The posting
Empower Your Future: At MetOx International, we’re pioneering the next era of energy security and abundance through breakthrough superconducting technology. As the Vice President Research & Development, you'll lead the scientific strategy that powers our next generation of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) technologies. You'll define the research roadmap, challenge technical assumptions, validate breakthrough concepts, and build the innovations that will shape the future of electric power transmission.
Based at our global headquarters in Houston, TX, the Vice President Research & Development reports directly to the Chief Operating Officer and serves as the executive leader responsible for the company's research organization. You will establish long-term technology strategy, prioritize research investments, lead multidisciplinary scientific teams, and accelerate the transition of new technologies from concept through commercialization. Working closely with Engineering, Manufacturing, Product Management, and executive leadership, you'll ensure MetOx continues to advance the world's leading HTS technology platform.
Key Responsibilities
Technology Strategy & Scientific Leadership
- Defines and executes MetOx's long-term technology strategy to establish global leadership in high-temperature superconducting (HTS) conductor performance, manufacturability, and cost competitiveness.
- Develops and maintains multi-year technology roadmaps focused on increasing critical current (Ic), engineering current density (Je), in-field performance, manufacturing yield, and production throughput.
- Leads technology development through a first-principles understanding of superconducting materials, thin-film growth, defect engineering, vortex pinning, and process physics.
- Identifies and prioritizes the highest-impact scientific and engineering challenges, translating them into focused research programs with measurable technical milestones.
- Serves as MetOx's senior technical authority on REBCO materials, MOCVD processing, epitaxial thin-film growth, conductor architecture, and superconducting performance.
- Advises executive leadership on long-range technology investments, innovation strategy, competitive positioning, and emerging technologies.
Advanced Materials, Process & Equipment Development
- Leads the development of next-generation MOCVD processes that improve film quality, compositional control, deposition rate, uniformity, reproducibility, manufacturing scalability, and cost.
- Drives scientific understanding of precursor chemistry, gas-phase reactions, transport phenomena, nucleation, epitaxial growth, crystallization kinetics, oxygenation, and defect evolution during film deposition.
- Leads the development of advanced artificial pinning center technologies, defect engineering strategies, strain engineering, multilayer architectures, and nanoscale microstructure optimization to maximize superconducting performance.
- Establishes quantitative structure-process-property relationships governing critical current density, engineering current density, in-field performance, mechanical reliability, and long-length uniformity.
- Drives experimental, computational, and analytical approaches that replace empirical process development with predictive, science-based process optimization.
- Leads the design and development of next-generation MOCVD reactor platforms, deposition hardware, and process equipment to improve process control, throughput, uniformity, reliability, and manufacturing efficiency.
- Partners with Equipment Engineering to define reactor architecture, gas delivery systems, precursor delivery, thermal management, exhaust systems, and process control technologies for future manufacturing platforms.
- Develops advanced reaction diagnostics and in situ metrology capabilities to understand precursor decomposition, gas-phase chemistry, film growth dynamics, defect formation, and process stability.
- Integrates advanced diagnostics, modeling, machine learning, and digital process models to accelerate technology development and establish predictive process control.
- Evaluates emerging materials, deposition technologies, characterization methods, and analytical tools to strengthen MetOx's technology leadership.
Manufacturing Technology & Commercialization
- Partners with Engineering, Manufacturing, and Operations to transition laboratory innovations into robust, repeatable, high-volume manufacturing processes.
- Develops scalable manufacturing processes capable of producing world-class HTS conductors with industry-leading consistency and yield.
- Establishes technology readiness levels, process qualification criteria, and manufacturing validation methodologies.
- Drives continuous improvement of process capability, statistical process control, reliability, and manufacturing robustness.
- Leads technical initiatives that establish record-setting critical current, engineering current density, and magnetic field performance while maintaining commercial manufacturability.
- Leverages large manufacturing datasets to identify subtle physical signals, optimize process performance, and accelerate data-driven decision-making using advanced statistical methods, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
Innovation & Intellectual Property
- Builds and executes MetOx's intellectual property strategy for superconducting materials, deposition processes, reactor technologies, and conductor architectures.
- Identifies, develops, and protects patentable innovations that strengthen MetOx's competitive advantage.
- Monitors global scientific and competitive developments in superconductors, semiconductor manufacturing, advanced materials, and thin-film deposition technologies.
Scientific Leadership & Organizational Development
- Builds, mentors, and leads a world-class multidisciplinary organization of scientists and engineers specializing in superconductivity, materials science, chemistry, physics, thin films, process engineering, characterization, modeling, and equipment development.
- Fosters a culture of scientific rigor, first-principles thinking, disciplined experimentation, innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning.
- Engages directly in technical problem solving, scientific review, data interpretation, hypothesis development, and technology direction.
- Establishes a science-based technology development framework that integrates advanced characterization, reaction diagnostics, computational modeling, and statistically designed experimentation to accelerate learning and innovation.
- Recruits, develops, and retains exceptional technical talent while strengthening MetOx's long-term scientific capabilities.
Executive & External Leadership
- Represents MetOx as a recognized technology leader with customers, strategic partners, universities, national laboratories, investors, and government agencies.
- Builds strategic collaborations that accelerate technology development and commercialization.
- Communicates technology strategy, research progress, and innovation priorities to executive leadership, the Board of Directors, customers, and external stakeholders.
- Serves as a trusted advisor to executive leadership on technology direction, research investments, and long-term competitive strategy.
- Other duties as assigned.
Minimum Qualifications
- Ph.D. in Materials Science, Physics, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a closely related technical discipline.
- 15+ years of progressive technical leadership in superconductors, semiconductor thin films, advanced materials, or related deposition technologies.
- Deep expertise in epitaxial thin-film growth using MOCVD or closely related vapor deposition technologies.
- Demonstrated expertise in one or more of the following: superconducting materials, crystallography, defect engineering, thin-film microstructure, or structure-property relationships.
- Proven success developing next-generation deposition processes from scientific concept through commercial manufacturing.
- Experience designing or significantly improving advanced deposition equipment and manufacturing processes.
- Demonstrated ability to translate first-principles scientific understanding into commercially scalable manufacturing technologies.
- Strong record of patents, publications, and technology commercialization.
- Experience leading multidisciplinary scientific and engineering organizations.
Preferred Qualifications
- Internationally recognized technical leadership in REBCO coated conductors, HTS materials, or advanced epitaxial thin films.
- Demonstrated expertise in artificial pinning center development and vortex pinning optimization.
- Experience designing MOCVD reactors, deposition systems, precursor delivery hardware, or advanced process equipment.
- Expertise in reaction diagnostics, in situ metrology, and advanced process monitoring techniques.
- Experience with computational modeling of thin-film growth, reaction kinetics, fluid flow, heat transfer, and transport phenomena.
- Experience with advanced characterization techniques including TEM, STEM, SEM, XRD, AFM, SIMS, EBSD, Raman spectroscopy, and related analytical methods.
- Experience leading federally funded research programs (DOE, ARPA-E, DARPA, NSF, or similar).
- Experience scaling advanced materials technologies from laboratory development through commercial production.
Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities:
- Strategic technology planning and multi-year roadmap development.
- Scientific method, hypothesis generation, experimental design, and data-driven decision making.
- Technology commercialization and manufacturing scale-up.
- Executive leadership across multidisciplinary scientific and engineering organizations.
- Research portfolio management, investment prioritization, and resource allocation.
- Intellectual property strategy and innovation management.
- Executive communication, organizational influence, and external relationship management.
Physical Demands: This position requires sitting at a desk and viewing a computer screen for extended periods while working or performing other office tasks. Ability to move around the office, including occasional standing, walking, and bending to retrieve documents, attend meetings, or use office equipment. Some light lifting may be required, up to 20 lbs.
MetOx is proud to offer competitive benefits including:
- Health, dental, and vision available on the first day of the month following your start date
- 401(k) match
- Paid parental leave & adoption assistance
- Educational reimbursement
- And more!
We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.
