Principal Software Engineer

FormFactor•Beaverton, OR

9d•Onsite

About The Position

FormFactor is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead the design, development, modernization, and support of software applications used in advanced semiconductor manufacturing and test systems. As a senior technical contributor, you will drive complex software initiatives across the full development lifecycle, including architecture, development, testing, deployment, and sustainment. This role will lead the migration of legacy MATLAB and LabVIEW applications to modern C#/.NET technologies while supporting software integration with semiconductor equipment, instrumentation, motion control systems, machine vision platforms, and automated test environments. The Principal Software Engineer operates with a high degree of autonomy, provides technical leadership across projects, influences software architecture and engineering standards, and partners closely with hardware, manufacturing, quality, and product development teams to deliver scalable, reliable, and high-performance software solutions.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related technical field.
Strong hands-on experience with C#/.NET and object-oriented software development.
Experience developing and maintaining MATLAB applications.
Experience working with or migrating MATLAB code/applications to C#/.NET.
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Ability to work effectively across software, systems, mechanical, electrical, controls, and applications engineering teams.
Minimum of 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 3 years and a Master’s degree; or a PhD without experience; or equivalent work experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Silicon Photonics, semiconductor equipment, wafer probing, optical test, or automated test systems.
Experience with motion control, machine vision, instrumentation, data acquisition, or industrial automation.
Experience with Azure DevOps, Git, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and Agile development.

Responsibilities

Lead the design, development, enhancement, and maintenance of software applications supporting semiconductor manufacturing and test equipment.
Architect, develop, and implement new software features from requirements gathering through design, coding, integration, validation, and release.
Provide technical leadership in software architecture, design reviews, code reviews, and technology decisions.
Establish and promote software engineering best practices, coding standards, design patterns, and development methodologies.
Lead the migration and modernization of legacy MATLAB applications into C#/.NET-based software platforms.
Define migration strategies, architecture roadmaps, validation plans, and software transition approaches.
Refactor, optimize, and enhance existing software to improve maintainability, scalability, performance, and reliability.
Evaluate new technologies and frameworks that support future software platform development.
Develop software interfaces for semiconductor equipment, motion control systems, industrial automation components, instruments, sensors, cameras, and data acquisition hardware.
Collaborate with hardware, systems, and manufacturing engineers to ensure seamless integration between software and equipment platforms.
Support development of real-time control, automation, and data collection solutions.
Maintain and enhance existing MATLAB and LabVIEW applications, including troubleshooting, debugging, sustaining engineering, and feature development.
Support legacy software systems through performance improvements, hardware interface updates, reliability enhancements, and defect resolution.
Develop long-term strategies for sustaining or modernizing existing software assets.
Develop and maintain automated unit, integration, and system-level testing frameworks.
Partner with Software Quality Assurance teams to improve test automation, simulation environments, regression testing, and software verification processes.
Implement robust debugging, diagnostics, logging, and monitoring capabilities to improve software quality and maintainability.
Ensure software releases meet quality, performance, and reliability requirements.
Diagnose and resolve complex software defects, manufacturing issues, equipment integration problems, and customer escalations.
Lead root cause investigations involving software, hardware, and system interactions.
Implement corrective and preventive actions that improve system stability and operational performance.
Contribute to CI/CD pipelines, source control strategies, automated builds, deployment processes, and release management practices.
Drive continuous improvement initiatives focused on software efficiency, development velocity, maintainability, and quality.
Champion modern software engineering practices across the development organization.
Serve as a technical expert and mentor for software engineers and cross-functional development teams.
Lead technical reviews, architecture discussions, and complex engineering investigations.
Collaborate with Product Management, Systems Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, and Customer Support teams to deliver business-critical solutions.
Influence long-term technology strategies and software platform roadmaps.