Senior CZ Silicon Crystal Growth Engineer

Corning•Hemlock, MI

1d•$114,457 - $157,379

About The Position

Corning’s Solar business manufactures polysilicon, solar wafers, and photovoltaic modules. The Senior CZ Silicon Crystal Growth Engineer is a highly experienced, hands-on technical specialist and the site’s technical authority for Czochralski (CZ) silicon crystal growth at a high-volume solar ingot manufacturing facility. The role combines production-floor process expertise with engineering rigor to stabilize and optimize puller performance and use data and structured experimentation to improve ingot quality, yield, throughput, furnace uptime, consumable utilization, and manufacturing cost. The position supports production scale-up and next-generation process development. It also carries a significant mentoring responsibility: the specialist is expected to strengthen crystal-growth capability across the organization while providing technical leadership and escalation support for process, equipment, and crystal-quality issues. The role is primarily based on the production floor and requires adherence to safety, environmental, quality, change-control, and high-temperature-process requirements. Occasional off-shift, weekend, or travel support may be needed for critical troubleshooting, furnace start-ups, hot-zone changes, commissioning, supplier trials, and ramp activities.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science, Chemical, Mechanical or Manufacturing Engineering, Physics, or a related technical discipline; equivalent extensive, directly relevant experience may be considered.
10+ years of hands-on experience in CZ silicon crystal growth, preferably in solar or semiconductor silicon manufacturing.
Demonstrated expertise with monocrystalline CZ pullers, including large-diameter ingot production in a high-volume environment.
Ability to independently troubleshoot and optimize recipes, furnace behavior, hot-zone performance, diameter control, thermal profiles, and growth stability on the manufacturing floor.
Strong knowledge of crystal-growth fundamentals, including thermal gradients, melt dynamics, solidification, doping, defect formation, impurity control, and crystal-quality drivers.
Practical understanding of furnace controls and high-temperature materials behavior, including graphite, quartz, and insulation.
Demonstrated success improving ingot yield, usable length, quality, resistivity consistency, furnace productivity, uptime, consumable life, or manufacturing cost.
Experience with structured problem-solving and statistical methods such as DOE, SPC, FMEA, 8D/A3, root-cause analysis, and corrective/preventive action.
Experience interpreting furnace data, alarm histories, ingot-inspection results, resistivity/lifetime measurements, and downstream wafer feedback.
Strong leadership, mentoring, and cross-functional collaboration skills, with excellent written and verbal communication.
Ability and willingness to work on the production floor for the majority of the workday.

Nice To Haves

Experience with advanced solar silicon products, such as n-type or high-efficiency material, low-oxygen processes, or products supporting TOPCon, HJT, and other advanced cell architectures.
Experience with recharge or continuous CZ and scaling pulling operations for high-volume solar manufacturing.
Experience with hot-zone design, thermal simulation, crucible technology, graphite/insulation selection, or furnace-control optimization.
Experience leading puller start-up, hot-zone qualification, equipment commissioning, process transfer, or new-product introduction.
Familiarity with ingot and wafer metrology, including resistivity, minority-carrier lifetime, oxygen/carbon content, crystal defects, geometry, bow, warp, and yield metrics.
Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, or equivalent continuous-improvement training.
Experience with MES, SCADA, or historian systems and data-analysis tools such as JMP, Minitab, Python, SQL, or advanced Excel.

Responsibilities

Serve as the site subject-matter expert for Czochralski (CZ) crystal growth, providing technical leadership and final escalation support for puller, hot-zone, process, and crystal-quality issues.
Own and optimize CZ recipes, operating windows, process controls, SOPs, setup procedures, control plans, and reaction plans across the full crystal-growth cycle.
Troubleshoot production-floor issues involving growth instability, diameter control, defects, yield loss, process excursions, furnace downtime, and equipment-related variation.
Improve crystal quality and manufacturing performance, including diameter consistency, resistivity uniformity, defect reduction, yield, throughput, energy efficiency, consumable life, and scrap.
Analyze furnace trends, process data, materials, equipment condition, and downstream wafer results to identify root causes and implement sustainable corrective actions.
Design and execute DOE, production trials, capability studies, and validation plans, and translate results into standardized production processes.
Partner with Equipment Engineering, Maintenance, Quality, and downstream operations to improve puller reliability, hot-zone performance, process capability, and wafering outcomes.
Lead new product and process introduction, including recipe development, equipment qualification, technology transfer, commissioning, and manufacturing readiness.
Evaluate changes to feedstock, dopants, crucibles, graphite, hot-zone components, furnace hardware, controls, and downstream specifications to ensure process stability and product quality.
Mentor engineers, technicians, and operators in crystal-growth fundamentals, furnace operation, defect recognition, process control, and troubleshooting.
Ensure process development and production activities meet applicable safety, environmental, quality, and change-control requirements.
Use appropriate personal protective equipment and strictly follow high-temperature-process, material-handling, and EHS requirements.
Provide occasional off-shift, weekend, or travel support during critical troubleshooting, furnace start-ups, hot-zone changes, commissioning, supplier trials, and ramp activities.

Benefits

Company-wide bonuses and long-term incentives.
100% company-paid pension benefit with fixed contributions.
Matching contributions to a 401(k) savings plan; total company contributions to retirement accounts can reach between 7% and 12% of pay, depending on age and years of service.
Medical insurance.
Dental insurance.
Vision insurance.
Paid parental leave.
Family building support.
Fitness benefits.
Company-paid life insurance.
Disability benefits.
Disease management programs.
Paid time off.
Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
Recognition program to celebrate successes and reward exceptional contributions.