Principal Process Engineer - Thin Film

Company Description

At Western Digital, our vision is to power global innovation and push the boundaries of technology to make what you thought was once impossible, possible.

At our core, Western Digital is a company of problem solvers. People achieve extraordinary things given the right technology. For decades, we’ve been doing just that—our technology helped people put a man on the moon and capture the first-ever picture of a black hole.

We offer an expansive portfolio of technologies, HDDs, and platforms for business, creative professionals, and consumers alike under our Western Digital®, WD®, WD_BLACK™, and SanDisk® Professional brands.

We are a key partner to some of the largest and highest-growth organizations in the world. From enabling systems to make cities safer and more connected, to powering the data centers behind many of the world’s biggest companies and hyperscale cloud providers, to meeting the massive and ever-growing data storage needs of the AI era, Western Digital is fueling a brighter, smarter future.

Today’s exceptional challenges require your unique skills. Together, we can build the future of data storage.

Job Description

We are seeking a highly motivated candidate to join our thin film process group.  In this role, the candidate will work as a Thin Film Process Engineer at WD’s wafer fab in Fremont, CA.  The candidate will support the thin film deposition processes in manufacture lines in order to meet manufacturing objectives with high quality, high productive and low-cost products, as well as support the development of future generation products.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Support thin film processes of fab production line to deliver wafers with good quality and meet the demand.
• Develop and optimize process control methods and procedures to guarantee the quality and prevent damage excursion. 
• Improve processes to achieve lower variation, less cycle time, higher throughput, minimal defects, lower cost of ownership and overall higher yield.
• Perform wafer failure analysis, troubleshooting, and implement corrective and preventive actions.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to transfer new products to production.
• Lead project execution to deliver the results on schedule. 
• Set up and improve automation systems, and working instruction documents. Provide the training instruction to the operators.
• Support fab production 24/7, including taking immediate action with fab issues.

Qualifications

Required:

• Academic background in Material Science, Physics, Chemistry, or related engineering fields
• Experience of wafer fab operations/processes in Data Storage and/or Semiconductor technology industries

• Familiar with thin film deposition processes (PVD, CVD, IBD, etc), and equipment.  Solid background on correlation of process and equipment hardware
• Deep understanding of material characterization techniques.
• Knowledge of DOE and data analysis using JMP
• Understanding of SPC.

Preferred:

• Knowledge of Magnetic material process and characterization is a plus.

Skills:

• Trouble shooting and problem solving skills
• Leadership and communication skills
• Team player
• Being self-motivated with good project management skills

Additional Information

Western Digital is committed to providing equal opportunities to all applicants and employees and will not discriminate against any applicant or employee based on their race, color, ancestry, religion (including religious dress and grooming standards), sex (including pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, breastfeeding or related medical conditions), gender (including a person’s gender identity, gender expression, and gender-related appearance and behavior, whether or not stereotypically associated with the person’s assigned sex at birth), age, national origin, sexual orientation, medical condition, marital status (including domestic partnership status), physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, protected medical and family care leave, Civil Air Patrol status, military and veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics. We also prohibit harassment of any individual on any of the characteristics listed above. Our non-discrimination policy applies to all aspects of employment. We comply with the laws and regulations set forth in the "Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal” poster. Our pay transparency policy is available here.