Sr Principal Technical Support Engineer - USA - Remote - CA (Outside Bay Area), United States
$136,200 - $178,815 USD yearly
Originally posted 27 July 2026 by the employer.
Support advanced probe card products for semiconductor wafer testing across production and OSAT environments.
About the role
The Sr Principal Technical Support Engineer provides expert-level technical support for FormFactor probe card products used in semiconductor wafer testing. This role acts as a key interface between customers, product engineering, manufacturing, and field service teams to address electrical, mechanical, and process issues.
What you'll do
- Provide technical support for probe card products in production environments and serve as a primary escalation point for complex technical issues. - Diagnose and resolve electrical, mechanical, and process-related issues, including yield excursions, electrical continuity, and contact problems during wafer sort. - Perform root cause analysis (RCA) on probe card failures using ATE data, electrical measurements, and microscopy inspection tools. - Provide technical guidance on probe card setup, overdrive, contact force, cleaning cycles, alignment procedures, and maintenance practices. - Support new product introductions (NPI), customer qualifications, and corrective and preventive actions (CAPA). - Deliver onsite support at customer fabs and OSATs, conducting troubleshooting sessions and customer training.
What you'll need
- Minimum of 8 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; 6 years with a Master’s degree; or a PhD with 3 years of experience; or equivalent experience. - Deep expertise in semiconductor test processes and probe card technologies. - Proven ability to perform root cause analysis using ATE data and electrical measurements. - Experience interpreting wafer sort data to identify probe-related anomalies and parametric issues.
Nice to have
- Experience with FormFactor probe cards or similar technologies. - Knowledge of advanced nodes, including FinFET, 5nm, and 3nm processes. - Experience supporting high-volume manufacturing (HVM). - Familiarity with yield engineering and test optimization. - Prior field application or customer-facing experience. - Automatic wafer prober user experience and hands-on mechanical assembly or electrical debug experience. - Ability to speak Mandarin or Korean.
Skills: probe cards, customer technical support, diagnose and resolve issues, wafer sort, root cause analysis
This role has been open 92 days — well above the 68-day median for Applications FAE roles.
Applications FAE · Manufacturing Equipment
|
Open roles in category
191
|
Median days open
68 d
|
Median salary
$148k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | FormFactor | All employers we track in this specialty (191 roles · 17 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 6 | 191 |
| Median days open | 68 d | 68 d (same as this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $148k |
Skills observed across this category: probe cards, customer technical support, diagnose and resolve issues, wafer sort, root cause analysis
Who's hiring in this category
- Teradyne · 62 open roles · median 34 d
- KLA Corporation · 39 open roles · median 127 d
- Applied Materials · 31 open roles · median 62 d
- Keysight Technologies · 15 open roles · median 77 d
- ASML · 8 open roles · median 118 d
- Veeco Instruments · 7 open roles · median 84 d
How we counted: 191 open Applications FAE (Manufacturing Equipment) roles from 17 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 27 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.