Job Description:

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 in 2019 we invested 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, chipmakers 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. Central Engineering is KLA's largest engineering organization comprised of 9 Centers-of-Excellence (CoE) in various disciplines applied across all product groups in the company. These CoE include Handling & Automation, Precision Motion Control, Sensors & Image Acquisition, Platform Design, and Packaging Engineering, among others. Talent includes over 500 engineers across global centers in Israel, China, India, and the US. Each CoE contributes not just talent and deliverables per discipline toward product programs, but also subject matter expertise, best practices, roadmaps, specialized facilities, apparatus, models, and analytics. These differentiate KLA not only in WHAT we do, but also in HOW we do it.

This position can be based in Milpitas, CA or in a few locations in Germany and will require international travel.

In this role you will drive KLA's full relationship with a most-critical technology partner. This relationship covers the full lifecycle of each new technology we deploy in our products, from early exploratory R&D, to Concept & Feasibility demonstration, to prototype integration into KLA engineering tools, to pilot production, to full volume manufacturing. This technology partner is a world leader in high-precision optical components and assemblies. Your day-to-day engagement will be working with technologists, system architects, design engineers, manufacturing specialists, and commercial / supply chain professionals both at the technology partner and at KLA. These efforts can be broadly described in 3 areas and competencies:

Technology: Understand KLA's optical system requirements to translate into the partner's specifications, while also factoring the partner's capabilities back into KLA's architectural system-level trade-offs and error budgets. Facilitate engineer-to-engineer collaboration between both companies. This requires understanding and challenging KLA subsystems for imaging, auto-focus, illumination, layout, and use-cases, working with KLA system architects. This also requires understanding and challenging the partner's polishing, mounting, metrology, alignment, coating, and contamination capabilities working closely with their specialists.

Program Management: Lead the partnership collaboration with participants from both KLA and the partner, along the lifecycle of the components. There are projects occurring in parallel, with R&D efforts for next-generation KLA products, concurrent with production-readiness efforts for recent product introductions, while directing volume manufacturing capacity and forecasting for KLA products in full production. Your efforts will include defining IP positions acceptable to both companies, driving orders for prototype assemblies and for R&D initiatives, clarifying risks and mitigation plans, and driving engineering plans and action items across both companies in considerations of cost, schedule, and performance.

Business Relationship: Understand the business priorities and financial models for both KLA and the partner to assure a continuing win-win partnership. In this capacity you will help negotiate NRE, product pricing, loans, and capital expenditures to share risk. You will also guide commercial representatives from both companies to formulate contracts that constructively meet the needs of each.

Preferred Qualifications

Technical/Engineering Experience:

• Experience in high-tech multi-disciplinary hardware systems, preferably in capital equipment, especially equipment related to semiconductor manufacturing.




• Demonstrated capacity to learn multi-disciplinary hardware product technologies and needs.




• Experience as, or working closely with, product development engineers.




• Ideal: Experience in optical and optomechanical component design or manufacturing.

Business Acumen & Partnership Experience:

• Demonstrated experiences partnering with external highly technical parties, whether as customers, suppliers, or peers.




• These partnerships factor in business, operations, and development in technologies and critical subsystems.

Minimum Qualifications

Education (Degree + Work Experience):

• Bachelor's Level Degree with a minimum of 15 years of experience OR




• Master's Level Degree with a minimum of 13 years of experience OR




• Doctorate (PhD) with a minimum of 11 years of experience

We offer a competitive, family friendly total rewards package. We design our programs to reflect our commitment to an inclusive environment, while ensuring we provide benefits that meet the diverse needs of our employees.

KLA is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status or any other status protected by applicable law. We will ensure that qualified individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us at talent.acquisition@kla.com to request accommodation.

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