About this opportunity
Original employer descriptionTo make electronics, you need chips, wafers, transistors, reticles, and... To make these, you must see, test and manufacture them at scale—faster and better than ever before. That's where KLA comes in. Whether you're early in your career or an experienced professional, you'll solve complex challenges, work alongside brilliant minds and help shape the future of technology.
Group/Division
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. KLA's Central Engineering organization is made up of nine Centers of Excellence (CoEs) spanning disciplines like automation, motion control, sensors, platform design, and packaging. Each CoE contributes not only technical deliverables but also deep expertise, best practices, and advanced tools that elevate both what we build—and how we build it.
What You'll Do
In this role, you will play a key part in advancing business priorities by delivering high-impact work across your area of expertise.
Job Responsibilities
- Lead optical system architecture, design, simulation, integration and performance optimization for advanced precision optical/metrology systems.
- Perform both sequential and non-sequential optical simulation, including imaging, Gaussian beam propagation, tolerance, ghost and stray-light analysis.
- Conduct system-level stray-light analysis and mitigation, including reflection, scattering, ghost paths, baffle/aperture design and coating optimization.
- Analyze and select critical optical components, including lasers, fibers, objectives, lenses, filters, beam splitters, polarization optics, AOM/EOM and detectors.
- Perform tolerance and sensitivity analysis and translate system performance requirements into optical component specifications.
- Lead optical alignment, system integration, verification and root-cause analysis.
- Correlate optical simulation with experimental/system-level performance and drive continuous design optimization.
- Collaborate with system, mechanical, electrical, software, algorithm, manufacturing and supplier teams through NPI and product lifecycle.
Qualifications
- MS or PhD in Optical Engineering, Photonics, Applied Physics or a related field preferred.
- Strong background in geometrical optics, Gaussian optics, Fourier optics, physical optics, polarization and laser optics.
- Expert-level experience with Zemax OpticStudio or equivalent optical simulation tools.
- Strong hands-on experience with both Sequential and Non-sequential modeling.
- Demonstrated experience in stray-light/ghost analysis and mitigation.
- Strong capability in optical tolerance, sensitivity and system-level performance analysis.
- Experience with lasers, AOM/EOM, fiber optics, objectives, detectors and optical coatings is highly preferred.
- Strong hands-on optical alignment, experimental troubleshooting and root-cause-analysis capability.
- Experience in semiconductor metrology/inspection, precision instrumentation or laser-based measurement systems is highly preferred.
Minimum Qualifications
About KLA
We provide advanced inspection tools, metrology systems, process solutions, and computational analytics that make electronics possible, tackling complex challenges. From electron and photon optics to machine learning and data analytics, we seek perfection at the most fundamental level of matter in the universe. If you want to make electronics that push industries forward and make the world a better place, join us.
Use of AI Statement
At KLA, our interviews seek to understand your individual skills, problem-solving approach and authentic thinking. To ensure a fair and consistent evaluation, the use of AI, recording tools or other technologies to generate, suggest or provide responses during interviews—whether virtual or in person—is not permitted unless explicitly approved in advance as part of a reasonable accommodation or invited by the interviewer. Use of these tools may interfere with our ability to evaluate your individual qualifications and affect your candidacy. KLA is committed to advancing innovation through responsible AI, and we value candidates who share this mindset.
We offer a competitive, family friendly total rewards package. We design our programs to reflect our commitment to an inclusive environment, while ensuring we provide benefits that meet the diverse needs of our employees.
KLA is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.