Research Scientist, Materials Characterization

The role

You will develop new material characterization approaches and participate in developing autonomous discovery loops. You will perform high-fidelity property measurements and design rapid measurement schemes to feed AI-guided discovery pipelines.

What you will do

• Develop and perform high-fidelity thermodynamic, transport, and spectroscopic measurements of materials
• Design and implement rapid property measurement schemes to scale up the material characterization process
• Implement automated data analysis and reasoning pipelines for screened materials
• Contribute to feedback loop design between measurement and prediction
• Develop autonomous systems for property characterization leveraging robotics and programmable instrumentation
• Evaluate, procure, and commission new instrumentation
• Develop custom measurement setups where commercial solutions are insufficient
• Define and enforce data standards, metadata schemas, and documentation practices
• Uphold and contribute to lab safety standards

Required qualifications

• PhD in Physics, Materials Science, or related field
• 5+ years of hands-on experience in physical property characterization
• Deep, demonstrated expertise in electronic and magnetic property measurements, including resistivity, Hall effect, magnetometry, and heat capacity
• Strong background in cryogenic measurements and low-noise techniques, including lock-in methods, shielding/grounding, and precision instrumentation
• Strong track record of highly impactful research demonstrated by publications in top-tier journals and/or inventions, and recognized leadership in the field
• Proficiency with data analysis (e.g., Python/Jupyter)
• Disciplined data management practices
• Excellent scientific writing
• Cross-disciplinary collaboration
• Strong ownership of experiment quality
• Ability to communicate measurement requirements and findings clearly to AI, engineering, and materials science collaborators

Nice to have

• Familiarity with instrument SDKs
• Experience with automation of physical property measurement platforms (e.g., PPMS, MPMS, custom rigs)
• Experience with the computational prediction and experimental characterization design loop
• Experience with spectroscopic characterization techniques such as ARPES, neutron scattering, or optical spectroscopy
• Experience with lab buildout, instrument commissioning, and process safety
• Experience handling and managing data at scale, including LIMS or similar data infrastructure
• Previous work at national laboratories or large-scale user facilities

Before you apply

• We sponsor visas

About the company

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