System Design Engineer (Semiconductor Equipment)

Location: Milpitas, California, USA; onsite work on semiconductor inspection and metrology equipment in lab and fab-like environments.

Base pay: $136,300–$231,700 annually.

Company

hirify.global develops metrology, inspection, and process-control systems for the semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem.

What you will do

• Perform hands-on lab and system-level testing of optical, mechanical, and electromechanical inspection and metrology subsystems.
• Troubleshoot optics, interferometers, vibration sensitivity, precision motion stages, actuators, electronics, sensors, and control interfaces.
• Design, execute, and document validation, characterization, and reliability tests at component, subsystem, and system levels.
• Lead root-cause investigations using field data, laboratory data, physical inspection, experimentation, and sensor logs; develop and validate corrective actions.
• Support sustaining engineering, field issue resolution, product qualification, and incremental hardware, firmware, or configuration changes.
• Collaborate with design, manufacturing, service, quality, and supplier teams and prepare technical documentation, test reports, and engineering recommendations.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD in Optical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a closely related technical field.
• Relevant hands-on experience based on degree: PhD with 0–2 years, MS with 2–4 years, or BS with 4–6 years.
• Hands-on laboratory experience supporting complex hardware systems and demonstrated ability to troubleshoot and root-cause physical-system issues beyond modeling or simulation.
• Working knowledge of one or more of optical systems and interferometry; precision vibration measurement, transmission, or mitigation; semiconductor manufacturing or capital equipment; precision motion control systems; or electronics, sensors, and hardware interfaces.
• Ability to independently plan and execute experiments, testing, and validation activities.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including clear documentation of test results and technical findings.
• Expected to act as the group’s technical lead and demonstrate the leadership, communication, and organizational skills needed to build and develop a high-performing engineering team.

Nice to have

• Experience with semiconductor inspection, metrology, or lithography-adjacent equipment.
• Familiarity with vibration metrics, environmental specifications, or facility interaction effects.
• Experience supporting sustaining or installed-base products, including field issue resolution.
• Comfort working directly on tools in a laboratory or fab-like environment.
• Experience collaborating with manufacturing, service, or supplier engineering teams.
• Exposure to MATLAB, Python, or equivalent tools for test-data analysis.

Culture & Benefits

• Hands-on engineering work with live hardware and complex high-precision systems.
• Cross-functional collaboration with design, manufacturing, service, quality, and suppliers.
• Potential progression into formal people management for a small engineering team as the organization grows.
• Benefits may include medical, dental, vision, life insurance, 401(k) matching, ESPP, tuition reimbursement, career development, paid time off, company holidays, and family care leave.