Process Engineer III

Job Summary

The Process Engineer III is responsible for developing, optimizing, and validating advanced plasma processes and hardware. This role requires expertise in plasma physics, chemistry, and material interactions, and collaboration with cross-functional teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and optimize plasma processes to meet performance, quality, and manufacturability objectives.
• Apply advanced knowledge of plasma physics, chemistry, and material interactions to solve complex technical challenges.
• Design, develop, and evaluate plasma hardware, including plasma sources, microwave and RF power delivery systems, gas delivery components, magnetic field configurations, and chamber hardware.
• Perform plasma diagnostics and experimental characterization using techniques such as Langmuir probes, optical emission spectroscopy (OES), VI probes, mass spectrometry, FTIR or other diagnostic tools.
• Utilize plasma simulation and modeling tools to predict plasma behavior, optimize reactor designs, and correlate simulation results with experimental data.
• Design and execute statistically sound experiments (DOE), analyze process data, and develop engineering models to improve plasma performance.
• Troubleshoot plasma process and hardware issues through systematic root cause analysis and corrective actions.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including product engineering, systems engineering, manufacturing, and reliability engineering to transition new technologies into production.
• Develop technical documentation, engineering reports, design specifications, and operating procedures.
• Present technical findings to engineering leadership, customers, and cross-functional teams.
• Mentor junior engineers and provide technical leadership on plasma-related projects.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Physics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, or a related technical field.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in plasma process development, plasma hardware development, or related engineering disciplines.
• Strong fundamental understanding of: Plasma physics, plasma chemistry, plasma-material interactions, RF and microwave plasma generation and power coupling, gas-phase kinetics and transport phenomena.
• Experience with plasma simulation tools (e.g., COMSOL Multiphysics, VSim, CFD-ACE+, ANSYS, or equivalent) and correlation of simulation results with experimental data.
• Hands-on experience designing and conducting plasma experiments and interpreting diagnostic data.
• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and data analysis skills.
• Experience using Design of Experiments (DOE) methodologies and statistical analysis.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s or Ph.D. in Plasma Physics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, or a related field.
• Experience in semiconductor equipment, vacuum systems, thin-film processing, etch, deposition, surface treatment, or advanced plasma applications.
• Knowledge of RF matching networks, microwave plasma systems, pulsed plasma operation, and electromagnetic modeling.
• Familiarity with finite element analysis (FEA), computational fluid dynamics (CFD), or particle-in-cell (PIC) plasma simulations.
• Programming experience in Python, MATLAB, or similar scientific computing languages for data analysis and automation.
• Experience transferring plasma technologies from research and development into manufacturing.

Core Competencies

• Advanced plasma physics expertise.
• Plasma process development.
• Plasma hardware design and integration.
• Computational modeling and simulation.
• Experimental design and validation.
• Root cause analysis and problem solving.
• Cross-functional collaboration.
• Technical leadership and mentoring.
• Project execution and continuous improvement.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits package.
• Eligibility in bonus plan and long-term incentives as applicable.

Pay Range

$78,485.94 - $110,853.80