Sr. Software Engineer (Instrument Control SW, Image Processing, Image Computing)

Company Overview

KLA is a global leader in diversified electronics for the semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem. Virtually every electronic device in the world is produced using our technologies. No laptop, smartphone, wearable device, voice-controlled gadget, flexible screen, VR device or smart car would have made it into your hands without us. KLA invents systems and solutions for the manufacturing of wafers and reticles, integrated circuits, packaging, printed circuit boards and flat panel displays. The innovative ideas and devices that are advancing humanity all begin with inspiration, research and development. KLA focuses more than average on innovation and we invest 15% of sales back into R&D. Our expert teams of physicists, engineers, data scientists and problem-solvers work together with the world’s leading technology providers to accelerate the delivery of tomorrow’s electronic devices. Life here is exciting and our teams thrive on tackling really hard problems. There is never a dull moment with us.

Group/Division

With over 40 years of semiconductor process control experience, chipmakers around the globe rely on KLA to ensure that their fabs ramp next-generation devices to volume production quickly and cost-effectively. Enabling the movement towards advanced chip design, KLA's Global Products Group (GPG), which is responsible for creating all of KLA’s metrology and inspection products, is looking for the best and the brightest research scientist, software engineers, application development engineers, and senior product technology process engineers. The Broadband Plasma Division (BBP) provides market-leading patterned wafer optical inspection systems for leading-edge IC manufacturing. Logic, foundry, and memory customers depend on BBP products to detect yield-critical defects for process debug and excursion monitoring at advanced process nodes. BBP flagship products include the 29xx and 39xx series which leverage Broadband Plasma technology to capture a wide range of defects with ultimate sensitivity at the optical inspection speeds needed for inline defect monitoring.

Job Description/Preferred Qualifications

What you will be doing:

KLA makes industrial systems that are indispensable for manufacturing of semiconductors.  These systems involve complex hardware, firmware, software, and high-performance compute.

The Systems Software Engineer position we are trying to fill is a core function of software engineering at KLA and has the responsibility for controlling various pieces of hardware that form our system as well as coordinating between them. As a senior member of the team a successful candidate will be expected to 1.) Develop a deep understanding of the system and software architecture. 2.) Mentoring junior team members. 3.) Work with cross-functional teams to develop software for our industry leading inspection products.

Successful candidates will have very strong software engineering skills and will be responsible for software development and maintenance of on-tool, back-end software. The software shall be deployed on sophisticated equipment deployed in the production of cutting-edge semiconductor chips.  The software will be responsible for functions such as control of the machine, as well as diagnostics and calibrations. 

You will be a good fit if you 

• Have domain knowledge in one of the following areas: Instrument Control SW (Robotics, Optics, MEMS), Image Processing, Image Computing. 

• Have demonstrated experience building highly scalable software systems. 

• Have deep conceptual understanding of multi-threaded, multi process and distributed software systems. 

• Previous technical lead experience is a required. 

Essential Skills: 

• Mentor and grow junior engineers from the standpoint of quality of design as well as delivered code. 

• Object Oriented Design & Programing in Java, C# or C++ 

• Distributed systems 

• Scripting languages like Python 

• Data Structures and algorithms 

• Interface protocols for cross language software (example: CORBA, Apache Thrift, gRPC) 

• Asynch programming in Java, C++ or C+ 

Responsibilities:

• Candidate will be responsible for the design, development, testing and roll out of software solutions that enhance the capabilities of the KLA inspection machines. 

• Candidate must possess good communication skills to work with several hardware and softw