Applications Development Engineer

About the role

To make electronics, you need chips, wafers, transistors, reticles, and... To make these, you must see, test and manufacture them at scale—faster and better than ever before. That's where KLA comes in. Whether you're early in your career or an experienced professional, you'll solve complex challenges, work alongside brilliant minds and help shape the future of technology.

Group/Division

The Semiconductor Products and Customers (Semi PC) business unit designs, builds and sells KLA’s product portfolio to help chip manufacturers meet high-quality standards for technologies like AI, data centers, automotive and electronic devices.

Our inspection, metrology, and analytics systems detect and monitor defects across logic and memory chips, specialty semiconductors, wafers, reticles, advanced packaging, process equipment and materials. We also develop technologies for specialty processes, IC substrates, and PCB manufacturing, including etch and deposition, component inspection, and imaging and analytics.

The Film and Scatterometry Technology (FaST) division delivers industry-leading metrology solutions essential to advanced semiconductor manufacturing. Its portfolio includes systems for measuring film thickness, critical dimensions, composition, and resistivity—key to developing and scaling next-gen IC processes.

FaST partners closely with customers from early R&D through high-volume production, ensuring performance and process alignment.

What You'll Do

In this role, you will play a key part in advancing business priorities by delivering high-impact work across your area of expertise.

• Customer Engagement & Technical Support
• Act as a primary technical contact for customers on TP (Thermal Probe) applications.
• Support tool installation, qualification, and production ramp at customer sites.
• Work closely with customers to understand process challenges and provide optimized metrology solutions.
• Deliver timely troubleshooting and resolution for application-related issues.
• 30% domestic and international travel would be required
• Application Development
• Develop and optimize recipes for optical metrology
• Perform model setup and refinement
• Ensure measurement accuracy, repeatability, and correlation to customer reference methods.
• Support both inline process control and offline characterization use cases.
• Demo & Evaluation Execution
• Execute customer demos, evaluations, and acceptance tests (e.g., Tier-2).
• Prepare and analyze data to demonstrate tool capability and application performance.
• Drive spec closure and meet customer requirements within defined timelines.
• Improve demo efficiency, throughput, and cycle time.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Work closely with product engineering and R&D teams to report issues and drive improvements.
• Provide feedback on application gaps, customer needs, and competitive insights.
• Collaborate with field service engineers to ensure tool performance and uptime.
• Align with global application teams to leverage best practices.

Education & Experience

• Master’s or PhD in Materials Science, Physics, Electrical Engineering, or related field.
• 3–8+ years of experience in semiconductor applications, metrology, or process engineering.

Technical Skills

• Knowledge of:
• Thermal probe technology
• Optical metrology
• Thermal probe characterization and modeling
• Semiconductor process integration (logic, memory, or packaging)
• Strong data analysis and problem-solving skills.

Soft Skills

• Strong customer-facing communication skills.
• Ability to work independently and in cross-functional teams.
• Detail-oriented with strong execution capability.
• Fast learner with adaptability in a dynamic environment

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with thermal probe or similar metrology platforms.
• Experience supporting tool demos or qualifications at customer sites.
• Familiarity with advanced packaging or emerging device structures.

Success Metrics

• Successful tool qualification and customer acceptance
• Application performance (accuracy, stability, robustness)
• Demo/evaluation success rate
• Customer satisfaction and responsiveness
• Contribution to new application enablement

Base Pay Range

$102,000.00 - $173,400.00 Annually

Primary Location: USA-OR-Hillsboro-Beaverton-KLA

KLA’s total rewards package for employees may also include participation in performance incentive programs and eligibility for additional benefits including but not limited to: medical, dental, vision, life, and other voluntary benefits, 401(K) including company matching, employee stock purchase program (ESPP), student debt assistance, tuition reimbursement program, development and career growth opportunities and programs, financial planning benefits, wellness benefits including an employee assistance program (EAP), paid time off and paid company holidays, and family care and bonding leave.

Interns are eligible for some of the benefits listed. Our pay ranges are determined by role, level, and location. The range displayed reflects the pay for this position in the primary location identified in this posting. Actual pay depends on several factors, including state minimum pay wage rates, location, job-related skills, experience, and relevant education level or training.

We are committed to complying with all applicable federal and state minimum wage requirements where applicable. If applicable, your recruiter can share more about the specific pay range for your preferred location during the hiring process.

Use of AI Statement

At KLA, our interviews seek to understand your individual skills, problem-solving approach and authentic thinking. Use of these tools may interfere with our ability to evaluate your individual qualifications and affect your candidacy. KLA is committed to advancing innovation through responsible AI, and we value candidates who share this mindset.