Staff Photolithography Process Engineer - Austin, TX 78741, United States
Originally posted 15 October 2026 by the employer.
This role involves optimizing processes on ASML Steppers.
About the role
This Staff Photolithography Process Engineer role focuses on developing and sustaining photolithography processes for high-volume manufacturing environments, leading process characterization and development initiatives, and driving collaboration across cross-functional fab teams.
What you'll do
- Develop, optimize, characterize, and sustain photolithography processes for high volume manufacturing.
- Own and sustain production lithography processes, driving continuous improvements in yield, defectivity, critical dimension (CD), overlay, throughput, and cost.
- Monitor inline and end-of-line statistical process control (SPC) charts to identify trends, excursions, and abnormal process behavior, and implement corrective and preventive actions.
- Investigate lithography-related defects, patterning failures, CD variation, overlay errors, and yield losses using structured problem-solving, statistical analysis, and design of experiments (DOE).
- Collaborate with equipment, integration, and cross-functional engineering teams to troubleshoot process and equipment issues and improve manufacturing capability.
- Lead engineering projects to close process performance gaps, achieve milestones, and deliver measurable improvements in yield, productivity, and cost.
What you'll need
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in engineering or a related technical field.
- 4 plus years of experience in photolithography process engineering in a high volume mass production environment.
- Applied knowledge of photolithography processes, process optimization, overlay and alignment improvement, and critical dimension (CD) variation reduction.
- Experience optimizing process on TEL tracks and ASML Steppers & Scanners (I Line, KrF, & dry ArF).
- Experience setting up and optimizing Resist process with & without TARCs or BARCs on existing fab tool.
- Experience with Overlay on ARCHER tools and CD job writing on NANOSEM & HITACHI SEMs.
Nice to have
- Strong understanding of semiconductor photolithography processes, equipment, and manufacturing operations.
- Hands-on experience developing and characterizing lithography processes, including process windows and overlay margins.
- Demonstrated proficiency in statistical process control (SPC), design of experiments (DOE), data mining, and process data analysis.
- Experience identifying process variation, reducing defectivity, improving yield, and addressing process marginalities in a production environment.
Skills: photolithography processes, process characterization, ASML Steppers, yield, defectivity
This role has been open 0 days — well below the 76-day median for Process Engineering roles.
Process Engineering · Semiconductor Process
|
Open roles in category
1038
|
Median days open
76 d
|
Median salary
$137k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | SkyWater Technology | All employers we track in this specialty (1038 roles · 56 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 14 | 1038 |
| Open roles in the wider Process, Fab & Equipment family | 77 | 9867 · 109 employers |
| Median days open | 22 d | 76 d (−54 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $137k |
Skills observed across this category: photolithography processes, process characterization, ASML Steppers, yield, defectivity
Who's hiring in this category
- Micron Technology · 355 open roles · median 139 d
- GlobalFoundries · 75 open roles · median 114 d
- Applied Materials · 72 open roles · median 75 d
- Texas Instruments · 53 open roles · median 50 d
- STMicroelectronics · 48 open roles · median 49 d
- Entegris · 46 open roles · median 34 d
How we counted: 1038 open Process Engineering (Semiconductor Process) roles from 56 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 Process, Fab & Equipment family row. Figures refresh nightly.