Equipment Engineer, Wet Process

T1 Energy Inc

• $80K — $95K *
Manufacturing & Automotive
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, or Mechatronics Engineering, or equivalent hands-on experience.
  • 3+ years of hands-on equipment engineering in semiconductor, solar, or similar high-volume manufacturing.
  • Experience repairing wet bench, wet etch, wet strip, or texturing tools, including pumps and valves.
  • Proficient in component-level troubleshooting from electrical schematics and pneumatic drawings.
  • Proven track record of eliminating chronic equipment failures, not just temporary fixes.
  • Safe working practices with hazardous chemicals and chemical-compatible materials.
  • Preferred experience in solar cell (TOPCon, PERC, or HJT) or semiconductor fab.

Responsibilities

  • Own OEE, availability, MTBF, and MTTR for your toolset.
  • Be first on the tool when it goes down; diagnose and restore it safely.
  • Close root cause on chronic failures using 8D, FMEA, and Pareto analysis.
  • Analyze alarm histories and tool data to spot failure trends before downtime occurs.
  • Manage the PM schedule and refine vendor PM procedures based on failure history.
  • Ensure interlocks and leak detection systems are operational on chemical tools.
  • Collaborate with Process Engineering on bath life and chemical change-out.

Benefits

  • On-site role with a day shift supporting a 24/7 fab environment.
  • Opportunity to build and standardize processes in a new fab.
  • Hands-on role with significant autonomy in decision-making.
  • Collaborative work environment with a focus on accountability and respect.
  • No-jerks policy promoting a positive workplace culture.
Full Job Description
The Role

G2 is T1 Energy's new TOPCon solar cell fab in Rockdale, Texas. Every cell we make starts in wet process: texture, rear polish, and glass removal. When these tools stop, the fab stops. We're hiring Equipment Engineers to keep them running.

You'll own a set of wet chemical tools, from install through high-volume production. The set covers batch texture, RCA-clean rear polish benches, and inline BSG and PSG removal strip tools. It's a hands-on role: most of your day is at the tool, and you'll be trusted to make the engineering calls that keep it running.

This is an on-site role at G2 in Rockdale, Texas, day shift supporting a 24/7 fab, with an on-call rotation for critical tool-downs, and cleanroom and sub-fab work in full chemical PPE. You'll be building a fab from the ground up: your PMs, your procedures, and your fixes become the standard, and the calls on your tools are yours to make.

What You'll Do
• Own OEE, availability, MTBF, and MTTR for your toolset.
• Be first on the tool when it goes down. Make it safe, diagnose the failed component, and restore it. When you escalate to the vendor, bring clear data.
• Close root cause on chronic failures, wafer breakage, and leaks using 8D, FMEA, and Pareto, and verify the fixes hold.
• Analyze alarm histories, maintenance records, and tool data in JMP, SQL, Python, or Excel to spot failure trends before they cause downtime.
• Own the PM schedule, refine vendor PM procedures, and set critical-spares levels, then adjust both from failure history.
• Keep interlocks, leak detection, and exhaust and scrubber interfaces working on tools running HF, NaOH, and HCl. You'll do this together with EHS.
• Work with Process Engineering on bath life, chemical change-out, and concentration-control hardware.
• Bring tools through install, SAT, and qualification into production. Document procedures and train the technicians who run them.

Who You Are
• A hands-on equipment engineer who would rather be at the tool than in a meeting.
• Systematic about failure: you fix the cause, not the symptom, and you check that it held.
• Decisive when a tool is down and the line is waiting.
• A straight communicator with process, production, facilities, EHS, and vendors.
• Comfortable and careful working around aggressive process chemistries.

Qualifications
• A bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, or Mechatronics Engineering, or an associate degree with equivalent hands-on experience.
• 3+ years of hands-on equipment engineering in semiconductor, solar, or similar high-volume manufacturing.
• Hands-on repair of wet bench, wet etch, wet strip, or texturing tools, including pumps, valves, heaters, filtration, and wafer handling.
• Component-level troubleshooting from electrical schematics, pneumatic drawings, P&IDs, and PLC/HMI diagnostics.
• A track record of eliminating a chronic equipment failure, not just repairing it again.
• Safe working practice with hazardous chemicals, chemical-compatible materials (quartz, PVDF, PTFE, PFA), and LOTO.
• Preferred: solar cell (TOPCon, PERC, or HJT) or semiconductor fab experience.
• Preferred: greenfield tool install, SAT, and ramp experience.

The T1 Way

We move fast, expect accountability, and treat people with respect. We also have a no-jerks policy: we don't tolerate big egos, bad behavior or "that's not my job attitude". Be sharp, be honest, be human. If you can hold the line and have a sense of humor, you'll fit right in.

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