Senior Manager, Software Engineering

Onto Innovation•Wilmington, MA

1d•$144,000 - $216,000

About The Position

The Senior Engineering Manager, NPD Software will lead a high-performing software engineering organization responsible for delivering new product development capabilities for semiconductor capital equipment platforms. This role is accountable for software strategy, execution, quality, architecture alignment, and cross-functional delivery across complex inspection, metrology, automation, data acquisition, image processing, system control, and customer-facing workflow software. The ideal candidate combines deep software engineering leadership with strong semiconductor equipment domain knowledge, including tool control, factory automation, hardware/software integration, reliability, serviceability, and disciplined productization of advanced technology from concept through release.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Physics, or a related technical discipline.
10+ years of professional software engineering experience, including significant experience delivering complex, instrument-control, automation, embedded, distributed, or high-performance software systems.
5+ years of engineering management experience leading software teams through new product development, release execution, and cross-functional delivery.
Demonstrated experience managing software for semiconductor capital equipment, industrial automation, scientific instrumentation, robotics, metrology, inspection, or similarly complex cyber-physical systems.
Strong understanding of software development lifecycle practices, including architecture, requirements management, design reviews, code reviews, test strategy, defect triage, release governance, and sustaining handoff.
Experience leading global or distributed teams and coordinating execution across multiple engineering functions, time zones, and product stakeholders.
Ability to translate business and product objectives into executable technical plans, measurable deliverables, and clear engineering priorities.
Excellent communication, decision-making, organizational, and stakeholder-management skills.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in a relevant engineering or technical field.
Experience with semiconductor inspection, metrology, wafer handling, recipe management, factory automation, or SECS/GEM, equipment diagnostics.
Background in C++, C#, .NET, Python, Windows/Linux systems, real-time control, distributed systems, image/data processing pipelines, databases, or equipment user-interface software.
Experience with Agile, hybrid Agile, or phase-gate NPD execution models in a regulated or high-reliability product environment.
Familiarity with software quality metrics, reliability growth, cybersecurity practices, static analysis, automated regression testing, and release-readiness dashboards.
Experience supporting customer escalations, factory acceptance, system qualification, and field introduction of complex equipment platforms.
Demonstrated ability to modernize legacy software platforms while balancing near-term delivery commitments and long-term architectural health.

Responsibilities

Lead the NPD software team through the full product development lifecycle, from requirements definition and architecture through implementation, verification, release, field introduction, and sustaining transition.
Own software execution for new product programs, ensuring predictable delivery against scope, schedule, quality, reliability, and customer commitments.
Partner with systems engineering, hardware engineering, optics, algorithms, applications, product management, manufacturing, service, and program management to define integrated software solutions for complex semiconductor capital equipment.
Drive software architecture, design reviews, code quality, technical debt reduction, cybersecurity readiness, scalability, maintainability, and long-term platform reuse.
Ensure robust hardware/software integration for motion control, sensors, detectors, image acquisition, data pipelines, recipe execution, diagnostics, calibration, and equipment automation workflows.
Establish engineering discipline around requirements traceability, defect management, configuration management, CI/CD, automated test, release readiness, and change control.
Lead root-cause analysis and corrective actions for complex software, system integration, and customer escalation issues during NPD and early field adoption.
Build, mentor, and retain a high-performing global engineering team, including technical leads, software developers, test engineers, and integration contributors.
Develop staffing plans, capability roadmaps, succession plans, and skill-development strategies aligned to product roadmap and business priorities.
Communicate program status, risks, tradeoffs, technical decisions, and recovery plans clearly to senior leadership and cross-functional stakeholders.