Sr Principal Technical Support Engineer

FormFactor Inc.•USA - Remote - CA (Outside Bay Area), CA

3d•$122,600 - $160,965

About The Position

The Sr Principal Technical Support Engineer for Probe Cards provides expert-level technical support for FormFactor’s advanced probe card products used in semiconductor wafer testing. This role is a key interface among customers, product engineering, manufacturing, and field service teams, ensuring optimal performance, prompt issue resolution, and continuous product improvement. The position calls for deep knowledge of semiconductor test processes and probe card technology, together with strong customer engagement skills. Hands-on mechanical ability and wafer prober operation skills are desirable for occasional onsite customer support. Mandarin or Korean language ability is a plus. The role supports customers in production environments, investigates and resolves electrical, mechanical, and process-related performance issues, and performs root cause analysis using ATE data, electrical measurements, microscopy, and inspection tools. It also develops expertise in FormFactor probe technologies and provides guidance on probe card setup, optimization, alignment, maintenance, and cleaning. The engineer supports new product introductions and customer qualifications, collaborates across engineering, manufacturing, and field service, and provides onsite or remote customer troubleshooting and training as needed. The position analyzes wafer-test datasets, prepares technical reports and dashboards, and tracks metrics including contact resistance, probe-card-attributable yield loss, and mean time between failures. Minimum experience is 8 years with a bachelor’s degree, 6 years with a master’s degree, 3 years with a PhD, or equivalent experience. The listed annual pay range for Sacramento, California is $122,600 to $160,965, depending on experience, skills, and background. The company offers a full benefits package and quarterly profit-sharing bonuses.

Requirements

At least 8 years of related experience with a bachelor’s degree, 6 years with a master’s degree, 3 years with a PhD, or equivalent experience.
Knowledge of semiconductor test processes and probe card technology.
Skills in analytical analysis, communication, customer focus, data analysis tools, debugging, electrical measurements, problem solving, semiconductors, wafer probing, and wafer sort.
Ability to work in a clean-room environment and a fast-paced environment.
Experience or skill with probe cards, probe stations, Microsoft Office, and data analysis tools.

Nice To Haves

Experience with FormFactor probe cards or similar technologies.
Knowledge of advanced nodes, such as FinFET and 5nm/3nm processes.
Experience supporting high-volume manufacturing.
Familiarity with yield engineering and test optimization.
Prior field application or customer-facing experience.
Automatic wafer prober user experience.
Hands-on mechanical assembly and electrical debug experience.
Mandarin Chinese or Korean language ability.

Responsibilities

Provide technical support for probe card products in production environments.
Diagnose and resolve electrical, mechanical, and process-related issues that affect probe card performance.
Support customers with yield excursions, electrical continuity issues, contact problems—including MEMS probe alignment, wear, and contamination—and parametric anomalies during wafer sort.
Serve as a primary escalation point for complex technical issues.
Perform root cause analysis of probe card failures using ATE data, electrical measurements, microscopy, and inspection tools.
Interpret wafer sort data to identify probe-related anomalies and collaborate with the failure analysis lab on corrective actions.
Develop expertise in FormFactor probe technologies, including MEMS, cantilever, and vertical probes.
Guide customers on probe card setup and optimization, overdrive, contact force, cleaning cycles, alignment procedures, and maintenance practices.
Support new product introductions and customer qualifications.
Collaborate with product engineering, manufacturing, and field service teams on design improvements, process feedback, yield learning, and onsite troubleshooting.
Drive corrective and preventive actions and participate in engineering change requests and engineering change orders.
Provide onsite support at customer fabs and OSATs when required.
Conduct technical reviews and troubleshooting sessions with customers.
Deliver training on probe card operation, maintenance, and best practices.
Analyze wafer-test datasets to identify trends and issues.
Create technical reports, dashboards, and failure summaries.
Track contact resistance, probe-card-attributable yield loss, and mean time between failures.