AI Materials Research Engineer - Santa Clara, CA, United States
$170,000 - $234,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 28 August 2026 by the employer.
About the role
What you'll do
- Develop AI/ML models for materials property prediction, screening, optimization, and generative materials design.
- Apply computational materials methodologies including Density Functional Theory (DFT), Molecular Dynamics (MD), Kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC), Phase-field, and Monte Carlo simulations.
- Create materials informatics pipelines integrating experimental data, characterization results, simulation outputs, and scientific literature.
- Develop AI copilots and agentic workflows for literature review, hypothesis generation, experiment planning, and simulation orchestration.
- Collaborate with materials scientists, process engineers, and AI teams to deliver Scientific AI solutions.
What you'll need
- MS/PhD in Materials Science, Computational Materials Science, Physics, Chemical Engineering, or related field.
- 2–5 years of experience in Computational Materials Science, Materials Informatics, Scientific ML, or AI for scientific applications.
- Strong Python programming and ML experience (PyTorch, TensorFlow, Scikit-Learn).
- Experience with one or more computational methods: DFT, MD, kMC, Phase-Field Modeling.
- Strong understanding of crystal structures, thermodynamics, kinetics, defect physics, and semiconductor materials.
Nice to have
- Experience with simulation platforms such as VASP, Quantum Espresso, CP2K, LAMMPS, or GROMACS.
- Experience with Materials Project, OQMD, NOMAD, or similar databases.
- Familiarity with Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), Materials Foundation Models, Physics-Informed ML, and Generative AI for materials design.
- Experience using cloud/HPC environments for large-scale model training and simulations.
Skills: AI/ML models, materials science, computational materials, Python programming, materials informatics
This role has been open 47 days — slightly above the 45-day median for Software Engineering Semiconductor roles.
Software Engineering Semiconductor · AI EDA Design
|
Open roles in category
107
|
Median days open
45 d
|
Median salary
$181k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Applied Materials | All employers we track in this specialty (107 roles · 31 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 12 | 107 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 155 | 6164 · 146 employers |
| Median days open | 53 d | 45 d (+8 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $181k |
Skills observed across this category: AI/ML models, materials science, computational materials, Python programming, materials informatics
Who's hiring in this category
- Micron Technology · 15 open roles · median 38 d
- Applied Materials (this employer) · 12 open roles · median 54 d
- KLA Corporation · 12 open roles · median 34 d
- Lam Research · 8 open roles · median 19 d
- Cadence Design Systems · 7 open roles · median 17 d
- NVIDIA · 7 open roles · median 161 d
How we counted: 107 open Software Engineering Semiconductor (AI EDA Design) roles from 31 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 15 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.