VP Research & Development (R&D)

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.

• 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 superconducting materials, crystallography, defect engineering, thin-film microstructure, and 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.

• 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.
   

• 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.