Sandboxaq Machine Learning Scientist to develop machine learned force fields (MLFFs) for PFAS substitution in semiconductor manufacturing. Design and run quantum chemistry and molecular dynamics campaigns to generate training data.
Responsibilities
Introduction to the team: This role is for the PFAS team which sits within SandboxAQ's Chemical Simulation (ChemSim) group. Our mission is to develop PFAS-lean or PFAS-free substitutes and formulations for semiconductor process and fab materials that meet both performance specifications and environmental and safety requirements in complex semiconductor manufacturing environments. We combine generative ML, physics based simulation (e.g. DFT and molecular dynamics), Large Quantitative Models for property prediction, and multi-scale modeling with a partner driven experimental validation loop. You will work alongside industrial co-development partners to move candidate molecules from prediction to qualified use.
Introduction to the role: The PFAS team is hiring Machine Learning Scientists to own machine learned force fields (MLFFs) for the PFAS substitution programme, including generating the first principles data they are trained on. Machine learned potentials are the load bearing element of our discovery pipeline: the properties that decide whether a candidate molecule can replace a PFAS incumbent — among them reactivity, thermal stability, and the diffusivity through polymer matrices — are ones that the physics based simulations can compute accurately but far too slowly to screen a library, and that classical force fields compute quickly but may not be accurate enough to trust. In this role you will: (1) design and run the high-throughput quantum chemistry and molecular dynamics campaigns that produce our training data, and own the infrastructure that makes them reproducible; (2) train, validate, and deploy the potentials that data supports, and identify where each model's domain of validity ends; and (3) extend machine learned potentials into the chemistry that PFAS substitution requires.
See how SandboxAQ is helping build America's semiconductor supply chain from the materials up
Own the training data. Design and run high-throughput physics based simulation campaigns that produce labelled training data for the PFAS chemical space, making the calls that determine whether the data is fit to train on — level of theory, basis set, convergence criteria, sampling strategy, and error budget.
Build the data generation infrastructure. Stand up automated, restartable, provenance tracked workflows across cloud and HPC by collaborating with the engineering team; curate and version the resulting datasets, and combine internally generated first-principles data with relevant public molecular and materials datasets under consistent conventions.
Train and own the MLFF stack for the PFAS vertical. Select architectures, train, validate, and deploy machine learned interatomic potentials across the chemical space of PFAS substitution demands. Fine tuning universal or foundation potentials, or training from scratch when appropriate.
Deliver the property predictions the screening pipeline runs on. Build and validate MLFF-driven protocols for the properties our pipelines need — for example protonation and deprotonation energetics underpinning pKa, ion diffusivity in glassy polymer matrices, and Green-Kubo viscosity and thermal conductivity — each benchmarked against reference data or experiment.
Push the potentials into the process chemistries that matter. Extend coverage to resin phase polymerisation and plasma surface etch chemistry, moving beyond single molecule, gas phase behaviour into the condensed phase regime our applications actually occupy.
Run production campaigns and deploy models on our platform. Execute at scale prediction campaigns across full candidate libraries, and land trained models, datasets, and reproducible training pipelines in SandboxAQ tooling so that other scientists can run them from written documentation.
Collaborate across the discovery loop, and set the honesty bar. Partner with the generative modeling, molecular property ML, and simulation teams so that MLFF-derived properties are usable as screening oracles and reward signals. Work with our partner facing materials scientists so predictions are checked against real process constraints. Report error bars, hold-out performance, and domain-of-validity limits alongside every predicted property, and escalate when a model is being asked a question it cannot answer.
Essential Skills & Experience
PhD in Computational Chemistry, Materials Science, Physics, Machine Learning, or a related field, with deep specialization in machine learned interatomic potentials or atomistic simulation.
