Mechanical Engineer - Santa Clara, CA, United States
$124,000 - $171,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 13 May 2026 by the employer.
About the role
As a Mechanical Engineer at Applied Materials, you will own the end‑to‑end design, development, and validation of hardware required to enable Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) processes. You will develop technical solutions, brainstorm design concepts with cross-functional teams, and perform hands-on testing to validate equipment used in semiconductor manufacturing.
What you'll do
- Technically lead engineering projects and own end-to-end execution, delivering solutions for technical problems of varying complexity. - Deconstruct on-wafer performance requirements into engineering design requirements and collaborate with engineering disciplines such as Process Engineering. - Perform engineering analyses, including tolerance, thermal, structural, and flow calculations, to ensure designs meet functional and performance objectives. - Validate solutions using first-principles hand calculations and simulation tools (FEA / CFD), correlating analytical predictions with test results. - Plan and execute structured experiments and validation tests to characterize performance, establish operating windows, and define design margins. - Create, specify, review, and release engineering documentation in Teamcenter to maintain configuration control across the product lifecycle.
What you'll need
- PhD or Master’s degree in mechanical engineering with 4–7 years of applicable experience. - Experience in semiconductor equipment design or troubleshooting. - Proficiency with 3D CAD tools such as Siemens NX, Creo (Pro/ENGINEER), or SolidWorks. - Demonstrated strength in at least one technical domain: thermal engineering, compressible flow, mechanical design, or machining/manufacturing processes. - Experience analyzing experimental and field data using tools such as JMP and Microsoft Excel.
Nice to have
- Experience with engineering analysis tools such as ANSYS, CFD-ACE, or COMSOL.
This role has been open 163 days — well above the 51-day median for Hardware Systems Engineering roles.
Hardware Systems Engineering · AI ML Hardware
|
Open roles in category
1017
|
Median days open
51 d
|
Median salary
$154k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Applied Materials | All employers we track in this specialty (1017 roles · 102 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 47 | 1017 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 156 | 6277 · 144 employers |
| Median days open | 64 d | 51 d (+13 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $154k |
Who's hiring in this category
- Intel Corporation · 75 open roles · median 36 d
- KLA Corporation · 63 open roles · median 50 d
- Teradyne · 61 open roles · median 36 d
- NVIDIA · 51 open roles · median 68 d
- Applied Materials (this employer) · 48 open roles · median 67 d
- AMD · 43 open roles · median 53 d
How we counted: 1017 open Hardware Systems Engineering (AI ML Hardware) roles from 102 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 24 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.