Application Engineer

Location: Livermore, CA, Beaverton, OR

Time Type: Full time

Job Description

Forming Our Future together

FormFactor, Inc. (NASDAQ: FORM), is a leading provider of essential test and measurement technologies along the full semiconductor product life cycle — from characterization, modeling, reliability, and design de-bug, to qualification and production test. Semiconductor companies rely upon FormFactor’s products and services to accelerate profitability by optimizing device performance and advancing yield knowledge. The company serves customers through its network of facilities in Asia, Europe, and North America.

Rooted in our core values — Focus on the Customer, Ownership & Accountability, Respectfully & Effectively Communicate, and Motivate & Develop People — we foster an environment where diverse perspectives are not only welcomed but celebrated. Everyone can make an impact here. Whether it's improving products, supporting customers, or positively influencing peers and the community, the contributions of our people matter.

Shift:

The regular hours for this position are day shift.

Job Description:

The Application Engineer, also known as the Marketing Engineer for the Probes product line, will serve as the technical interface of the Business Unit—owning all technical customer communication, and cross‑ecosystem collaboration. This role is responsible for developing deep technical relationships with leading semiconductor manufacturers, tester/prober partners and major fabless/OSAT partners, acting as the first line of defense for all technical questions from Customers, Sales and BU teams.

You will help reduce the support burden on R&D by owning early‑stage technical discussions, supporting post‑sales issues, and translating customer needs into product requirements, documentation, and roadmap insights. This role bridges engineering, customers, and industry partners to elevate FormFactor’s technical leadership in advanced wafer probe and probe card solutions.

Key Responsibilities:

Customer Technical Engagement

• Drive customer evaluations of new and current probe card designs

•  Develop and maintain deep technical relationships with leading Semiconductor Fabs/IDMs and other strategic semiconductor customers.

• Act as the first-line technical expert for customer inquiries across probe cards, advanced probes, and wafer-level test methodologies.

• Support Sales and Field teams as the BU’s technical authority during discussions about features, capabilities, limitations, and tradeoffs.

Technical Support & Post-Sales Assistance

• Serve as the BU’s primary escalation point for Pre and post‑sales technical questions before involving engineering.

• Troubleshoot probe/probe card performance issues in collaboration with Sales, Field Engineering, and R&D when needed.

• Provide clear technical explanations, root-cause thinking, and usage guidance to improve customer outcomes.

Technical Content & Thought Leadership

• Develop high-quality technical papers, application notes, whitepapers, and pre-release documentation.

• Produce technical collateral explaining probe mechanics, signal integrity, thermal behavior, wafer-level reliability, and next-gen test challenges.

• Partner with testers, probers, OSATs, and ecosystem partners to co-author thought leadership content.

Product & Roadmap Influence

• Capture customer needs, test challenges, and requirements to feed into product strategy and R&D planning.

• Translate customer pain points into actionable product specifications or improvement requests.

• Provide technical insights that influence probe/probe card design, materials, performance targets, and ecosystem integration.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with R&D to ensure accurate interpretation of customer requirements.

• Reduce the engineering team’s support load by handling early-phase technical discussions and common questions.

• Partner with Marketing, Sales, Operations, and Program Management to support product launches and technical messaging.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Semiconductor Engineering, or similar technical field.

• Working knowledge of probe cards, advanced probes, or wafer-level test solutions.

• Familiarity with semiconductor sort tests, wafer probe processes, and test cell integration.

• Ability to explain complex technical subjects to customers with clarity and confidence.

• Strong communication skills in English, written and spoken. Knowledge of Mandarin preferred.

• Ability to travel frequently between the U.S., Taiwan, Europe if based outside Taiwan.

• Experience working with leading foundries/IDMs.

• Hands-on experience with ATE platforms, probers, or OSAT test environments.

• Knowledge of semiconductor wafer processes such as bumping, hybrid bonding, packaging, or advanced node manufacturing.

• Experience writing technical papers, presentations, or customer-facing engineering documentation.

• Familiarity with GPU/CPU/HPC device testing is a strong plus.

Key Competencies:

• Technical depth: Strong understanding of probe/probe card design, wafer probing physics, and

• test challenges.

• Problem-solving mindset: Ability to diagnose customer issues and communicate solutions effectively.

• Customer empathy: Skilled at understanding and translating customer pain points.

• Cross-functional leadership: Ability to coordinate between customers, Sales, R&D, and partners.

• Communication excellence: Strong storytelling skills and comfort with technical writing.

Skills:

Hardware Debugging, Hardware Design, Hardware Development, Hardware Engineering, Hardware Installations, Hardware Integration, Hardware Knowledge, Hardware Maintenance, Hardware QA, Hardware Repairs, Hardware Simulation, Hardware Support, Hardware Test, Hardware Validation, Microsoft Office, Simulation Modeling

Education & Experience:

Minimum of 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 3 years and a Master’s degree; or a PhD without experience; or equivalent work | Required

Pay Range:

$110,700.00 - $145,320.00

Pay Range Explained:

This role in Livermore, California pays between $110,700.00 and $145,320.00 per year, depending on your experience, skills, and background. Pay may vary in other locations. We offer a full benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, life insurance, disability coverage, a 401(k) with company match, employee stock purchase plan (ESPP), and paid time off. You’ll also be eligible for quarterly profit-sharing bonuses and flexible spending or savings accounts.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

FormFactor is an equal opportunity employer. FormFactor complies with all national, state, and local laws that seek to promote equal opportunities for any applicant or employee without regard to age, race, color, gender, gender identity/expression, national origin, sexual orientation, religion, disability, marital status, pregnancy or related condition, military service, or any other legally protected characteristics. These protections apply to all aspects of employment, including but not limited to, recruitment, hiring, training, promotions, and compensation.

For roles that are designated as remote-eligible, employees cannot be located in: AL, AK, AR, DE, GA, HI, IL, IA, KY, LA, ME, MD, MS, MO, NE, NV, NJ, NM, ND, OK, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, WV, WI, WY. This list is continuously evolving and being updated, please check back with us if the state you live in is on the exclusion list. A role is remote-eligible only when it is listed as "Remote" in the job location.