Process Support Engineer IV - Santa Clara, CA, United States
$147,000 - $202,500 USD yearly
Originally posted 9 July 2026 by the employer.
About the role
As a Process Support Engineer (PSE), you will guide products through their lifecycle from concept to qualification, providing on-site customer support, system diagnoses, and service of complex systems. The role involves developing processes across technologies including Chemical Vapor Deposition, Atomic Layer Deposition, Plasma Reactive Ion Etch, Physical Vapor Deposition, Anneal, and Implant.
What you'll do
- Provide customer support through on-site installations, system diagnoses, and the service and repair of complex systems and equipment. - Work with customers to develop processes to manufacture semiconductor chips with equipment optimized to their specifications. - Create hypothesis experiments and design of experiments (DOE), analyze data with statistics, and compile technical reports. - Troubleshoot complex problems, perform root cause analysis, and resolve process engineering and product issues. - Serve as a resource for junior colleagues, act as a liaison between the customer and business unit, and lead functional teams or projects.
What you'll need
- Bachelor’s degree in chemistry/physics, materials engineering, electrical engineering, optoelectronics, or a related field. - 7–10 years of dry etch experience in the semiconductor fab or equipment industry. - Leadership skills to guide others in problem-solving. - Communication and interpersonal skills to explain technical concepts to project stakeholders. - English language proficiency.
Nice to have
- Master’s degree or PhD in a related field.
Skills: product application roadmap, ß-site, SOW, customer technical review, demos
This role has been open 186 days — well above the 72-day median for Applications FAE roles.
Applications FAE · Manufacturing Equipment
|
Open roles in category
196
|
Median days open
72 d
|
Median salary
$148k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Applied Materials | All employers we track in this specialty (196 roles · 17 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 34 | 196 |
| Median days open | 68 d | 72 d (−4 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $148k |
Skills observed across this category: product application roadmap, ß-site, SOW, customer technical review, demos
Who's hiring in this category
- Teradyne · 62 open roles · median 33 d
- KLA Corporation · 41 open roles · median 125 d
- Applied Materials (this employer) · 34 open roles · median 68 d
- Keysight Technologies · 15 open roles · median 75 d
- ASML · 8 open roles · median 116 d
- Veeco Instruments · 7 open roles · median 82 d
How we counted: 196 open Applications FAE (Manufacturing Equipment) roles from 17 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 25 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. Figures refresh nightly.