Sr Principal Technical Support Engineer

FormFactor Inc.•Livermore, CA

1d•$136,200 - $178,815•Onsite

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 serves as a key interface between customers, product engineering, manufacturing, and field service teams to ensure optimal performance, fast issue resolution, and continuous product improvement. The ideal candidate combines deep knowledge of semiconductor test processes, probe card technology, and strong customer engagement skills. Hands-on mechanical ability and wafer prober operation skills for occasional on-site customer support is highly desirable. Ability to speak Mandarin or Korean is a plus.

Requirements

Minimum of 8 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 6 years and a Master’s degree; or a PhD with 3 years experience; or equivalent experience
Analytical Analysis
Clean Room Environment
Communication
Customer-Focused
Data Analysis Tools
Debugging
Electrical Measurements
Korean Language
Mandarin Chinese Language
Microsoft Office
Probe Cards
Probe Stations
Problem Solving
Semiconductors
Wafer Probing
Wafer Sort
Working in a Fast-Paced Environment

Nice To Haves

Hands-on mechanical ability and wafer prober operation skills for occasional on-site customer support is highly desirable.
Ability to speak Mandarin or Korean is a plus.
Experience with FormFactor probe cards or similar technologies.
Knowledge of advanced nodes (e.g., FinFET, 5nm/3nm processes).
Experience supporting high-volume manufacturing (HVM).
Familiarity with yield engineering and test optimization.
Prior field application or customer-facing experience.
Automatic Wafer Prober user experience.
Hands-on mechanical assembly / electrical debug experience.

Responsibilities

Provide technical support for probe card products in production environments
Diagnose and resolve electrical, mechanical, and process-related issues impacting probe card performance
Support customers having Yield excursions, Electrical continuity issues, Contact problems (MEMS probe alignment, wear, contamination), and Parametric anomalies during wafer sort.
Act as primary escalation points for complex technical issues.
Perform root cause analysis (RCA) on probe card failures using: ATE (Automated Test Equipment) data, Electrical measurements, Microscopy and inspection tools.
Interpret wafer sort data to identify probe-related anomalies.
Collaborate with FA lab to drive corrective actions.
Develop deep expertise in FormFactor probe technologies (e.g., MEMS, cantilever, vertical probes).
Provide guidance on: Probe card setup and optimization, Overdrive, contact force, and cleaning cycles, and Alignment procedures and maintenance practices.
Support new product introductions (NPI) and customer qualifications.
Work closely with Product engineering (design improvements), Manufacturing (process feedback, yield learning), and Field service teams (onsite troubleshooting).
Drive corrective and preventive actions (CAPA).
Participate in engineering change requests (ECR/ECO).
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 large datasets from wafer test systems to identify trends and issues
Create detailed technical reports, dashboards, and failure summaries
Track key metrics such as Contact resistance, Yield loss attributable to probe cards, and MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures).