Energy & Materials Intern- XRD Advanced Analysis

About the role#

The Accelerated Materials Design and Discovery (AMDD) team is seeking an intern to develop advanced analysis tools and pipelines for X-Ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of mixed-metal oxide thin-films. This project focuses on utilizing and developing automated Rietveld refinement tools to label XRD patterns and analyze structure-property-processing relationships within a diverse dataset. The work involves phase identification ranging from unary to ternary metal-oxides and investigating crystallite size, texturing, and strain to help overcome bottlenecks in high-throughput materials discovery.

What you'll do#

• Scope the project to align with core research efforts.
• Serve as the primary driver of the technical plan, including model development and analysis, with regular feedback from mentors.
• Execute the project using internal resources.
• Present the project’s approach and findings in research meetings.

What you'll need#

• Current pursuit of a PhD in Materials Science, Chemistry, Physics, or related fields.
• Familiarity with running tabletop or synchrotron XRD experiments.
• At least 2 years of experience performing Rietveld refinement.
• Experience with basic data analysis in Python.
• A documented track record of executing research projects, evidenced by journal publications.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to foster collaboration across interdisciplinary teams.
• A desire to work on challenging, open-ended research projects.
• Bonus qualifications include experience with XRD phase identification software (e.g., DARA, GSAS-II, MAUD, Spotlight), thin-film metal oxides, large datasets, and collaborative software development using git.

Location & details#

• Location: Los Altos, California.
• Term: Fall 2026.
• Commitment: Full-time, 12-week internship.
• Modality: Hybrid, in-office.
• Status: Paid position.