Application Engineer
About this role
Company Overview
Job Description/Preferred Qualifications
We are seeking an experienced Application Engineer with extensive semiconductor industry expertise to join our Manufacturing Engineering team. The successful candidate will serve as a key technical interface between R&D, Manufacturing, Service, and customers, ensuring that advanced semiconductor equipment and processes are successfully developed, transferred to manufacturing, and deployed worldwide.
This role is ideal for a highly motivated engineer who has worked closely with multiple semiconductor fabs across different regions and possesses deep understanding of wafer fabrication processes, equipment integration, manufacturing challenges, and customer requirements.
Key Responsibilities
- Support product development and New Product Introduction (NPI) activities from concept through high-volume manufacturing.
- Collaborate with global semiconductor fabs to understand manufacturing challenges, process requirements, and equipment performance expectations.
- Drive Design for Manufacturability (DFM) and continuous improvement initiatives to improve quality, reliability, and factory efficiency.
- Act as the technical expert for product applications, process integration, and customer use cases.
- Analyze equipment performance data, identify root causes of issues, and implement corrective actions.
- Work closely with Systems, Mechanical, Electrical, Software, and Manufacturing Engineering teams to resolve complex technical problems.
- Support factory builds, system integration, qualification, and field escalations.
- Develop manufacturing procedures, training materials, and best practices.
- Participate in customer meetings, technical reviews, and product demonstrations worldwide.
- Provide feedback from customers and fabs to influence future product development.
Minimum Qualifications
- B.Sc. or M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, or a related discipline.
- 8+ years of experience in the semiconductor industry.
- Extensive hands-on experience working with semiconductor fabs worldwide.
- Strong understanding of semiconductor manufacturing processes including lithography, metrology, inspection, deposition, etch, CMP, or related technologies.
- Experience with semiconductor capital equipment and manufacturing operations.
- Proven ability to solve multidisciplinary technical problems.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills.
- Ability to travel internationally as required.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience supporting global customers in high-volume manufacturing environments.
- Knowledge of NPI, PLC, DFM, reliability engineering, and manufacturing readiness.
- Experience working across R&D, Manufacturing, Service, and Applications organizations.
- Familiarity with data analysis, diagnostics, and process optimization tools.
- Experience leading technical projects and influencing cross-functional teams.
Key Competencies
- Strong customer focus
- Systems-level thinking
- Technical leadership
- Problem-solving and analytical skills
- Cross-functional collaboration
- Effective communication across global teams
- Continuous improvement mindset
What Success Looks Like
- Successful transfer of new products into manufacturing.
- Improved manufacturability, reliability, and product quality.
- Faster problem resolution and reduced customer escalations.
- Strong relationships with semiconductor fabs and internal stakeholders.
- Driving innovative solutions that improve customer productivity and manufacturing efficiency.
We offer a competitive, family friendly total rewards package. We design our programs to reflect our commitment to an inclusive environment, while ensuring we provide benefits that meet the diverse needs of our employees.
KLA is proud to be an equal opportunity employer
Be aware of potentially fraudulent job postings or suspicious recruiting activity by persons that are currently posing as KLA employees. KLA never asks for any financial compensation to be considered for an interview, to become an employee, or for equipment. Further, KLA does not work with any recruiters or third parties who charge such fees either directly or on behalf of KLA. Please ensure that you have searched KLA’s Careers website for legitimate job postings. KLA follows a recruiting process that involves multiple interviews in person or on video conferencing with our hiring managers. If you are concerned that a communication, an interview, an offer of employment, or that an employee is not legitimate, please send an email to talent.acquisition@kla.com to confirm the person you are communicating with is an employee. We take your privacy very seriously and confidentially handle your information.
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