{"id":3976550,"url":"https://alion.io/job/phlux-technology-process-development-lead-engineer","title":"Process Development Lead Engineer","company":{"id":2448800,"name":"Phlux Technology","domain":"phluxtechnology.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/phluxtechnology","size_band":"11-50","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Teamtailor","truth_index":null},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"explicit","locations":["Sheffield, United Kingdom"],"countries":["GB"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":true,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"Design of Experiments","optional":false},{"name":"Photolithography","optional":false},{"name":"Plasma Etch","optional":false},{"name":"Avalanche","optional":true},{"name":"Statistical Process Control","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-09T14:35:49Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-09","last_verified_at":"2026-11-09T18:17:44Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":0,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":0},"description":"Job Title: Process Development Lead Engineer\nCompany: Phlux Technology Ltd\nLocation: Sheffield, UK (on-site, 4-5 days/week)\nType: Full-Time\nReports to: Director of Technology\nThe Company:\nPhlux is an award-winning tech start-up based in Sheffield, UK. The company is a Fabless Photonics III-V Chip Company founded in 2020 as a spin-out from the University of Sheffield. Phlux designs and supplies the world’s highest performing SWIR detectors and receivers based on our groundbreaking material development that will be at the heart of advanced driver safety features using LIDAR, ultra-fast low latency communication networks, and seeing the invisible with 3D imaging.\nPhlux is a revenue-generating company with a team of 26 skilled professionals spanning operations, sales and marketing, engineering, semiconductor devices, and finance. Following a £9M Series A funding round Phlux is now scaling rapidly and seeking passionate individuals to join our innovative team.\nThe Role:\nWe are seeking a proactive and resourceful Process Development Lead Engineer to develop, optimise and industrialise Phlux's III-V semiconductor technologies. This role offers the opportunity to support scale-up of our existing products while supporting the development of new product range from R&D to mass production. You will be a key technical interface between our external foundries and internal R&D and Operations teams, translating device requirements into repeatable, manufacturable processes.\nThis role suits an engineer with practical semiconductor processing experience who wants to broaden their expertise across fabrication processes, technologies and international foundry partners. You will take ownership of technical challenges, use experimental evidence to guide decisions and help move new device concepts from R&D into scalable manufacturing.\nResponsibilities:\nLead and coordinate the development and optimisation of III-V fabrication processes with external foundries, translating R&D requirements into practical process specifications.\n\nPlan and coordinate experiments, including Design of Experiments (DoE), to improve device performance, process stability and manufacturability.\n\nAct as a primary technical contact for foundries, coordinating technical reviews, development actions and milestones; assess capabilities and support qualification of new partners.\n\nInvestigate process, device performance and yield issues, establish root causes and work with partners to implement and verify corrective actions.\n\nWork with device design, epitaxy and characterisation teams to assess process interactions and variation, support design for manufacturability and inform technology development.\n\nEvaluate process limitations, materials and alternative fabrication routes, constructively challenging assumptions and proposing solutions within practical manufacturing constraints.\n\nSupport Operations with process integration, qualification and transfer to manufacturing, defining critical parameters, process windows, acceptance criteria and controls.\n\nMaintain clear experimental records, process documentation and risk assessments; support change control and improvements in reproducibility, reliability, yield and cost.\n\nRequirements:\nEssential\nDegree in Semiconductor Engineering, Materials Science, Electrical/Electronic Engineering, Physics or a related discipline.\n\nHands-on experience in III-V semiconductor fabrication or process development in an industrial, foundry or research environment.\n\nGood understanding of relevant fabrication techniques, such as lithography, wet/dry etching, dielectric deposition, metallisation and passivation.\n\nExperience developing, optimising or troubleshooting processes, analysing experimental data and applying structured problem-solving.\n\nUnderstanding of how material properties, process conditions and variation affect device performance and manufacturability.\n\nInitiative, practical engineering judgement and ownership of technical delivery, with the ability to work independently as requirements evolve.\n\nClear technical communication and effective collaboration across disciplines, including the ability to challenge assumptions constructively.\n\nWillingness to travel occasionally within the UK and internationally to work with foundry and technology partners.\n\nDesirable\nExperience with III-V materials, or optoelectronic devices such as photodiodes, avalanche photodiodes or lasers.\n\nExposure to integrated process flows, epitaxy, metrology, DoE, statistical process control or process-related failure analysis.\n\nExperience with external foundries, technology transfer, manufacturing qualification, reliability, design for manufacturability or process change control.\n\nWe do not expect experience in every desirable area. Strong processing fundamentals, curiosity and the motivation to broaden your expertise matter most.\nSuccess in the Role (First 12 Months):\nAfter 12 months, you will have:\nEstablished effective working relationships with key foundry partners and a shared development plan with clear milestones, actions and technical risks.\n\nSupport the scale-up of existing products with documented evidence of improvements in device yield, process repeatability and reliability.\n\nResolved priority process or yield issues through root-cause analysis and verified corrective actions, sharing the findings across relevant teams.\n\nSupported the launch of the new product range by delivering agreed process development, qualification and technology transfer milestones.\n\nDefined and documented critical process parameters, operating windows, acceptance criteria and control requirements for priority process developments.\n\nProgressed agreed qualification and technology transfer activities with Operations, with documented manufacturing readiness and clear actions for remaining risks.\n\nBenefits:\nCompetitive salary based on experience.\n\nShare options with tax efficient EMI stock options - Own a part of the company.\n\n25 days annual leave plus bank holiday.\n\n5% employer contribution to pension scheme.\n\nRelocation package.\n\nExciting and dynamic work environment as part of a growing start-up.\n\nA personal training budget to support professional development.\n\nMedical benefits\n\nRecruiting referral bonus scheme.\n\nHours of Work:\nWe work 37.5 hours a week, Monday - Friday.\nThe candidate will be required to be on-site for a minimum of 4 days per week at our offices and lab in Sheffield.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6438,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Annual leave","Professional development","Stock options"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United Kingdom","iso":"GB","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":true,"industries":["Hardware","Earth Observation","Robotic Components & Sensors"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-09T18:17:44Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"GB","licensed_sponsor":true,"adverts_offering_sponsorship_24m":0,"sanctioned_now":false,"evidence":"Licensed UK visa sponsor (Skilled Worker)","filings_12m":null,"filings_prev_12m":null,"green_card_filings_12m":null,"median_offered_wage_usd":null,"route":"Skilled Worker","cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-11-09T07:32:21+00:00","sources":["UK Home Office: register of licensed sponsors (workers)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":0,"expected_fill_days":27,"reasons":["conf:1","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-11-09T20:15:04Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/phlux-technology-process-development-lead-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/phlux-technology-process-development-lead-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-09T20:15:04Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":7229,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-10T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":2448800},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=2448800"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fphlux-technology-process-development-lead-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":2,"usd":0.2},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fphlux-technology-process-development-lead-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fphlux-technology-process-development-lead-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/phlux-technology-process-development-lead-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fphlux-technology-process-development-lead-engineer"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3976550}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"phluxtechnology.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3976550},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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