Forward Deployed Engineer

About the role

Applied Materials is the global leader in materials science and engineering solutions that underpin virtually every new semiconductor chip and advanced display. The Forward Deployed Engineer works at the intersection of manufacturing scheduling, optimization and AI to help customers improve cycle time, tool utilization and overall factory throughput.

Key responsibilities

• Partner with scheduling, manufacturing and operations teams to translate planning challenges into scalable scheduling solutions.
• Serve as the primary technical liaison between scheduling teams and engineering, identifying opportunities to improve cycle time, tool utilization and delivery performance.
• Develop, prototype and deploy solutions using scheduling data, optimization engines, simulation environments, APIs and business systems.
• Collaborate with planners, product owners, software engineers and data scientists to design decision‑support tools, dashboards and AI‑driven scheduling capabilities.
• Analyze structured and unstructured data from manufacturing, supply chain and service systems to uncover bottlenecks and capacity constraints.

Required profile

• Deep expertise in manufacturing scheduling, operations research and optimization techniques.
• Strong understanding of scheduling methodologies, capacity planning and factory operations.
• Proven ability to lead cross‑functional initiatives and influence technical and business decisions without direct authority.
• Experience solving ambiguous, complex operational problems with analytical rigor and systems thinking.
• Excellent communication skills to convey technical concepts to both technical and non‑technical audiences.

Required skills

• Python programming
• SQL querying
• Optimization algorithms
• Simulation tools
• Modern cloud platforms