Senior Systems Engineer - Milpitas-CA, United States
$128,000 - $192,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 17 September 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role involves supporting the sustaining of released Metrology products and introducing new designs and upgrades impacting manufacturing and service environments. The scope includes managing component selection, BOM/revision maintenance, and design specification determination for optical metrology systems.
What you'll do
- Design and develop new hardware features for released products.
- Evolve product, process, and test design to improve product performance and reliability.
- Drive selection, qualification, and release of component obsolescence alternatives.
- Implement new design releases via change-order processes.
- Design and conduct experiments to characterize, troubleshoot, and improve complex optical metrology systems.
- Provide Engineering tier 3 & 4 escalation support for released & mature lifecycle products.
- Work within copy exactly requirements.
What you'll need
- 7+ years of increasingly responsible engineering and product development experience in high-tech companies engaged in the manufacture of advanced semiconductor equipment.
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Electrical or Optical preferred) or related technical field with 5+ years directly related experience.
- Broad understanding of Wafer Handling Automation Systems, Control Systems & Optical Systems.
Nice to have
- Background in development of optical inspection-based equipment.
- Experience in computer / server architecture.
- Experience in creating test programs to resolve complex issues.
Skills: Metrology products, optical metrology systems, Wafer Handling Automation Systems, Control Systems, Optical Systems, hardware features
This role has been open 21 days — well below the 51-day median for Semiconductor Equipment Engineering roles.
Semiconductor Equipment Engineering · Metrology Inspection
|
Open roles in category
190
|
Median days open
51 d
|
Median salary
$159k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Onto Innovation | All employers we track in this specialty (190 roles · 25 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 18 | 190 |
| Open roles in the wider Process, Fab & Equipment family | 100 | 9754 · 107 employers |
| Median days open | 70 d | 51 d (+19 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $159k |
Skills observed across this category: Metrology products, optical metrology systems, Wafer Handling Automation Systems, Control Systems, Optical Systems, hardware features
Who's hiring in this category
- KLA Corporation · 73 open roles · median 36 d
- Applied Materials · 25 open roles · median 74 d
- Onto Innovation (this employer) · 18 open roles · median 70 d
- Lam Research · 13 open roles · median 39 d
- Micron Technology · 11 open roles · median 44 d
- Entegris · 9 open roles · median 71 d
How we counted: 190 open Semiconductor Equipment Engineering (Metrology Inspection) roles from 25 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 9 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.