Principal AI Data Scientist – Scientific AI & Physics-Informed Machine Learning

Applied Materials•Santa Clara, CA

3d•Onsite

About The Position

Applied Materials is the global leader in materials science and engineering solutions that are at the foundation of virtually every new semiconductor chip and advanced display in the world. The equipment that we create and service is essential to advancing AI and accelerating the commercialization of next-generation semiconductor chips. Join us and push the boundaries of materials science and engineering in a company at the foundation of the electronics industry. The work we do together advances the world’s technology.

Requirements

PhD in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Materials Science, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, Computational Science, or related discipline.
Strong expertise in machine learning, deep learning, statistical modeling, and scientific computing.
Hands-on experience with Python and modern AI frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX.
Strong background in numerical methods, optimization, simulation, or computational modeling.
Excellent communication skills and ability to work across multidisciplinary teams.

Nice To Haves

Semiconductor industry experience in process, device, reliability, metrology, packaging, EDA, or manufacturing.
5+ years of experience developing advanced AI/ML algorithms for scientific or engineering applications.
Experience with Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs), neural operators, surrogate modeling, uncertainty quantification, or digital twins.
Familiarity with TCAD, FEM, CFD, Monte Carlo, multiphysics simulation, or scientific computing environments.
Experience with foundation models, generative AI, multimodal learning, or graph neural networks.
Strong publication and/or patent record demonstrating technical innovation and thought leadership. The background we're targeting is similar to senior researchers who combine semiconductor device physics, computational modeling, and advanced AI research

Responsibilities

Develop and deploy advanced AI/ML solutions for semiconductor process and device simulations, Electronic Design Automation (EDA), packaging, reliability, and manufacturing applications.
Create physics-informed and hybrid AI models that integrate experimental data, simulation outputs, and domain knowledge.
Build surrogate models and scientific machine learning frameworks to accelerate computationally intensive simulations and engineering workflows.
Research and apply state-of-the-art techniques including deep learning, generative AI, graph neural networks, neural operators, and foundation models.
Collaborate with semiconductor experts, software engineers, and product teams to transition research into production solutions.
Drive innovation through patents, publications, and technical leadership across STM and Applied Materials.
Effective technical verbal/written communication representing the org with limited supervision. Ability to collaborate with internal stakeholders, customers and vendors.
Able to follow complex program schedules, budgets, and milestones with limited supervision.
Collaborates/participate in discussions to solve interdisciplinary technical issues in a cross-functional team environment.