R&D Solar Durability Technician at Tandem PV in San Jose, CA

At Tandem PV, we are a team of people who are passionate about building a more sustainable world by bringing cost effective solar panels onto the market. We’re scaling metal-halide perovskite solar technology to make best-in-class mechanically stacked tandem modules.   We have built efficient, durable cells, monolithic multi-cell submodules, and packaged modules with our scalable, low-cost process. Our next focus is expanding our team to work in our new pilot manufacturing facility.

Job Summary:

As a Durability Technician, you’ll play a key role on the R&D team creating consistency in our testing processes, building set ups, and collecting data to feed back into the R&D process. This is a crucial next step in our growth and ability to scale as a company.

To stand out in this role, you will:

• Build consistent testing hardware and software setups, then process small scale cells through those setups in a fashion that allows for clean data reads and outputs to the team.

• Maintain all wiring and assembly gear in a way that ensures cleanliness, consistent connection, and maintenance for long term use will result in clean data and usable metrology to confidently share our success with customers.

• Durability testing including lamination, edge seal cutting, glass cutting, cleaning, etc

• Throughout the durability process, we’ll need you to maintain samples on durability tests;

• Pull samples and processing them as needed.

• Use various metrology techniques to measure samples, including : JV, EL, PL, Microscopy, etc.

Qualifications

• We can teach a lot, but there are some basics you’ll need to know to hit the ground running, that includes: 

  • Experience with electronics in testing environments

  • Experience maintaining and troubleshooting processing tools

  • Hands on lab experience - including knowledge of safety in a wet chemistry environment and safe use of hazardous materials

• Key skills that will help you accelerate in this role include:

  • A creative and curious approach to problem solving

  • Systems thinking - seeing each part/piece as a part of something bigger, piecing everything together for smooth connections and handoffs. 

  • Verbal and written communication skills are crucial - they also make for a safer and more efficient environment

• If you  happen to have these skills- it’ll put you ahead of the game!

  • Python programming experience

  • Experience working in a solar company 

What we offer: 

An awesome team of dedicated technologists changing the way the world is powered! If that’s not enough, we’ll take good care of you and your family with:

• Flexible PTO

• Healthcare coverage

• Life Insurance

• Long-term & Short-term Disability

• Parental leave

• Meaningful equity

Tandem PV uses perovskite & silicon mechanically-stacked tandems to upgrade silicon solar panels, sharply decreasing installed systems costs, significantly increasing module manufacturing profit margins, and opening up vast new solar markets in the US and worldwide. TPV was co-founded by Stanford PhDs Colin Bailie and Chris Eberspacher; is advised by industry experts from Corning, First Solar, Vivint Solar, and Kateeva; has raised more than $50M in Series A funding. We were recently recognized as the Best Pre-Commercial Venture of 2025 by the Industry Growth Forum (IGF)

We are a team of people who are passionate about building a more sustainable world by delivering a new generation of solar panels to the market. We are constantly growing and are always looking for dedicated, hardworking, and empathetic teammates.

Tandem PV is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply.