---
title: 'MEMS Process Integration Scientist at HRL Laboratories'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/mems-process-integration-scientist-hrl-laboratories-malibu-sewkaxpmff6m'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-11'
---

# MEMS Process Integration Scientist at HRL Laboratories

- **Company:** HRL Laboratories
- **Location:** Malibu, CA
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-07-02
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-11
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/dodmg/37a5233f-6299-4943-9f60-84c785434dd0

## Job description

HRL Laboratories, an IBM company, pioneers the next frontiers of physical and information science. Delivering transformative technologies in automotive, aerospace and defense, HRL advances the critical missions of its customers to help them remove limitations and create competitive advantage. HRL then transitions the work back to customers – ready for real-world application. For more than 70 years, HRL’s rich portfolio of scientific discoveries and engineering innovations continues to build on each other — often in unexpected, profound and far-reaching ways. As a private company owned by IBM, HRL prioritizes purpose over profit, significantly advancing the state of the art. HRL's compact, high-performance MEMS IMUs are revolutionizing navigation systems by delivering reliable guidance in GPS-degraded environments. Engineered with navigation-grade precision, these IMUs provide a cost-effective and scalable solution for automotive, aerospace, and other demanding applications where traditional GPS reliance falls short. These innovations aim to deliver a first-of-its-kind navigation-grade component that combines reliability, precision, and affordability. By offering a viable alternative to traditional IMUs, HRL's MEMS technology is advancing the capabilities of autonomous systems and enabling precise navigation in challenging environments. Essential Duties:

- Innovative Collaboration: Collaborate with a team of scientists and engineers to develop advanced MEMS-enabled sensors and actuators for aerospace, automotive, and industrial applications, driving innovation to redefine industry standards.
- Strategic Process Integration: Integrate new processes into scalable workflows, ensuring seamless transitions from research to production while applying creativity and systems-level thinking.
- Device Design and Fabrication: Lead the design, fabrication, and testing of MEMS devices and subsystems, ensuring they meet project requirements and are scalable for production.
- Experimental Development: Design and execute experiments to validate innovative MEMS technologies, employing creative approaches to solve complex challenges and explore new possibilities.
- Precision Analysis: Perform wafer inspections and metrology to ensure quality and precision, driving iterative improvements for both research-specific and scalable processes.
- Project Leadership: Manage critical project elements, including timelines, deliverables, and resources, ensuring successful execution and impactful outcomes that bridge research innovations with real-world applications.
- Conceive, propose, and secure new research initiatives focused on MEMS, NEMS, and other relevant technologies.
- This role emphasizes technical leadership, scientific originality, and program ownership to shape a portfolio of high-impact efforts that advance next-generation navigation systems.
- Responsible for guiding funded programs, influencing technical strategy, and mentoring junior staff. Required Qualifications:
- Ph.D. or Master’s Degree in a physical science or engineering field with 5+ years of fabrication process experience in an R&D environment
- Proven Expertise in Process Development: Demonstrate strong skills in process development, optimization, design of experiments (DOE), statistical data analysis, and innovative problem-solving to drive cutting-edge advancements
- Collaborative Team Environment: Strong verbal and written communication skills to thrive in a dynamic, multi-disciplinary team and enable effective cross-laboratory collaboration
- End-to-End Fabrication Mastery: Ability to integrate diverse process recipes into seamless fabrication workflows while addressing process interdependencies to achieve high-performance results
- Hands-On Experience with Advanced Techniques: Proficiency in the following state-of-the-art technologies: o    Contact/stepper photolithography o    Wet and plasma dry etching o    High aspect-ratio deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) for silicon, glass, and other MEMS materials o    Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) o    Dielectric and metal depositions o    Wafer bonding and vacuum encapsulation of microscale structures o    Sacrificial and structural layer creation and wet/dry release processes
- Precision Metrology Skills: Expertise in using advanced tools such as optical/infrared microscopy, interferometric measurements, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with elemental analysis to ensure quality and precision.
- Innovative Design Expertise: Experience in designing and characterizing process control monitors (PCM) for in-process verification, along with proficiency in creating and modifying mask layouts using industry-standard CAD software like L-Edit or Cadence
- Technical Proposal Development: Experience in writing technical proposals to present innovative research and development concepts Preferred Qualifications:
- Hands-On Micro-Machining Experience: Experience with both surface and bulk micro-machining is highly desired.
- Fabrication Documentation: Strong ability to document fabrication experiments accurately and thoroughly.
- Back-End Wafer Processing: Experience in wafer grinding, CMP, die singulation, and assembly processes into packages
- Data Analysis Proficiency: Familiarity with data analysis software such as JMP, MATLAB, or Python is a significant advantage
- Automation Skills: Experience in automating fabrication data collection and analysis
- Device Simulation Expertise: Knowledge of mechanical, thermal, or electrical Finite Element Analysis (FEA) modeling using tools like COMSOL or SolidWorks
- Inline Process Characterization: Experience in designing and conducting wafer or die-level electrical or optical process control monitor (PCM) testing Physical Requirements: Must be able to perform safely in a MEMS microfabrication cleanroom and follow standard operating practices Special Requirements: US Citizenship with the ability to obtain and maintain a US Government security clearance Compensation and Benefits: Pay Range: $140,700 - $175,950 Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location (California). The range displayed on each job posting reflects the target range for new hire salaries for the position. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range during the hiring process. Benefits: HRL offers a generous and very competitive total compensation and benefits package. Our Regular/Full Time benefits include medical, dental, vision, life insurance, 401K match, gym facilities, PTO, Sick time, upward mobility, and an exciting and challenging work environment. For more information about our company benefit offerings please visit: https://www.hrl.com/careers/benefits Non-Discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunities (U.S.) Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that some people are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single desired qualification. At HRL, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles. We are proud to be an EEO/AA employer M/F/D/V. We maintain a drug-free workplace and perform pre-employment substance abuse testing. If you would like more information about Equal Employment Opportunity as an applicant under the law, please go to Employees & Job Applicants | U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission For our privacy policy please visit: www.hrl.com/privacy

Keywords/ Phrases: Dry Etch, Wafer level bonding, idea generation, proposal writing, principal investigator

## About HRL Laboratories

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: HRL Laboratories (formerly Hughes Research Laboratories) is a private R&D lab jointly owned by Boeing and General Motors that pioneers transformative technologies in physical and information science for aerospace, automotive, and defense applications.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Limited Liability Company, LLC) — owned by The Boeing Company and General Motors
- **Headquarters**: Malibu, California, USA (with additional campuses in Calabasas and Westlake Village, CA)
- **Founded**: 1948 (as Hughes Research Laboratories); restructured as an LLC in 1997
- **Founders**: Founded as the research arm of Hughes Aircraft Company (Howard Hughes); current entity formed by Boeing and GM

## Core Business
- **Primary Industries**: Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Advanced Materials, Microelectronics, Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Science, and Sensor Systems
- **Target Customers**: Boeing, General Motors (LLC Members), U.S. Government (DoD), and commercial customers requiring deep-tech R&D
- **Mission / Purpose**: To conduct basic and applied research that transitions into real-world applications, removing limitations and creating competitive advantage for its customers — prioritizing purpose over profit

## Products & Services
For each major offering:
- **Applied R&D Services**: Full-spectrum research from basic science through prototype development and transition to production for member companies and government clients.
- **Microfabrication & Semiconductor Fabrication**: Operates a 10,000-square-foot Class 10 cleanroom (ISO Class 4) for end-to-end production of integrated circuits, compound semiconductor devices, quantum devices, memristors, and photonic devices. DoD Trusted Foundry status.
- **Advanced Materials & Manufacturing**: Development of engineered structural and active materials, coatings, nanotechnologies, and metal additive manufacturing (3D printing of metals).
- **Artificial Intelligence & Cognitive Systems**: Neuromorphic computing, brain-machine interfaces, graph machine learning, agentic AI, and automated knowledge extraction.
- **Sensors & Electronics**: Small/conformal antennas, RF technologies, optoelectronics for microwave signal distribution, and quantum information science.
- **Vision Systems**: Infrared systems, focal plane arrays, and advanced imaging technologies.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation / Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed (private LLC)
- **Key Metric**: Total Revenue not publicly disclosed; funded by Boeing and GM as member-owned R&D entity; government and commercial contracts
- **Notable Investors / Partners**: The Boeing Company (joint owner), General Motors (joint owner), U.S. Department of Defense (DoD Trusted Foundry)
- **Growth Signals**: Active hiring across multiple advanced technology centers; 250,000 sq. ft. of lab space; 70+ years of continuous operation with a rich patent portfolio; expanding in AI, quantum, and additive manufacturing domains

## Competitive Advantages
- **Unique Ownership Structure**: A private R&D lab jointly owned by two Fortune 500 companies (Boeing and GM) that prioritizes long-term research over quarterly profit — extremely rare in corporate R&D.
- **Deep Tech Portfolio & History**: 70+ years of breakthrough innovations (e.g., first working laser, key components for LCD displays, quantum cascade lasers) with a culture of cross-disciplinary discovery.
- **DoD Trusted Foundry**: One of the few facilities in the U.S. certified to fabricate secure microelectronics for defense applications, providing a major government contract moat.
- **World-Class Facilities**: 10,000 sq. ft. Class 10 cleanroom, 250,000 sq. ft. total lab space, and a multidisciplinary staff of world-class scientists and engineers across materials science, physics, chemistry, electrical engineering, and computer science.

## Strategic Focus
- **Current Priorities**: Expanding capabilities in agentic AI and graph machine learning, metal additive manufacturing (computational materials science), quantum information science, and advanced MEMS/process integration. Growing the workforce in intelligent systems, sensors & electronics, and vision systems.
- **Direction for Growth**: Transitioning more foundational research into real-world products for Boeing, GM, and government customers; strengthening the "AI + hardware" intersection; recruiting top-tier PhD-level talent across physics, materials, and computer science.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture & Mission**: A "small company atmosphere" with the resources of a major R&D lab. Employees conduct both basic and applied research in a collaborative technical environment committed to "producing the leading R&D in the world." [hrl.com](https://hrl.com/careers)
- **Work Location**: On-site roles primarily in Malibu, CA (overlooking the Pacific Ocean) and Calabasas, CA. Some hybrid options exist (e.g., Agentic AI role listed as Hybrid in Calabasas). [hrl.com](https://hrl.com/careers) and [jobs.lever.co](https://jobs.lever.co/dodmg)
- **Benefits & Perks**:
    - **Compensation**: Competitive salary; generous 401(k) with 100% match on first 4% + age-based employer contributions. [hrl.com](https://hrl.com/careers/benefits)
    - **Time Off**: 14 paid holidays per year (including year-end break); flexible PTO (up to 15 days after 1 year, up to 25 days after 10 years); 80 hours sick time granted on hire. [hrl.com](https://hrl.com/careers/benefits)
    - **Parental Leave**: 12 weeks fully paid parental leave. [hrl.com](https://hrl.com/careers/benefits)
    - **Education**: 100% tuition reimbursement for approved programs. [hrl.com](https://hrl.com/careers/benefits)
    - **Health**: Multiple medical plans (PPO, HMO, HDHP HSA), employer-paid vision and dental, HSA contributions, family planning support.
    - **Workplace**: On-site fitness centers (Lost Hills & Westlake), Malibu dining terrace with ocean views, ridesharing incentives, employee discounts, colloquia series with noted speakers. [hrl.com](https://hrl.com/careers/benefits)
- **Engineering/Research Culture**: Multidisciplinary teams working on cutting-edge problems in AI, quantum, materials, microelectronics, and sensors. Employees are expected to publish and patent, contributing to both basic science and applied engineering. Provides "unique career growth opportunities as a member of the research community serving our LLC Members, government and commercial customers." [hrl.com](https://hrl.com/careers)

## Sources
1. [HRL Laboratories Careers](https://hrl.com/careers)
2. [HRL Laboratories About](https://www.hrl.com/about)
3. [Current Openings at HRL](https://hrl.com/careers/current-openings)
4. [HRL Benefits](https://hrl.com/careers/benefits)
5. [HRL Job Listings (Lever)](https://jobs.lever.co/dodmg)

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