Division Product Development Applications Manager

KLA•Milpitas, CA

2d•Onsite

About The Position

The Semiconductor Products and Customers (Semi PC) business unit designs, builds and sells KLA’s product portfolio to help chip manufacturers meet high-quality standards for technologies like AI, data centers, automotive and electronic devices. Our inspection, metrology, and analytics systems detect and monitor defects across logic and memory chips, specialty semiconductors, wafers, reticles, advanced packaging, process equipment and materials. We also develop technologies for specialty processes, IC substrates, and PCB manufacturing, including etch and deposition, component inspection, and imaging and analytics. The Film and Scatterometry Technology (FaST) division delivers industry-leading metrology solutions essential to advanced semiconductor manufacturing. Its portfolio includes systems for measuring film thickness, critical dimensions, composition, and resistivity—key to developing and scaling next-gen IC processes. FaST partners closely with customers from early R&D through high-volume production, ensuring performance and process alignment. In this role, you will play a key part in advancing business priorities by delivering high-impact work across your area of expertise. Position Overview The Film and Scatterometry Technology (FaST) Division develops and supports market-leading optical metrology systems used throughout the semiconductor industry for advanced process control. Our automated metrology solutions utilize polarized UV/visible light and X-ray technologies to accurately measure thin-film thicknesses ranging from less than 1 nm to several microns, as well as critical dimensions and complex 3D structures from sub-10 nm features to hundreds of nanometers. We are seeking an experienced leader to manage an Applications Engineering team responsible for metrology characterization, application development, and customer enablement across the product lifecycle.

Requirements

Strong technical background in semiconductor process technology, metrology, optics, or related fields.
Proven leadership experience managing technical engineering or applications teams.
Experience with semiconductor process control, optical metrology, thin-film measurements, scatterometry, or critical dimension metrology.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to lead complex technical investigations.
Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to engage effectively with customers, management, and cross-functional teams.
Demonstrated ability to drive projects across multiple organizations and manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
MS, or PHD in Engineering, Physics, Material Science or related fields with at least 8 years experience in semiconductor metrology related job.
Computational modeling knowledge and IC processing/Semiconductor equipment understanding are a plus.
Must have excellent communication, organizational, analytical, leadership, and interpersonal skill.
Bachelor's Level Degree with at least 12 years of experience.
Master's Level Degree with at least 10 years of experience.
Doctorate (Academic) with at least 8 years of experience.

Nice To Haves

Computational modeling knowledge and IC processing/Semiconductor equipment understanding are a plus.

Responsibilities

Lead a team of Applications Engineers responsible for metrology characterization and application development for advanced critical dimension and thin-film measurement solutions.
Drive technical execution, team development, prioritization, and resource planning to support new product introductions and customer engagements.
Foster strong cross-functional collaboration and a culture of technical excellence and continuous improvement.
Lead metrology characterization activities throughout the Product Lifecycle (PLC) process.
Develop and validate application solutions for complex semiconductor structures, including advanced 3D device architectures.
Design and execute experiments to evaluate system and subsystem performance.
Develop and optimize modeling and measurement recipes for challenging optical metrology applications.
Support technology readiness and product qualification activities during characterization, alpha, beta, and pilot phases.
Manage in-house customer demonstrations and benchmark activities.
Support customer evaluations and head-to-head (H2H) comparisons at customer sites.
Work directly with customers to understand process challenges and develop metrology solutions that address critical manufacturing needs.
Provide technical training and application support to both internal teams and external customers.
Establish and maintain Best Known Method (BKM) documentation, application guidelines, and training materials.
Drive effective transfer of product knowledge and application expertise to KLA's worldwide Field Applications organization.
Promote standardization of methodologies and best practices across global teams.
Partner closely with Engineering, Product Management, Marketing, Sales, Service, and Operations teams to drive product success.
Serve as a key technical interface between internal development teams and external customer engineering organizations.
Provide application insights and market feedback to influence future product roadmap and technology development.