Product Development Engineer

Company Overview
KLA is a global leader in diversified electronics for the semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem. Virtually every electronic device in the world is produced using our technologies. No laptop, smartphone, wearable device, voice-controlled gadget, flexible screen, VR device or smart car would have made it into your hands without us. KLA invents systems and solutions for the manufacturing of wafers and reticles, integrated circuits, packaging, printed circuit boards and flat panel displays.

The innovative ideas and devices that are advancing humanity all begin with inspiration, research and development. KLA focuses more than average on innovation and we invest 15% of sales back into R&D. Our expert teams of physicists, engineers, data scientists and problem-solvers work together with the world's leading technology providers to accelerate the delivery of tomorrow's electronic devices. Life here is exciting and our teams thrive on tackling really hard problems.

There is never a dull moment with us.

Group/Division
With over 40 years of semiconductor process control experience, chip makers around the globe rely on KLA to ensure that their fabs ramp next-generation devices to volume production quickly and cost-effectively. Enabling the movement towards advanced chip design, KLA's Global Products Group (GPG), which is responsible for creating all of KLA's metrology and inspection products, is looking for the best and the brightest research scientist, software engineers, application development engineers, and senior product technology process engineers.

The Surfscan group includes a team of engineers, technology development, apps engineers and product marketing focused on technology that enables wafer, IC and equipment manufacturers to develop, qualify and monitor their process tools. Defects and process non-uniformities detected on Surfscan equipment allow for early identification of yield excursions. The flagship Surfscan products include the SPx platforms for wafer surface quality and wafer defect inspection tools and systems for inspection of polished wafers, epi wafers and engineered substrates during the wafer fabrication process.

Job Description/Preferred Qualifications

Product / Systems Engineer

Sustaining Engineering

Role Overview

KLA's ADE Sustaining Engineering team is seeking a P3-level Product / Systems Engineer to support fielded and pre-production semiconductor manufacturing equipment. This role is heavily hands-on
, with a strong focus on lab testing, root-cause analysis, and system-level troubleshooting across optics, interferometry, vibration, motion control, and electronics.

The engineer will work directly on complex sub-systems and full tool configurations, diagnosing performance, reliability, and quality issues, and driving corrective actions in collaboration with design, manufacturing, service, and suppliers.

This is not a desk-only role. Success requires comfort working on live hardware in the lab and on tools, integrating data, theory, and practical troubleshooting to stabilize and improve high-precision equipment.

Frequent international travel is required, occasionally up to 50%.

Key Responsibilities

• Perform hands-on lab and system-level testing of semiconductor inspection / metrology equipment, including optical, mechanical, and electromechanical subsystems.
• Troubleshoot complex issues related to:
  • Optical systems (including interferometers and precision imaging paths)
  • Vibration sensitivity and environmental performance
  • Precision motion control stages and actuators
  • Electronics, sensors, and control interfaces
• Design, execute, and document validation, characterization, and reliability tests at component, subsystem, and system levels.
• Lead root-cause investigations using data analysis, physical inspection, and experimentation; develop and validate corrective actions.
• Support sustaining engineering activities for released products, including performance excursions, reliability issues, and customer-driven escalations.
• Analyze field data, lab data, and sensor logs to identify trends and failure mechanisms.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (design engineering, manufacturing, service, quality, suppliers) to implement fixes and improvements.
• Support introduction and qualification of incremental hardware, firmware, or configuration changes.
• Create clear technical documentation, test reports, and engineering recommendations suitable for design reviews and production release.

Preferred Qualifications

• 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.
• Experience collaborating with manufacturing, service, or supplier engineering teams.
• Exposure to data analysis tools (MATLAB, Python, or equivalent) for test data…