Chemistry Lab Technician

NVIDIA NVIDIA · Semiconductors · Santa Clara, CA

NVIDIA is seeking a Chemistry Lab Technician for their Wet Chemical Lab and Workshop, focusing on metallurgical materials science. The role involves executing experiments, analyzing data, and maintaining the lab to support the development of next-generation datacenter products. Responsibilities include corrosion and erosion testing, material compatibility studies, failure analysis, heterogeneous integration, and lab operations. Requires a B.S. or equivalent in a related field with 2+ years of lab experience, strong wet chemistry skills, and experience with analytical instruments.

What you'd actually do

  1. Corrosion & Erosion Testing: Performing erosion-corrosion experiments for various metals and alloys in propylene glycol (PG) based coolant environments, simulating high-flow datacenter conditions at elevated temperatures.
  2. Material Compatibility: Carry out long-term compatibility studies of elastomers, seals, and polymers with PG coolants to predict degradation and service life.
  3. Failure Analysis & Metallography: Perform precision cross-sectioning, mounting, and polishing of metallurgical samples. Analyze samples for erosion, corrosion pitting, and manufacturing defects using optical and electron microscopy.
  4. Heterogeneous Integration: Investigate and optimize bonding processes between metals, ceramics, and plastics to ensure high mechanical reliability and thermal performance under thermal cycling.
  5. Lab Operations: Maintain wet chemistry lab standards, prepare complex and potentially corrosive chemical solutions, and manage characterization equipment calibration and safety.

Skills

Required

  • B.S. or equivalent experience in Materials Science, Chemistry, Electrochemistry, Chemical Engineering, or a related field
  • 2+ years of relevant industry experience in a laboratory setting
  • Very strong wet chemistry laboratory skills (titration, pH control, solution preparation, etc.)
  • Practical experience operating analytical instruments (FTIR, GC-MS, XPS, optical microscopy, SEM/EDS, tensile/compression testing, or similar)
  • High adaptability; ability to switch between chemistry, physics, and engineering tasks daily
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
  • Excellent documentation and data reporting skills

Nice to have

  • Practical experience in high-vacuum physical vapor deposition techniques including sputter deposition and e-beam evaporation
  • First-principles understanding of analytical instrumentation
  • Direct experience performing ASTM test methods
  • Hands-on experience with potentiostat-based accelerated corrosion testing including apparatus setup

What the JD emphasized

  • strong chemistry or materials science foundation
  • designing and implementing laboratory experiments
  • proven skills and know-how
  • strong communicator
  • collecting relevant data
  • formatting that data
  • communicating your findings
  • B.S. or equivalent experience
  • 2+ years of relevant industry experience
  • Very strong wet chemistry laboratory skills
  • Practical experience operating analytical instruments
  • High adaptability
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
  • Excellent documentation and data reporting skills