Materials Engineer Full Time NEW

Company Description

Evoxia is a clean-tech materials company pioneering a cutting-edge technology at the crossroads of agricultural waste valorization, high-temperature inorganic chemistry, and India’s critical minerals supply chain. The company is addressing a significant strategic gap in a multi-billion-dollar market with an innovative process developed in partnership with global researchers and advisors. Evoxia has received substantial support through incubation, grants, and collaboration with esteemed institutions, including PIEDS BITS Pilani, AIC ISB Mohali, and IIT Ropar-TIF, among others. The founding team has earned prestigious recognition, such as Forbes India’s Top 100 Startups to Watch Out For 2025 and other accolades in sustainability and innovation.

About Us

Evoxia is a funded cleantech startup building India’s first domestic solar-grade silicon production process. We are at an inflection point — moving from validated science to operational execution — and we need someone who has done this work before, knows what silicon reduction looks like at the bench, and can execute without hand-holding from day one.

The Role

As Materials Engineer you will own the hands-on execution of our high-temperature silicon production process. You will work directly under our Principal Scientist and report to the CEO. This is not a theoretical role. You will be at the furnace, running reduction experiments, characterising output, and pushing the process toward reproducible 6N purity at pace. Speed and precision are equally non-negotiable.

Key Responsibilities

• Execute carbothermal reduction experiments at bench and sub-pilot scale with full ownership of run preparation, operation, and output characterisation.
• Operate and maintain high-temperature arc furnace systems, inert atmosphere setups, and auxiliary processing equipment including acid purification lines, pelletisation setups, and drying systems.
• Conduct and interpret materials characterisation using XRD, XRF, ICP-OES, ICP-MS, TGA-DTA, and SEM-EDS — either in-house or coordinating with external NABL-accredited analytical facilities.
• Optimise process parameters including temperature profile, charge loading protocol, atmosphere control, and feedstock preparation conditions to progressively improve silicon yield and purity.
• Maintain rigorous experimental documentation — laboratory notebooks, run logs, and characterisation records — to the standard required for patent filing and grant reporting.
• Contribute technical inputs to patent disclosure documents as a co-inventor on process innovations demonstrated through experimental results.
• Develop and document standard operating procedures for all unit operations within the production process.
• Collaborate with the Process Engineer on equipment commissioning, maintenance, and troubleshooting in real time.

Requirements

• MTech or PhD in Materials Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering — PhD strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience with silicon production, purification, or characterisation — specifically through reduction pathways involving high-temperature furnace operations. Candidates with direct experience in crystalline silicon, amorphous silicon, or polysilicon production processes will be prioritised.
• Extensive working knowledge of high-temperature furnace systems including arc furnaces, tube furnaces, or induction furnaces operating above 1500°C.
• Proficiency in materials characterisation techniques — XRD, XRF, ICP-MS, TGA-DTA, SEM-EDS — with ability to interpret results and make process decisions based on data.
• Strong understanding of reduction thermodynamics, reaction kinetics, and mass and energy balances relevant to high-temperature inorganic processes.
• Immediate joiner — must be available to join within one week of offer acceptance.
• Must relocate to Chennai for full-time on-site role. No remote or hybrid consideration.
• Self-starter with a strong bias for fast execution and zero tolerance for ambiguity in a lab setting.

What We Offer

• Co-inventor credit on patents arising from process innovations developed in this role.
• Founding team ESOP participation as per company policy with cliff and vesting schedule.
• Direct ownership of the most strategically significant materials engineering challenge in India’s clean energy supply chain.
• Opportunity to contribute to nationally significant intellectual property and present at leading materials science and cleantech forums.
• Compensation discussed directly with the founding team.