Thin Film Coating Engineer

PGS Worldwide is seeking a Thin Film Coating Engineer in Santa Rosa, CA for a one-year contract-to-hire role supporting a leading aerospace & defense company.

The Thin Film Coating Engineer will support the design, development, prototyping, and production of thin-film products for advanced customer applications. Depending on experience level, this position may involve supporting senior engineers with coating development and production activities or independently developing coating designs, leading technical projects, analyzing metrology results, and presenting solutions to customers.

Required Skills

Entry-Level Candidates

• Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, Physics, Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Bachelor’s degree with 0–3 years of relevant experience.
• Interest in advanced materials design and manufacturing.
• Ability to monitor and interpret in-process and post-production metrology.
• Ability to provide engineering support to production teams.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications.
• Intermediate-to-advanced written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a demanding, team-oriented environment.

Experienced Candidates

• Bachelor’s degree with 9–15 years of relevant experience, or master’s degree with 7–13 years of relevant experience.
• 5+ years of experience with thin-film coating designs and materials.
• 5+ years of experience with sputtered thin-film deposition processes and equipment.
• 2+ years of roll-to-roll deposition and/or converting experience.
• Experience using thin-film design software such as TFCalc, OptiLayer, FilmStar, or FilmWizard.
• Knowledge of statistical methods and design of experiments.
• Experience analyzing and interpreting in-process metrology data.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to collaborate with customers, engineers, program management, and production teams.

Preferred Skills

• Experience creating and presenting technical content during customer meetings.
• Project planning or technical leadership experience.
• Programming or scripting experience, including Visual Basic macros or similar analysis tools.
• Experience using optical spectrometers, SEM, or XRF measurement equipment.
• Ability to interpret optical, microscopic, and material-analysis results.
• Experience supporting roll-to-roll coating or converting operations.

What You’ll Do

• Design, prototype, and produce thin-film products.
• Support or independently create thin-film coating designs for customer applications.
• Work with engineering and production teams on advanced materials and coating projects.
• Support equipment setup, calibration, and production operations.
• Monitor, analyze, and interpret in-process and post-production metrology data.
• Recommend process adjustments based on measurement results.
• Compare product data with customer specifications to determine fitness for use.
• Develop technical solutions to coating, materials, and production challenges.
• Review customer requirements and contribute to technical proposals.
• Collaborate with program management on project plans, budgets, and schedules.
• Provide technical direction to early-career engineers and production technicians as appropriate.
• Participate in customer discussions and technical presentations.

Pay

• Entry-level candidates: $35.00–$38.00 per hour.
• Level 2 candidates with 1–2 years of thin-film coating experience: $50.00–$55.00 per hour.
• Experienced candidates: $65.00–$70.00 per hour.

Job ID: 22243/22244

Military veterans and transitioning military members are encouraged to apply to all PGS Worldwide positions. All of our jobs are military-friendly, and we work with leaders in Aerospace who rely on your military expertise to support mission-critical programs nationwide. As a Veteran Founded company, we know that the military has given you the skills and training you need to succeed in positions like this, and we want to support your success in the civilian sector however we can. We thank you for your service and humbly offer our own in return by helping you take your career to the next level.