System Design Engineer – Semiconductor Equipment

About the role

KLA, a global leader in electronics for the semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem, is seeking a System Design Engineer for its ADE Sustaining Engineering team. The role supports fielded and pre-production semiconductor manufacturing equipment and is heavily hands-on, focusing on lab testing, root-cause analysis and system-level troubleshooting across optics, interferometry, vibration, motion control and electronics. It is not a desk-only role.

Key responsibilities

• Perform hands-on lab and system-level testing of semiconductor inspection and metrology equipment, including optical, mechanical and electromechanical subsystems.
• Troubleshoot issues in optical systems, vibration sensitivity, precision motion control stages and actuators, and electronics, sensors and control interfaces.
• Design, run and document validation, characterization and reliability tests at component, subsystem and system levels.
• Lead root-cause investigations and develop and validate corrective actions.
• Support sustaining engineering for released products, including performance excursions, reliability issues and customer escalations.
• Analyze field data, lab data and sensor logs to identify trends and failure mechanisms.
• Collaborate with design, manufacturing, service, quality and supplier teams to implement fixes and improvements.
• Support introduction and qualification of incremental hardware, firmware or configuration changes.
• Create technical documentation, test reports and engineering recommendations for design reviews and production release.
• Act as technical lead for the group and help build a high-performing engineering team; the role may evolve into a formal people-management position.

Required profile

• Bachelor's, Master's or PhD degree in Optical, Mechanical, Electrical Engineering, Physics or a closely related field, with experience commensurate with the degree.
• PhD: 0-2 years of relevant industry, lab or applied research experience; MS: 2-4 years of hands-on engineering experience; BS: 4-6 years of hands-on engineering experience.
• Experience in a hands-on lab environment supporting complex hardware systems.
• Ability to troubleshoot and root-cause issues on physical systems, and to plan and run experiments and tests independently.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

Required skills

• Working knowledge of optical systems and interferometry, precision vibration measurement, semiconductor manufacturing or capital equipment, precision motion control systems and electronics, sensors and hardware interfaces.
• Preferred: semiconductor inspection, metrology or lithography equipment; vibration metrics and environmental specifications; sustaining or installed-base product support; MATLAB, Python or similar data analysis tools.

What we offer

• Base pay range of $136,300 to $231,700 annually.
• Performance incentive programs and benefits such as medical, dental, vision, life insurance, 401(k) with company matching, ESPP, tuition reimbursement, EAP, paid time off and family care leave.