Process Engineer, Epitaxy, Terafab

About the role

• Process Engineer, Epitaxy, Terafab | Tesla (Terafab)
• Location: Austin, Texas | Req ID: 269747 | Job Type: Full-time
• What to Expect

We are building Terafab, a vertically integrated semiconductor factory at an unprecedented scale. The facility houses logic, memory, packaging, test, and lithography mask production under one roof, optimized for rapid iteration and maximum compute density per square foot.

Process engineering is the discipline by which Terafab technology gets built, atom by atom, and epitaxial films serve as core components of every device fabricated. You will develop and own epitaxy processes across three distinct chip families: edge-inference processors, space-hardened data center SI chips for orbital satellites, and high-bandwidth memory.

You'll optimize mechanical, chemical, and electrical properties of epitaxial thin films including but not limited to crystallinity, defectivity, strain/stress, doping, contact resistivity, and pre-clean while balancing thermal budgets and integration constraints across radically different product requirements.

You should have deep expertise in epitaxial deposition but be ready to work across core process domains such as etch, clean, dielectric thin film, metallization, metrology, and thermal processing and integration engineers as integration evolves. This is a highly hands-on role at one of the most ambitious fab programs in the world.

This position is open across multiple levels. Level and title are based on your experience, skills, and overall qualifications during the interview process.

What You'll Do

• Develop and qualify epitaxial CVD and/or pre-clean processes for nanosheet channel, source and drain, and contact layers
• Characterize epitaxial film properties—stress/strain, crystallinity, defects, deposition selectivity, etch rate, doping concentration, and contact resistance
• Own development for epitaxial films from tool installation and its continuous process/hardware improvement through HVM handoff for optimal productivity and yield
• Qualify tools from installation through production readiness, including chamber matching, particle control, process window and stability qualification, and inline parametrics
• Analyze process, property and structure from first principles-based approach to understand cause and effect mechanisms and to optimize key properties, not just recipes
• Lead root cause analysis, establish inline metrology and SPC control strategies, and drive systematic yield improvement
• Support 24/7 manufacturing operations through rotations, on-call availability, and rapid response to critical production issues
• Drive next-generation epitaxy materials and process development

What You'll Bring

• Degree in Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or related technical field, or equivalent experience
• 5+ years of hands-on epitaxial process/integration and pre-clean experience for advanced logic nodes, memory, or in a general foundry environment
• Deep experience with epitaxial CVD tool qualification, epitaxial process development, and process of record establishment at advanced nodes
• Proficiency with thin films metrology tools, film stress measurement, and defect inspection
• Strong Design of Experiments skills and statistical analysis capability
• Ability to work closely and proactively across wet, etch, thin films, integration, and equipment engineering teams