Location: Hanford, WA
Cap-Exempt H-1B Position — No lottery required
Caltech is a world-renowned science and engineering institute that marshals some of the world's brightest minds and most innovative tools to address fundamental scientific questions. We thrive on finding and cultivating talented people who are passionate about what they do. Join us and be a part of the diverse Caltech community. **Job Summary** The Caltech/MIT Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) seeks a highly motivated, skilled, and experienced vacuum engineer with a strong background in both chemistry and solid state physics as they apply to UHV systems. This is a LIGO staff position that will be assigned to the Cosmic Explorer Beamtube Experiment (CEBEX) for an initial three-year term. Current gravitational wave observatories encompass ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) 4km long beamtubes. Next generation detectors like Cosmic Explorer (CE) will be ten times bigger. CEBEX will result in the design, construction, and evaluation of a 120m demonstration tube at the LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) site to address the associated engineering challenges of building the next generation systems. This position is based at the LIGO Hanford Observatory (LHO) in Washington State. As a LIGO employee, the candidate will be assigned to CEBEX for a three-year term and will primarily work on the CEBEX demonstrator. This is a chance to get in at the ground level on a world-leading, cutting-edge experiment. The successful candidate will have significant influence over the direction and future of this key aspect of gravitational wave detectors. At the end of the CEBEX assignment this successful candidate will be integrated into the LIGO team at Hanford. The candidate will report directly to the LIGO Hanford Observatory Operations Manager. Their matrix manager will be the Director of Cosmic Explorer and Head of the LIGO Hanford Observatory. Like LIGO, CEBEX is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation. This is an Organizational Critical position. In the event of an e