Senior Engineer - Surface Chemist

Seagate Technology•Bloomington, MN

3d•$92,310 - $131,997•Onsite

About The Position

At Seagate, the Advanced Transducer Development group is a global R&D organization focused on developing new recording head technologies to advance areal density and support Seagate’s HDD product roadmap. This process team utilizes state-of-the-art wafer fabrication tools and cleanroom facilities to innovate and deliver leading-edge writers and read sensors. The role emphasizes proving the feasibility of new devices, processes, and materials to contribute to Seagate’s future time-to-market leadership. This position is ideal for individuals excited by innovative technology development, who are naturally creative and passionate about bringing ideas to life.

Requirements

Strong hands-on experience and in-depth understanding of surface and interface science, including wet-etching, corrosion, and surface modification, such as controlled hydrophobicity, activation, oxidation, materials compatibility, etc.
Expertise in thin film, surface, interface, and chemical characterization techniques (e.g. AFM, XPS, contact angle, IR-spectroscopy, SEM, (S)TEM, TDTR, ICPMS etc).
PhD degree in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, Electrical Engineering, or related science and engineering fields with 0-2 years of direct industry experience or MS degree in same with 5+ years of industry experience.
Self-motivated, intellectually curious, able to work independently and have a strong attention to detail.
Honest and respectful team player, capable of working in strong partnership with a diverse global group of engineers and technicians.
Well-organized multitasker, able to balance day-to-day wafer processing needs with longer-term development work.
Maintain thorough documentation of results and can clearly present and discuss them with other staff members in engineering and management forums.
Track record of innovation and regularly use outside sources (journals, patents, university projects and conferences) to inspire new ideas and directions.
Able and eager to work in a mix of clean room and laboratory environments.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with nanoscale device fabrication, associated wafer process and measurement systems, as well as platforms to model, simulate, or visualize formed devices.
Experience with analytical or physics-based modeling of surface, interface, chemical, or mechanical phenomena to support process development and root-cause investigation.
Knowledge of standard statistical experimentation methods including hypothesis testing, DOE design and analysis and ANOVA. Familiarity with JMP or R preferred but not essential.

Responsibilities

Develop novel, robust, and manufacturable chemical processing methods to integrate novel metal and dielectric thin film structures into nanometer-scale head devices.
Investigate wet etch, surface preparation, and interface chemical processing techniques to engineer robust metal-dielectric interfaces and ensure stable and predictable operation of new materials under device operating conditions.
Perform chemical, materials, and surface characterization to understand reaction mechanisms, adhesion behavior, device compatibility, and performance.
Collaborate with unit process owners (lithography, deposition, etch, wet process, metrology) to achieve prototype device wafer build flows capable of meeting design intent.
Help assess the impact of new chemical processes on downstream head performance.
Partner with wafer capital equipment suppliers to define hardware paths needed for novel chemical processing and surface characterization capability and manufacturability.
Participate in technology transfers to the product development engineering team.
Contribute to Seagate’s IP portfolio in the form of invention disclosures, patents, trade secrets, peer-reviewed journal articles, and/or white papers.