Sr. Scientist

Job description

A career with EMD Electronics is an ongoing journey of discovery: our 58,000 people are shaping how the world lives, works and plays through next generation advancements in Healthcare, Life Science and Electronics. For more than 350 years and across the world we have passionately pursued our curiosity to find novel and vibrant ways of enhancing the lives of others. EMD Electronics is a business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.

US employees must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 prior to your start date unless an accommodation is granted by The Company. The Company uses the definition of "fully vaccinated" assigned by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention for purposes of considering satisfaction of this requirement which is a condition of employment.

Everything we do in EMD Electronics is to help us deliver on our purpose of being the company behind the companies, advancing digital living. We are dedicated to being the trusted supplier of high-tech materials, services and specialty chemicals for the electronics, automotive and cosmetics industries. We foster a global collaborative organization made up of individuals who have the passion to win, obsess about the customer, are relentlessly curious and act with urgency. Together, we push the boundaries of science to make more possible for our customers.

Your Role:

• Use DFT simulations and other tools for thermodynamic, phenomenological, and device modeling to support materials development
• Analyze the effect of changing stack design, chemical composition, and processing conditions on atomic structure, phase stability, defect and interface properties, kinetics, and eventually the electrical performance of high-k, ferroelectric, and other materials
• Participate in projects employing DFT and other modeling techniques for a wide range of problems, such as electrical transport, modeling surface chemistry and ALD process (including nucleation, effects of surface treatment, physisorption and desorption, etc.), thermal stability, analysis of epitaxial phase stability, charged defects, ferroelectric switching, etc.
• Participate in developing and maintaining in-house computational and data analysis tools, databases and web servers
• Review simulation results and literature data. Relate theoretical and simulations results to the observed experimental results and provide guidance for further experimentation. Systematize and present the results as necessary

Who You Are:

Minimum Qualifications:

• Ph.D. in Solid State Physics, Materials Science or a closely related field
• Excellent understanding of thermodynamics, solid state physics, and fundamentals of materials science and semiconductor physics
• Minimum 3 year experience in first-principles (DFT) calculations
• Basic programming/scripting skills and experience using Linux-type systems, with a minimum 1 year experience applying bash and python scripting within high-performance parallel computing environment
• The candidate should have good communication skills and a strong drive to deliver in a high-pace collaborative environment

Preferred Qualifications:

• Five year experience using VASP and employing wide range of functionals and computational methods. Additional experience using NEGF codes, particularly QuantumATK, or other tools for calculating electrical transport
• Familiarity with machine learning libraries, Jupyter, and pandas
• Experience modeling phase stability (particularly phase stability in oxide alloys), neutral and charged defects, and the resulting effect on materials' electrical performance. Extensive experience with first-principles-based thermodynamic modeling, structure prediction methods, and CALPHAD tools
• Experience modeling phase stability and properties of HfO2- and/or ZrO2-based dielectrics and ferroelectrics under various conditions
• Experience studying thermodynamics and kinetics of surface reactions, including ALD process, is a plus. Familiarity with Ginestra (or other device simulations tools)
• Experience with the following topics is preferred but not required: calculations of surface reactions, calculations of surface/interface energetics, reconstruction, and self-limiting oxidation, modeling of RRAM materials, simulations of the response of materials to strong fields, amorphous materials, multiscale modeling, generation of force fields and/or machine-learned MD potentials.
• Experience studying transition metal dichalcogenides and other 2D materials

What we offer: With us, there are always opportunities to break new ground. We empower you to fulfil your ambitions, and our diverse businesses offer various career moves to seek new horizons. We trust you with responsibility early on and support you to draw your own career map that is responsive to your aspirations and priorities in life. Join us and bring your curiosity to life!

Our Benefits -

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If you are a resident of a Connecticut or Colorado, you are eligible to receive additional information about the compensation and benefits, which we will provide upon request. You may contact from 8:00am to 5:30pm ET Monday through Friday, for assistance.

The Company is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. No employee or applicant for employment will be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, gender identity, transgender status, marital status, or any other classification protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. This policy of Equal Employment Opportunity applies to all policies and programs relating to recruitment and hiring, promotion, compensation, benefits, discipline, termination, and all other terms and conditions of employment. Any applicant or employee who believes they have been discriminated against by the Company or anyone acting on behalf of the Company must report any concerns to their Human Resources Business Partner, Legal, or Compliance immediately. The Company will not retaliate against any individual because they made a good faith report of discrimination.