Role Overview
We are looking for an experienced diffraction specialist to manage our X-ray diffraction facility, which includes multiple laboratory diffractometers used for powder, thin-film, and capillary measurements.
About Periodic labs
Periodic Labs is an AI and physical sciences company in Menlo Park, CA. We run an in-house materials synthesis and characterization lab alongside our research teams.
Key Responsibilities
- Instrument alignment, calibration, configuration control, and uptime across the facility, including the criteria used to decide whether an instrument is ready for use.
- Reference standards and quality control: maintain house standards and a regular QC schedule so that the same standard gives consistent results across instruments.
- Difficult measurements: non-routine geometries, weakly scattering or air-sensitive samples, thin films, and non-ambient stages, with attention to distinguishing instrument artifacts from real effects.
- Maintenance and repair: troubleshooting and preventive maintenance; coordination of service contracts and vendor visits when needed.
- Commissioning new instruments: site preparation, acceptance testing, and comparison against existing instruments.
Requirements & Eligibility
- 5+ years of hands-on experience operating and maintaining X-ray diffractometers in a university shared facility, national lab, analytical services lab, industrial R&D lab, or at an instrument vendor.
- Strong XRD background across powder, thin-film, and capillary/transmission work.
- Proficient in phase identification, Rietveld refinement, and quantitative analysis.
- Experience maintaining several instruments, ideally from more than one vendor.
- Comfortable troubleshooting hardware and judging when to repair versus call for service.
Required Skills & Tech
XRDX-ray diffractionRietveld refinementPhase identification