System Design Engineer - Milpitas, CA, United States
$136,300 - $231,700 USD yearly
Originally posted 25 August 2026 by the employer.
KLA is seeking a System Design Engineer to support semiconductor manufacturing equipment, focusing on optics, interferometry, vibration, and motion control.
About the role
As a System Design Engineer, you will support fielded and pre-production semiconductor manufacturing equipment. This role involves hands-on lab testing, root-cause analysis, and system-level troubleshooting across optics, interferometry, vibration, motion control, and electronics.
What you'll do
- Perform hands-on lab and system-level testing of semiconductor inspection/metrology equipment.
- Troubleshoot complex issues related to optical systems, vibration sensitivity, precision motion control stages, and electronics.
- Design, execute, and document validation, characterization, and reliability tests.
- Lead root-cause investigations using data analysis, physical inspection, and experimentation.
- Support sustaining engineering activities for released products, including performance excursions and reliability issues.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to implement fixes and improvements.
What you'll need
- Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD degree in Optical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a closely related technical field.
- Experience working in a hands-on lab environment supporting complex hardware systems.
- Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot and root-cause issues on physical systems.
- Working knowledge in one or more of the following technical areas: optical systems and interferometry, precision vibration measurement, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, precision motion control systems, or electronics.
- Ability to independently plan and execute experiments, testing, and validation activities.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Nice to have
- Experience with semiconductor inspection, metrology, or lithography-adjacent equipment.
- Familiarity with vibration metrics, environmental specifications, or facility interaction effects.
- Experience supporting sustaining or installed-base products, including field issue resolution.
- Comfortable working directly on tools in a lab or fab-like environment.
- Exposure to data analysis tools (MATLAB, Python, or equivalent).
Skills: semiconductor inspection equipment, optical systems, interferometry, vibration, motion control
This role has been open 51 days — slightly above the 50-day median for Semiconductor Equipment Engineering roles.
Semiconductor Equipment Engineering · Metrology Inspection
|
Open roles in category
193
|
Median days open
50 d
|
Median salary
$159k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | KLA Corporation | All employers we track in this specialty (193 roles · 23 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 75 | 193 |
| Open roles in the wider Process, Fab & Equipment family | 448 | 9867 · 109 employers |
| Median days open | 42 d | 50 d (−8 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $159k |
Skills observed across this category: semiconductor inspection equipment, optical systems, interferometry, vibration, motion control
Who's hiring in this category
- KLA Corporation (this employer) · 76 open roles · median 41 d
- Applied Materials · 25 open roles · median 65 d
- Onto Innovation · 17 open roles · median 80 d
- Lam Research · 15 open roles · median 44 d
- Micron Technology · 11 open roles · median 50 d
- Entegris · 10 open roles · median 56 d
How we counted: 193 open Semiconductor Equipment Engineering (Metrology Inspection) roles from 23 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.