Pioneer Labs Scientist - Materials Emeryville, CA · Full time Company website

Apply for Scientist - Materials

Pioneer Labs is a startup engineering life to make Mars more habitable. We are engineering five organisms that will help humanity thrive on the red planet, and the first is already complete. Our mission is to make the universe friendlier to life - on Earth and beyond. We are a nonprofit research startup based in Emeryville, California. We do marsshot science with an agile, startup-esque team. See pioneer-labs.org to learn more, or visit https://blog.pioneer-labs.org to read more about our science.

We are looking for a scientist to join the team and help us develop biologically produced materials and applications for Mars. We are looking for a materials scientist who is excited by unfamiliar materials and challenging measurements, and who has a background in hands-on characterization. We want you to join the team, establish characterization methods for materials ranging from waxes to structural biomaterials, and use those measurements to guide future development. This is a full-time, in-person role in Emeryville, California.

Key responsibilities

Biomaterials development:

• Develop custom fixtures, test methods, prototypes, data acquisition, and analysis workflows.
• Characterize optical, thermal, mechanical, surface, and durability properties.
• Connect material composition, processing, structure, properties, and performance.
• Conduct iterative design–build–test cycles for coatings, waxes, polymers, and structural biomaterials.
• Develop manufacturing approaches for scaling biologically produced materials from laboratory samples to mission-ready products.
• Familiarity with biologically produced materials is desirable but not required.

Key experience and competencies

Technical:

• Training in materials science or a related field, and research experience in a PhD or industry setting. A PhD is not required.
• Strong practical understanding of the relationships among material composition, processing, structure, properties, and performance.
• Hands-on material characterization experience, specifically selecting or developing tests that answer engineering questions. Experience with optical and thermal properties is preferred.
• Practical experience running iterative design–build–test cycles, including setting requirements, making prototypes, diagnosing failures, and updating formulations or processes.
• Experience processing raw materials into reproducible, usable forms via steps such as purification, separation, drying, formulation, casting, coating, molding, or compounding.
• Experience with biologically produced materials, downstream fermentation processing, or biopolymer recovery, such as PHAs is desirable but not required.

Interpersonal:

• Evidence that you can move comfortably between disciplines and between theory and experiment.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and a willingness to learn new skills and teach these to others
• Strong verbal and written communication
• Genuine excitement about space and ambitious science without a standard protocol.

Salary and benefits

Pioneer Labs takes a market-based approach to compensation. We benchmark salaries based on equivalents in for-profit biotech startups. The anticipated base salary range for this role is $130k - $170k/year, and we will evaluate candidates at a correspondingly wide range of career stages. The candidate's starting pay will be determined based on experience and interview performance.

In addition, we offer benefits including:

• Visa sponsorship on a case-by-case basis
• Health Insurance (inc. medical, dental, and vision) for employee and dependents
• Family leave (up to 12 weeks)
• A flexible time off policy
• Employer-matched 401(k) plan

Note: No cover letter needed. Instead, show us a picture you’ve taken of a cool material. Please save it as a PDF and upload it in the Cover letter field when you apply.