Director, Optical Engineering

About the role

Applied Materials is hiring a Director, Optical Engineering for its Imagine and Process Control Group (IPC) in Santa Clara, CA. The Director owns the technical leadership and execution of engineering projects, leads an Engineering team of Optical Engineers across multiple programs, partners with business leaders on new and existing products and projects, and acts as a specialist on physics and science issues.

Key responsibilities

• Manage a team of Optical Engineers and lead or develop and execute complex system projects, taking part in design reviews and approving designs and qualification results.
• Define experiments, identify and troubleshoot complex problems, and approve research and analysis results.
• Work with senior managers on projects, operations and schedules, and review and approve system and sub-system requirements and specifications.
• Contribute to product risk management, work with marketing to define tool specifications and performance, and lead strategic vendor selection.
• Maintain relationships with universities, consortia and customers, and meet with high-level executives on the customer side.
• Research and evaluate new technologies, run feasibility studies, prepare and present papers, and lead demonstrations of new capabilities.
• Develop alignment strategies, tooling, error budgets and subsystem requirements, and mentor less experienced physicists and scientists.

Required profile

• 20+ years of experience in optical design engineering, including 8+ years leading engineering teams for high-performance optical systems in the semiconductor industry.
• Experience leading teams through the full design cycle, from specification and design to supplier support, part verification and integration.
• Recognized as a technical expert in the field, with deep expertise in optics and broad knowledge of other disciplines in the function.
• Responsibility for developing major optical subsystems, working with system engineers on design specifications and trade-offs.
• Able to handle complexity, stress and ambiguity, with strong interpersonal skills, EQ and leadership abilities.

Required skills

• Optical system design, evaluation and analysis, including understanding performance limits and manufacturability.
• Development of alignment strategies, tooling and error budgets.
• Deriving design specifications from customer and system requirements and communicating with suppliers.

What we offer

• Salary of $210,000 - $289,000, depending on location, hire grade, knowledge, skills and experience.
• Comprehensive benefits package, with possible bonus and stock award program.
• Full-time position with travel of about 20% of the time; relocation eligible.