [Electrical Engineer - Space Solar](https://feeny.ai/job/electrical-engineer-space-solar-starpath-robotics-hawthorne-t4cv2by8p1mk) — Hawthorne, CA
- [Senior Manufacturing Engineer - Space Solar](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-manufacturing-engineer-space-solar-starpath-robotics-hawthorne-sj1bj4s7wn0s) — Hawthorne, CA