Optical Engineer - Milpitas, CA, United States
$117,800 - $172,800 USD yearly
Originally posted 30 September 2026 by the employer.
This role focuses on advancing optical inspection systems for critical defect detection at advanced nodes, specifically within the Broadband Plasma (BBP) division.
About the role
This role involves advancing business priorities by delivering high-impact work in the area of optical engineering. The focus is on optical inspection systems within the Broadband Plasma (BBP) division, which detects critical defects at advanced nodes for logic, foundry, and memory customers.
What you'll do
- Advance business priorities through high-impact work in optical engineering.
What you'll need
- Solid background in optics, including imaging system aberrations, Fourier optics, and polarization.
- Experience in high precision and sophisticated optical alignment and imaging performance validation.
- Capability in modeling optical performance, defining tolerances, and degree of freedom for optical assembly using CodeV or LightTools.
- Methodical problem-solving skills in a multi-disciplinary environment and hands-on lab work.
- Intermediate knowledge of Matlab or Python.
- Doctorate Degree or Master's Level Degree with 3 years of related work experience, or Bachelor's Level Degree with 5 years of related work experience.
- Ability to travel internationally up to 20% with short notice.
This role has been open 9 days — well below the 49-day median for Hardware Systems Engineering roles.
Hardware Systems Engineering · AI ML Hardware
|
Open roles in category
947
|
Median days open
49 d
|
Median salary
$158k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, and who else is hiring
| Metric | KLA Corporation | All employers we track in this specialty (947 roles · 103 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 59 | 947 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 201 | 6078 · 146 employers |
| Median days open | 38 d | 49 d (−11 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $158k |
Who's hiring in this category
- Intel Corporation · 70 open roles · median 29 d
- KLA Corporation (this employer) · 59 open roles · median 38 d
- NVIDIA · 52 open roles · median 64 d
- Applied Materials · 50 open roles · median 58 d
- Teradyne · 48 open roles · median 22 d
- AMD · 44 open roles · median 62 d
How we counted: 947 open Hardware Systems Engineering (AI ML Hardware) roles from 103 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 10 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.