Director, Optical Engineering

Who We Are

Applied Materials is a global leader in materials engineering solutions used to produce virtually every new chip and advanced display in the world. We design, build and service cutting-edge equipment that helps our customers manufacture display and semiconductor chips – the brains of devices we use every day. As the foundation of the global electronics industry, Applied enables the exciting technologies that literally connect our world – like AI and IoT. If you want to push the boundaries of materials science and engineering to create next generation technology, join us to deliver material innovation that changes the world. 

What We Offer

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You’ll benefit from a supportive work culture that encourages you to learn, develop, and grow your career as you take on challenges and drive innovative solutions for our customers. We empower our team to push the boundaries of what is possible—while learning every day in a supportive leading global company. Visit our Careers website to learn more. 

At Applied Materials, we care about the health and wellbeing of our employees. We’re committed to providing programs and support that encourage personal and professional growth and care for you at work, at home, or wherever you may go. Learn more about our benefits. 

Key Responsibilities

The Optical Engineering Director – Imagine and Process Control Group (IPC) will own technically leadership and/or execution of engineering projects and spearhead research and development of new technologies as appropriate. This person will lead an Engineering team, and partner will business leaders on new and existing products/projects.

• Managing a team of Optical Engineers across multiple programs

• Lead and/or develop and execute significantly complex system projects. Oversees and approves designs in team design reviews. Takes active part in the design of complex modules / sub-modules. Approve qualification results of complex modules

• Defines experiments and determines the type of meaningful data required to support evaluation and technical decision

• Problem identification and troubleshooting a wide range of significantly complex problems. Oversees and approves research and analysis results. Supports high level / complex physics related application and system issues in the lab and in the field when required.

• Function as specialist for physics/scientists issues, while influencing and utilizing expertise in interfacing with external and internal customers, lead and/or develop and execute system projects, troubleshooting system problems, and defining system specifications and schedules.  Regularly interacts with senior managers on matters involving several functional areas, departments or customers concerning projects, operations and schedules. Interactions require the ability to change thinking or gain the acceptance of others in sensitive situations. Reviews and approves system and sub-system requirements and specifications designed by other team members.

• Apply advanced principles, theories, and concepts. Contributes to the development of new principles and concepts. Takes an active part in product risk management discussions leveraging his / her expertise and knowledge to influence and drive risk management decisions. Works with marketing to define tool specification and performance.

• Initiates innovative physics/science projects, which extend boundaries of system performance or techno. Leads the selection and management of strategic vendors. Maintains relationships with outside customers of innovation, Universities, Consortia. Leads technological customer engagements driving innovation & development. Meets high level executives on the customer side effecting customer decision making 

• Provide mentoring for less experienced physicist/scientists.

• Research new technologies and analyze competition technology. Evaluate new technologies. Plan and execute complex feasibility studies of new technologies and lead the decision-making process. Prepare and deliver papers regarding new technologies, share and promote new ideas and capabilities. Plans and executes feasibility studies of complete systems / sub-systems, leveraging new technologies and design concepts. Leads the demonstration of new capabilities and drives the decision-making process 

At Applied Materials, Make Possible® is about unlocking new opportunities – with our customers and within our own company.

The ideal candidate will have the following:

• 20+ years of experience within the optical design engineering field (including 8+ yrs leading Engineering teams) for the development of high-performance optical systems used in the semiconductor industry.

• Experience leading teams in all aspects of the design cycle from specification development, design, supplier support, part verification, and integration. 

• Provide support for system alignment procedures and tooling development.

• Experience developing optical systems and have experience working in a product development environment. 

• Regarded as the technical expert in their particular field

• Demonstrates in-depth and/or breadth of expertise in own discipline and broad knowledge of other disciplines within the function

• Responsible for the development of major optical subsystems.  Work with system engineers to develop design specifications and trade-offs between sub-systems.

• Collaborate and communicate with suppliers during design of critical optical sub-assemblies.

• Evaluate and analyze optical systems.  Understand performance limits and manufacturability.

• Develop alignment strategies and tooling.

• Develop and maintain error budgets and define subsystem level requirements to be characterized and validated during the system alpha testing phase for current and future products.

• Use customer and system requirements to derive design specifications for subsystems, modules, and components and provide input to design engineers throughout the design process.

We are a catalyst to unlock the power of our customers’ ideas and are committed to overcoming challenges that seem insurmountable.

To succeed in this role requires a capacity for complexity and temperament that includes:

• A very mature individual with the right balance of confidence and humility.

• Exceptional ability to absorb and handle stress.

• Process oriented while also strongly developing and relying on interpersonal relationships across the company

• Ability to connect equally well upwards, downwards and sideways in the organization

• Self-motivated and driven towards excellence

• A high level of EQ to be able to manage across a large team with significant diversity

• An inspiring leader

• Very strong ability to translate multi-dimensional market requirements into engineering specifications. This would also include negotiating with the various stakeholders.

• Analyzing, processing and decision-making based on multidisciplinary and multi-functional data sources that could frequently be incomplete.

• Ability to distinguish between and prioritizing urgent and important issues

• Situational awareness and complex decision-making ability appropriate for the situation

Additional Information

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The salary offered to a selected candidate will be based on multiple factors including location, hire grade, job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and with consideration of internal equity of our current team members. In addition to a comprehensive benefits package, candidates may be eligible for other forms of compensation such as participation in a bonus and a stock award program, as applicable.

For all sales roles, the posted salary range is the Target Total Cash (TTC) range for the role, which is the sum of base salary and target bonus amount at 100% goal achievement.

Applied Materials is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, citizenship, ancestry, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law.

In addition, Applied endeavors to make our careers site accessible to all users. If you would like to contact us regarding accessibility of our website or need assistance completing the application process, please contact us via e-mail at [email protected], or by calling our HR Direct Help Line at 877-612-7547, option 1, and following the prompts to speak to an HR Advisor. This contact is for accommodation requests only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications.