System Engineer IV, Platform (E4 - Santa Clara, CA, United States
$138,000 - $190,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 5 June 2026 by the employer.
About the role
As a Systems Engineer, you will design, integrate, and optimize complex systems for semiconductor process equipment, including etch, CMP, inspection, and metrology platforms. You will analyze requirements, define system architectures, and ensure the seamless integration of subsystems across optical, mechanical, and electrical domains.
What you'll do
- Lead architecture definition, design, integration, and testing of platforms and optical subsystems within semiconductor process equipment. - Design and integrate precision mechanical, opto-mechanical, and optical components and subsystems, including stages, motion control, gas and liquid delivery, illumination sources, and interferometers. - Define and flow down system engineering specifications aligned with tool performance targets such as throughput, yield, uptime, and cost of ownership. - Prototype, integrate, and qualify mechanical, opto-mechanical, and optical subsystems within wafer processing tools, including alignment, calibration, and system verification. - Lead system integration and tool bring-up across platform components, gas-delivery, electrical assemblies, optics, sensors, motion systems, and control software. - Drive design for manufacturability (DFM), serviceability, and cost optimization, while conducting validation and reliability testing compliant with SEMI standards.
What you'll need
- Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Optical Engineering, Physics, Electrical Engineering, or a related field. - 4–7 years of hands-on experience in industrial design, integration, and testing of semiconductor equipment platforms and systems for high-precision optical processing, metrology, or inspection. - Demonstrated experience defining system architectures, writing system specifications, and executing trade-off analyses across performance, cost, reliability, and manufacturability. - Experience with subsystem integration, alignment, calibration, and tool bring-up under fab conditions. - Familiarity with validation, reliability testing, and SEMI standards compliance.
Skills: system architecture, complex systems, subsystems, prototypes, integration
This role has been open 140 days — well above the 54-day median for Semiconductor Equipment Engineering roles.
Semiconductor Equipment Engineering · Manufacturing Equipment
|
Open roles in category
3894
|
Median days open
54 d
|
Median salary
$126k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Applied Materials | All employers we track in this specialty (3894 roles · 84 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 637 | 3894 |
| Open roles in the wider Process, Fab & Equipment family | 1140 | 10080 · 106 employers |
| Median days open | 53 d | 54 d (−1 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $126k |
Skills observed across this category: system architecture, complex systems, subsystems, prototypes, integration
Who's hiring in this category
- Applied Materials (this employer) · 637 open roles · median 54 d
- Lam Research · 571 open roles · median 39 d
- KLA Corporation · 288 open roles · median 66 d
- Micron Technology · 278 open roles · median 47 d
- ASML · 186 open roles · median 74 d
- ASM International · 156 open roles · median 82 d
How we counted: 3894 open Semiconductor Equipment Engineering (Manufacturing Equipment) roles from 84 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 24 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.