Senior Staff Optical Engineer - Milpitas, CA, United States
$167,300 - $284,400 USD yearly
Originally posted 28 August 2026 by the employer.
Join the Broadband Plasma Division (BBP) to develop innovative wafer inspection products, including the 29xx and 39xx series.
About the role
This role involves joining a team of optical engineers within the BBP division to develop innovative wafer inspection products. Optics is the core part of BBP products, which include high-brightness light-sources, broadband coatings, complex optical subsystem and high-speed sensors.
What you'll do
- Own and investigate optical architecture and design options to find the best option through systematic trade off.
- Collaborate with external suppliers and internal functional teams to gather optical performance dependencies.
- Translate system requirements into optical, mechanical, and metrology requirements.
- Develop and implement optical metrology and alignment concepts to achieve targeted optical performances.
- Follow KLA design processes, including design reviews, part procurement from vendors, testing, integration, and release.
- Solve problems that arise within the proto or released inspection systems.
What you'll need
- Doctorate Degree and 5 years of related work experience; Master's Degree and 8 years; or Bachelor's Degree and 12 years.
- Solid background in optics, physics, or related field such as imaging system aberrations, Fourier optics, polarization, Radiometry.
- Hands-on experiences in lens design, especially in diffraction limited large numerical aperture microscope objective lenses.
- Experienced in developing the optical system performance and design requirements.
- Experienced in developing optical alignment, error budgets, and metrology for high precision and highly complex optical system.
- Expert user of Code V or Zemax.
- Proficiency with Matlab or Python.
Nice to have
- Prior experience in semiconductor inspection or lithography equipment.
- Direct work experiences in DUV or VUV optics.
This role has been open 47 days — below the 50-day median for Hardware Systems Engineering roles.
Hardware Systems Engineering · AI ML Hardware
|
Open roles in category
964
|
Median days open
50 d
|
Median salary
$155k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, and who else is hiring
| Metric | KLA Corporation | All employers we track in this specialty (964 roles · 103 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 65 | 964 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 209 | 6164 · 146 employers |
| Median days open | 42 d | 50 d (−8 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $155k |
Who's hiring in this category
- Intel Corporation · 71 open roles · median 33 d
- KLA Corporation (this employer) · 65 open roles · median 42 d
- Teradyne · 55 open roles · median 27 d
- NVIDIA · 52 open roles · median 67 d
- Applied Materials · 49 open roles · median 63 d
- AMD · 45 open roles · median 44 d
How we counted: 964 open Hardware Systems Engineering (AI ML Hardware) roles from 103 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 15 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.