Lead Quality Control Engineer

About Halo Materials Halo Materials is a venture-backed advanced materials company pioneering novel technologies to produce domestic, cost-competitive graphite for advanced energy and manufacturing supply chains. Headquartered in New Mexico, home to world-class national laboratories and a fast-growing deep tech ecosystem, we are building a scalable, lower-emissions process to produce high-performance graphite critical to the batteries that power grid storage, EVs, AI datacenters, drones, and consumer electronics. Our leadership team brings decades of experience building and scaling hard tech companies across energy, mobility, and advanced materials, with backgrounds at Tesla, Cruise, Pajarito Powder, and DOE-funded startups, including multiple ventures that have been successfully acquired. The founders care deeply about building technology that strengthens energy systems and domestic manufacturing, while cultivating a high-functioning, supportive team culture. Backed by Roadrunner Venture Studios, Halo combines ambitious research and engineering with the operational support, capital access, and long-term vision needed to grow both the company and the people inside it. About the Role

Halo Materials is seeking a Lead Quality Control Engineer to work closely with the CTO to build and scale our materials quality function from the ground up. This is not a maintenance role — it’s a build-it role. You’ll design the processes, tools, and infrastructure that ensure our materials perform consistently from lab experimentation through full production scale.

As a key technical leader within our startup environment, you’ll bridge R&D and manufacturing, creating scalable quality systems that move as fast as we do. If you’re excited by ambiguity, ownership, and building something foundational, this role is for you. 

This is a hands-on technical leadership position for someone who thrives in deep tech environments and can move seamlessly between lab bench execution, internal process development, and understanding external customer requirements.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and implement scalable processes to collect, manage, and analyze experimental and production data.

• Build and lead the development of our materials quality assurance function, establishing standards, workflows, and documentation systems. Drive the scale-up of these QA systems from lab-stage validation to production-line integration.

• Evaluate and deploy hardware and software tools to accelerate materials characterization. Explore and implement AI-enabled solutions where appropriate to improve speed, consistency, and insight generation.

• Lead cross-functional initiatives bridging R&D, engineering, and production teams.

• Translate complex technical findings into clear insights for both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Qualifications

• B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Materials Engineering, or closely related field

• 5+ years of research laboratory or industry experience in materials characterization and/or quality assurance.

• Proven experience leading complex, cross-functional projects — ideally spanning lab environments and industrial scale-up.

• Strong analytical and strategic thinking skills with the ability to execute tactically.

• Exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills across technical and non-technical audiences.

• Technical literacy in engineering, materials science, or chemical processes.

Nice to Have:

• Experience in adjacent industries where similar high-temperature, catalytic, carbon, or materials growth processes are used — such as petrochemicals, advanced ceramics, specialty chemicals, battery materials, semiconductors, metallurgy, or industrial gas processing.

• Experience with government grants, compliance reporting, or lab buildouts.

What We Look For (Beyond the Resume)

• A track record of execution — how you design experiments, make decisions with imperfect data, and drive results matters as much as where you’ve worked.

• Comfort operating in both research and production environments; experience in one or both is valuable, but your ability to move science toward application is what counts.

• Ownership mentality with high accountability and curiosity.

• Grit, resilience, and an ability to turn ambiguity into actionable next steps.

• Entrepreneurial speed balanced with technical discipline.