Defect Reduction and Yield Improvement Engineer

Defect Reduction and Yield Improvement Engineer

Date: Jan 5, 2026

Location: Lexington, MA, US

Company: MIT Lincoln Laboratory

The Advanced Technology Division invents the technological building blocks of future systems, with the Microsystems Prototyping Foundry (MPF) serving as a state-of-the-art semiconductor research and fabrication facility for advanced microelectronics, imagers, quantum devices, and more.

We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Defect Reduction and Yield Improvement Engineer to join the Microsystems Prototyping Foundry team. This critical role is responsible for the detection, analysis, and characterization of defects in our advanced semiconductor prototyping processes. The successful candidate will be a key contributor to maintaining high yield and process control for revolutionary microelectronics and advanced devices supporting national security.

• Develop and Implement Metrology Solutions: Design, qualify, and implement advanced defect inspection, review, and classification strategies for novel fabrication processes in a low-volume, high-mix R&D foundry environment.
• Defect Analysis and Root Cause Identification: Utilize advanced metrology tools to perform detailed defect characterization, root cause analysis, and failure analysis (FA) on in-process wafers and finished devices.
• Tool Ownership and Maintenance: Act as the technical owner for a variety of defect inspection and metrology equipment including automated defect inspection systems and defect review scanning electron microscopes. Responsibilities include qualification, calibration, preventative maintenance oversight, and troubleshooting.
• Yield Improvement: Collaborate closely with process engineering, integration, and design teams to correlate defect data with process variations and electrical performance, driving continuous improvement in process control, tool performance, and final device yield.
• Statistical Process Control (SPC): Establish and maintain Statistical Process Control (SPC) for defect data, proactively monitoring trends, and responding to excursions when necessary.
• Data Analysis and Reporting: Develop automated data analysis routines (e.g., using JMP, Python, or MATLAB) to efficiently process large datasets, generate insightful reports, and communicate technical findings to cross‑functional teams.
• Protocol Development: Write and maintain comprehensive Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and metrology protocols to ensure measurement accuracy, repeatability, and consistency.

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, or a related technical discipline.

• 3+ years of hands‑on experience in semiconductor fabrication, focusing on defect metrology, process control, or yield engineering.
• Experience in an R&D or advanced prototyping environment, specifically with non‑standard or multiple semiconductor material platforms (e.g., Silicon, MEMS, Superconducting devices) is highly desirable.

• Demonstrated expertise in operating and maintaining advanced defect inspection and review tools (e.g., automated optical defect inspection, SEM for defect review/analysis).
• Demonstrated experience using defect management software platforms.
• Strong background in data analysis, statistical methods, and statistical process control (SPC).
• Proficiency with data analysis software (e.g., JMP, MATLAB, Python) for large‑scale data manipulation and visualization.

• Excellent written and oral communication skills, with the ability to effectively present complex technical data and analysis to diverse engineering and research teams.

Recent Graduate Hiring Range: $116,400 - $140,000

Experienced Hiring Range: $116,400 - $182,200

Disclaimer: MIT Lincoln Laboratory provides a typical hiring range as a good faith estimate of what we reasonably expect to offer for this position at the time of posting. The final salary offered to a selected candidate will depend on various factors, including-but not limited to-the scope and responsibilities of the role, the candidate's experience, skills and…