Polymer Chemist - Space Solar at Starpath Robotics (Hawthorne, CA)
Starpath Robotics· Hawthorne, CA· $125k–$200k·
Role details
Equity Package · PTO · Health Insurance · Dental Insurance · Vision Insurance
Summary
The Polymer Chemist owns polymer materials, encapsulation systems, and barrier chemistries for perovskite solar cells, ensuring protection against space environments. The role involves developing formulations, qualifying materials, and driving integration decisions to ensure long-term reliability of solar arrays.
Job description
Polymer Chemist – 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 Polymer Chemist on the Starlight team, you will own the polymer materials, encapsulation systems, and barrier chemistries that protect our perovskite solar cells from the space environment. You'll drive the formulation, qualification, and integration decisions that determine how well our arrays survive moisture, oxygen, thermal cycling, UV, and radiation across years on orbit — while staying compatible with the underlying perovskite chemistry.
Responsibilities
- Develop, formulate, and qualify polymer encapsulants, edge seals, barrier films, and adhesives for perovskite solar hardware
- Engineer moisture and oxygen barrier systems with ultra-low water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) and oxygen transmission rate (OTR) to protect perovskite cells
- Develop low-temperature curing and lamination processes compatible with perovskite-cell processing constraints
- Drive root-cause investigations on bonding, outgassing, delamination, and ingress-driven degradation across manufacturing and qualification testing
- Characterize polymer materials and bonded joints using techniques such as FTIR, DSC, TGA, WVTR/OTR, and lap shear/peel testing
- Evaluate polymer and encapsulation performance under space environments — vacuum outgassing (ASTM E595), thermal cycling, UV, atomic oxygen, and ionizing radiation
- Translate bench chemistry into stable, high-yield production processes in partnership with cell, panel, and manufacturing engineering
- Push back on unnecessary complexity — simplify chemistries, reduce cure times, and cut overhead wherever it doesn't add value
Required Qualifications
- Master's or PhD in polymer chemistry, chemistry, materials science, chemical engineering, or a related discipline
- 3+ years of hands-on experience with polymer encapsulants, adhesives, or barrier films for sensitive optoelectronic or electronic devices (graduate research applicable)
- Demonstrated ability to connect polymer chemistry and processing to device-level reliability outcomes
Preferred Qualifications
- PhD in a relevant discipline with a focus on encapsulation, barrier materials, or polymer chemistry for optoelectronic devices
- Direct experience formulating or qualifying encapsulation systems for moisture- and oxygen-sensitive devices (perovskite PV, OLED, OPV, or flexible electronics)
- Hands-on experience with ultra-low WVTR/OTR barrier materials, including multilayer and inorganic-organic hybrid barrier stacks
- Familiarity with low-temperature cure systems — UV, moisture cure, low-temperature thermal — compatible with perovskite processing constraints
- Experience with surface preparation, adhesion science, and bond strength testing
- Knowledge of space-grade material requirements — low outgassing (ASTM E595), UV stability, atomic oxygen resistance, and radiation tolerance
- Experience scaling polymer processes from bench to high-rate production
- 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.
Why work at Starpath Robotics
- 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.