Senior Design Engineer (Semiconductor Machinery Hardware)

Location: Los Angeles, California; based in Hawthorne with full-time onsite presence required five days a week. Relocation assistance is provided.

Salary: $150,000–$200,000 per year, plus stock options.

Company

Develops AI-native manufacturing systems that integrate software, hardware, and physics to produce industrial-scale parts.

What you will do

• Design and redesign semiconductor machinery hardware, including wafer-handling systems, robotic end-effectors, vacuum armatures, cold plates, UHV chambers, gas manifolds, optics mounts, pedestals, and showerhead assemblies.
• Develop component-level understanding of requirements, performance drivers, and system constraints within semiconductor fabrication equipment.
• Lead first-principles redesigns that use additive manufacturing to enable new geometries, consolidate assemblies, improve performance, and reduce cost and lead time.
• Define and evaluate concepts based on materials, tolerances, thermal and structural behavior, manufacturability, qualification, and production scalability.
• Serve as a senior technical resource, resolve advanced design and process questions, and mentor less experienced engineers.
• Collaborate with internal engineering, operations, and customer engineering teams while shaping product, process, and technology roadmaps.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering or a closely related technical discipline.
• At least 5 years of hands-on engineering experience in the semiconductor equipment or fabrication industry.
• Experience leading complex hardware programs from concept through qualification and production.
• Expertise in part design, design for manufacturing, component geometry, performance, and producibility.
• Deep systems-level understanding of semiconductor fabrication hardware and component interactions within larger assemblies.
• Ability to work onsite in Hawthorne five days per week.

Nice to have

• 10+ years of experience in semiconductor equipment or fabrication engineering.
• Experience with wafer handling, vacuum hardware, thermal management, fluid delivery, or precision structural assemblies.
• Familiarity with additive manufacturing, casting, forging, or advanced machining.
• Experience mentoring engineers and providing technical direction.
• Strong communication, first-principles reasoning, strategic thinking, and decision-making in ambiguous environments.

Culture & Benefits

• Inclusive, diverse, collaborative, learning-oriented, and data-driven work environment.
• Significant stock option package and employer-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Life insurance, traditional and Roth 401(k), paid vacation, sick leave, company holidays, and paid parental leave.
• Relocation assistance, catered daily meals, stocked kitchenette, flexible work hours, and regular team-building events.
• Opportunity to join a rapidly growing company as an early contributor to its manufacturing technology.