Computational Scientist, Structural & Thermal

The role

This person will develop structural, thermal, and coupled thermo-mechanical simulation capabilities for semiconductor systems and advanced materials. They will build or extend custom solvers and automate simulation pipelines at scale.

What you will do

• Develop agent-based structural and thermal simulation capabilities for semiconductor systems
• Build or extend custom solvers in Python, C++, or Julia
• Model materials behavior including elasticity, plasticity, and fracture
• Validate models against experimental measurements
• Design and curate evaluation datasets for LLM training
• Generate simulated datasets for ML training
• Build and automate simulation pipelines at scale

Required qualifications

• PhD or equivalent research experience in mechanical engineering, materials science, aerospace engineering, or a closely related field
• Strong foundation in solid mechanics and heat transfer
• Hands-on experience with computational mechanics at the code level
• Strong Python skills
• Deep understanding of solid mechanics theory including continuum mechanics, tensor formulations, constitutive modeling, variational methods, and numerical methods for PDEs
• Experience using mechanics or thermal simulations to explain experimental observations

Nice to have

• Familiarity with open-source simulation frameworks such as FEniCS, deal.II, MOOSE, or similar
• C++, Julia, or Fortran proficiency
• Experience with GPU-accelerated FEM, reduced-order mechanical models, surrogate models, or physics-informed neural networks
• Familiarity with multiscale mechanics
• Deep expertise in thin-film mechanics
• Experience with wafer-scale mechanics
• Background in fracture mechanics or damage modeling
• Knowledge of semiconductor metrology, failure analysis, or process integration

Before you apply

• We sponsor visas and will do everything we can to assist in this process

About the company

Periodic Labs is an AI and physical sciences company building state-of-the-art models to accelerate breakthroughs across materials, energy, semiconductors, and beyond.