Materials & Semiconductor Physics Technical Lead

Role: Materials & Semiconductor Physics Technical Lead

Location: United Kingdom (Remote)

Duration: 10 weeks

Commitment Required: Minimum 40 hours per week. This contract assignment may require 4 hr overlap with PST Time .

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced Materials Science or Semiconductor Physics Expert to evaluate and benchmark

advanced AI models against real-world materials discovery workflows. Working directly with client R&D teams, you

will turn atomic-scale engineering challenges—spanning thin-film deposition (ALD, CVD, PVD), etch, planarization,

and multiscale physics simulations (DFT, MD, kMC)—into structured test problems, define scientific grading

criteria, and diagnose why frontier AI models succeed or fail.

Key Responsibilities:

• Support technical discovery sessions with client’s R&D teams to map and deconstruct the end-to-end

materials discovery lifecycle into discrete sub-processes.

• Convert real materials engineering challenges into structured test scenarios with defined inputs,

constraints, and verified golden reference solutions.

• Define clear scoring rubrics and programmatic validation rules (e.g., verifying stoichiometry,

thermodynamics, and non-diverging simulation parameters).

• Inspect step-by-step AI reasoning traces to diagnose failure root causes.

• Scope out domain-specific data generation requirements, synthetic physics pipelines, and fine-tuning

strategies to advance AI model performance.

Qualifications:

• PhD or Master's degree in Materials Science, Applied Physics, Chemical Engineering, Microelectronics, or

a related discipline.

• Deep technical expertise in atomic-scale materials engineering: precision thin-film deposition (ALD, CVD,

PVD), plasma etch, CMP, 3D packaging, or advanced semiconductor memory/logic architectures.

• Hands-on familiarity with computational physics/chemistry modeling pipelines: Density Functional Theory

(DFT), Molecular Dynamics (MD), or Kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) simulation setups.

• Proven ability to formulate complex, open-ended scientific workflows into structured, verifiable problem

statements with clear ground-truth criteria.

• Strong verbal & written communication skills required during technical and business workshops.

Benefits

• Opportunity to work on cutting-edge AI projects.

• Competitive compensation.

• Flexible working hours and remote work environment.