Product Physical Failure Analysis Engineer - San Jose, California, United States
$149,100 - $215,925 USD yearly
Originally posted 21 August 2026 by the employer.
About the role
We are seeking an experienced semiconductor Physical Failure Analysis Engineer responsible for root cause identification on yield, reliability, and customer returns.
What you'll do
- Collaborate with Product, Yield, and Reliability Engineers to drive fault isolation during product development, yield improvement, and reliability risk assessments.
- Support physical failure analysis and root cause determination of semiconductor device failures.
- Independently interpret Emission microscopes, Laser Voltage Probing, and OBIRCH data to define physical failure analysis process.
- Independently define and execute physical failure analysis tools such as SEM, FIB, and EDX.
- Develop reports and communicate findings to responsible engineers on a regular basis.
What you'll need
- BS degree in Electrical Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
- 8+ years of experience in semiconductor failure analysis.
- 8+ years of experience with Layout & Design tools (Virtuoso, Avalon, SysNav, etc.).
- 8+ years of experience independently implementing failure analysis using die milling/thinning, Focused Ion Beam milling for layer-by-layer deprocessing of silicon die, Scanning Electron Microscopy, and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy.
- 8+ years of experience driving investigations to root cause and driving yield/reliability improvements.
This role has been open 55 days — slightly above the 51-day median for Failure Analysis Engineering roles.
Failure Analysis Engineering · Failure Analysis
|
Open roles in category
189
|
Median days open
51 d
|
Median salary
$107k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Altera | All employers we track in this specialty (189 roles · 39 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 2 | 189 |
| Open roles in the wider Process, Fab & Equipment family | 8 | 9867 · 109 employers |
| Median days open | 54 d | 51 d (+3 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $107k |
Who's hiring in this category
- Micron Technology · 31 open roles · median 73 d
- GlobalFoundries · 14 open roles · median 24 d
- Lam Research · 14 open roles · median 40 d
- Infineon Technologies · 13 open roles · median 45 d
- Intel Corporation · 12 open roles · median 27 d
- STMicroelectronics · 9 open roles · median 52 d
How we counted: 189 open Failure Analysis Engineering (Failure Analysis) roles from 39 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 16 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 Process, Fab & Equipment family row. Figures refresh nightly.