Software Engineering Manager (semiconductor/capital equipment)

KLA•Milpitas, CA

8d•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 RAPID division leads the industry in reticle inspection solutions, helping ensure high lithography yields and cost-effective semiconductor manufacturing. Its systems support both mask shops and fabs by detecting defects early in the process, enabling faster, more reliable production. In this role, you will play a key part in advancing business priorities by delivering high-impact work across your area of expertise. We are seeking an experienced and motivated Software Engineering Manager to lead the Diagnostics & Calibration software team for EUV actinic reticle inspection systems. This role will be responsible for technical leadership, people management, and delivery execution for software that diagnoses and calibrates KLA’s reticle inspection platforms. We are looking for a leader who is energized by problems that are one of a kind and is not afraid to push the limits of creativity. If you are someone who will leverage the current wave of AI and motivate the team to spin up a proof-of-concept over a weekend because you are curious, this role is for you. You will partner closely with physicists, hardware engineers, system teams, and global software organizations to translate complex system-level requirements into robust, scalable diagnostic and calibration solutions. This is a hands-on leadership role ideal for a manager who enjoys growing teams while remaining technically engaged.

Requirements

Multidisciplinary background in either Physical science, Computer science, Microscopy, Optics, or relevant fields with either a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in relevant field.
8+ years of software development experience, with 2+ years in a technical leadership or engineering management role.
Strong background in system-level software development involving hardware-software interaction.
Familiarity with using AI tools for SW development (e.g. Devin, Codex)
Familiarity with building applications using LLMs / generative AI and agentic frameworks, and integrate them into engineering workflows.
Familiarity with CI/CD tools and practices (e.g., Git, Jenkins, GitLab CI, or Azure DevOps)
Proficiency programming languages such as Python, C++, or C#.
Experience developing medium to large-scale software applications in multi-developer environments.
Demonstrated ability to translate user needs and system requirements into technical specifications and executable plans.
Strong problem-solving skills with experience diagnosing and resolving complex system-level issues.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills in globally distributed teams.
Self-motivated leader with a strong sense of ownership and accountability.

Nice To Haves

Experience in diagnostics, calibration, machine control, inspection, or metrology systems.
Familiarity with computer vision, image processing, or image analysis techniques.
Proficiency in LabVIEW (object-oriented design preferred)
Hands-on experience in semi-capital equipment (semi-CAPEX) product environments.

Responsibilities

Lead, and grow a high-performing Diagnostics & Calibration software team.
Provide technical leadership and architectural oversight for multi-language software systems.
Learn and understand existing diagnostics and calibration software architecture, and guide development to meet program goals.
Lead exploration and application of AI/ML and generative-AI techniques — LLMs, agents, and automation — to build applications and internal tools that improve diagnostics, calibration, developer productivity, and data analysis.
Translate system-level and user requirements into clear technical direction, software design, and execution plans.
Drive design excellence to improve software reliability, maintainability, performance, and scalability.
Partner cross-functionally with hardware, subsystem, system, manufacturing, and service teams to deliver integrated solutions.
Lead design reviews, code reviews, and development best practices across the team.
Own delivery commitments including planning, execution tracking, and risk management.
Experience and familiarity with industry standard CI/CD pipelines and workflows to support reliable and efficient release of software.
Support root-cause analysis of complex system-level issues and guide the team toward effective, sustainable solutions.
Travel occasionally to global sites and customer locations to support integration, bring-up, and deployment activities (10–20%).