Materials Scientist – Surface Chemistry & Adhesion

RxSight, Inc.•Aliso Viejo, CA

7h•$120,000 - $140,000•Onsite

About The Position

RxSight is seeking a Materials Scientist – Surface Chemistry and Adhesion to lead the development of surface and interfacial technologies for durable adhesion between dissimilar crosslinked soft-material substrates, including acrylic and silicone systems. This role involves understanding interfaces, proposing technical solutions, and translating concepts into manufacturable processes. The position covers the full development cycle, from defining requirements and failure modes to experimental design, characterization, performance verification, process validation, and scalability demonstration. Additionally, the scientist may develop functional coatings on low-surface-energy polymers like polypropylene to improve lubricity and reduce friction.

Requirements

Strong foundation in surface chemistry, polymer science, materials science, chemical engineering, or a related field, with emphasis on soft materials and interfaces.
Deep understanding of adhesion mechanisms, interfacial thermodynamics, surface energy, wettability, diffusion and network constraints, coupling chemistry, coating adhesion, and failure modes in crosslinked polymer systems.
Hands-on experience selecting and applying surface characterization techniques and correlating surface properties with mechanical and device-level performance.
Experience developing surface treatments, primers, interlayers, adhesives, or coatings for low-surface-energy and chemically dissimilar polymers; direct experience with acrylic, silicone, or polypropylene is strongly preferred.
Experience developing and interpreting adhesion, peel, tensile, shear, fracture, fatigue, friction, wear, and coating-durability tests, including conditioned and accelerated-aging studies.
Demonstrated ability to independently transform ideas into competing hypotheses, executable experimental plans, quantitative decisions, and documented technical recommendations.
Working knowledge of design of experiments, measurement-system analysis, statistical data interpretation, process characterization, risk management, verification and validation, and scale-up of special processes.
Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to collaborate across R&D, engineering, quality, regulatory, manufacturing, suppliers, and external technical partners.
MS Office
Spreadsheet Software

Nice To Haves

Experience advancing a material or coating technology from laboratory feasibility through verification, validation, scale-up, and manufacturing transfer is strongly preferred.
Experience in medical devices or another regulated industry, including design controls, risk management, and special-process validation, is preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead surface-chemistry and adhesion development for dissimilar crosslinked soft-material interfaces, including acrylic-to-silicone systems, from problem definition and concept generation through implementation.
Define interface requirements, critical material attributes, performance targets, test methods, acceptance criteria, and likely failure modes in collaboration with product, engineering, quality, and manufacturing partners.
Generate and evaluate solution pathways such as plasma, corona or chemical activation; primers and coupling agents; grafted or deposited interlayers; adhesive chemistries; network-compatible functional groups; controlled surface topography; and process-sequence or cure modifications.
Design and execute statistically sound screening studies and design-of-experiments to identify critical factors, process windows, interactions, and robust operating conditions.
Characterize surface chemistry, energy, wettability, topography, morphology, coating thickness, and interfacial structure using appropriate methods such as contact-angle analysis, spectroscopy, microscopy, profilometry, ellipsometry, AFM, and SEM/EDS.
Develop and qualify mechanical and functional test methods for bonded interfaces, including peel, tensile, lap-shear, fracture, fatigue, and environmentally conditioned testing, with clear differentiation of adhesive and cohesive failure modes.
Verify bond performance, durability, and stability under representative manufacturing, sterilization, hydration, temperature, humidity, chemical exposure, aging, and use conditions; investigate failures and establish root cause.
Translate successful concepts into controlled processes by defining material specifications, equipment requirements, process parameters, in-process controls, inspection methods, and risk controls; support design verification, process characterization, validation, and technical documentation.
Demonstrate scalability through pilot builds, repeatability and reproducibility studies, capability assessments, supplier or equipment evaluations, technology transfer, and manufacturing implementation support.
Develop functional coatings on low-surface-energy substrates such as polypropylene, including lubricious or friction-reducing coatings; optimize coating adhesion, uniformity, durability, particulate resistance, and performance over the intended product lifecycle, and communicate clear technical recommendations to stakeholders.