Senior AI Software Engineer (E)

Base Pay Range: $110,900.00 - $188,500.00

Primary Location: USA-MI-Ann Arbor-KLA

KLA’s total rewards package for employees may also include participation in performance incentive programs and eligibility for additional benefits identified below. Interns are eligible for some of the benefits identified below. Our pay ranges are determined by role, level, and location. The range displayed above reflects the minimum and maximum pay for this position in the primary location identified in this posting. Actual pay depends on several factors, including location, job-related skills, experience, and relevant education level or training. If applicable, your recruiter can share more about the specific pay range for your preferred location during the hiring process.

Company Overview

KLA is a global leader in diversified electronics for the semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem. Virtually every electronic device in the world is produced using our technologies. No laptop, smartphone, wearable device, voice-controlled gadget, flexible screen, VR device or smart car would have made it into your hands without us. KLA invents systems and solutions for the manufacturing of wafers and reticles, integrated circuits, packaging, printed circuit boards and flat panel displays. The innovative ideas and devices that are advancing humanity all begin with inspiration, research and development. KLA focuses more than average on innovation and we invest 15% of sales back into R&D. Our expert teams of physicists, engineers, data scientists and problem-solvers work together with the world’s leading technology providers to accelerate the delivery of tomorrow’s electronic devices. Life here is exciting and our teams thrive on tackling really hard problems. There is never a dull moment with us.

Group/Division

With over 40 years of semiconductor process control experience, chipmakers around the globe rely on KLA to ensure that their fabs ramp next-generation devices to volume production quickly and cost-effectively. Enabling the movement towards advanced chip design, KLA's Global Products Group (GPG), which is responsible for creating all of KLA’s metrology and inspection products, is looking for the best and the brightest research scientist, software engineers, application development engineers, and senior product technology process engineers. Central Engineering is KLA's largest engineering organization comprised of 9 Centers-of-Excellence (CoE) in various disciplines applied across all product groups in the company. These CoE include Handling & Automation, Precision Motion Control, Sensors & Image Acquisition, Platform Design, and Packaging Engineering, among others. Talent includes over 500 engineers across global centers in Israel, China, India, and the US. Each CoE contributes not just talent and deliverables per discipline toward product programs, but also subject matter expertise, best practices, roadmaps, specialized facilities, apparatus, models, and analytics. These differentiate KLA not only in WHAT we do, but also in HOW we do it.

Job Description/Preferred Qualifications

The AI & Modeling Center of Excellence, centered in KLA’s R&D facility in Ann Arbor, MI, was setup with the mission of advancing KLA’s traditional strengths in physics and data and providing implementation solutions for multiple KLA Inspection and Metrology products targeted at the semiconductor manufacturing industry.

As a part of this group, you will be part of a world class team of physicists, HPC system designers, machine learning and application engineers who build cutting edge solutions for modeling complex imaging techniques and semiconductor processes.  You will also work with a data scientists and AI infrastructure engineers whose mission is to build and scale machine learning based solutions for our semiconductor customers.

We are looking for engineers in a few different fields.  If you are passionate about Physics Modeling, High Performance Computing - HPC (including GPU), ML, Data, or Cloud technologies – this is the place for you!

Responsibilities and Qualifications:

Software Engineers in the AI and Physics Modeling team may work on a variety of tasks including platform for large scale experimentation, scaleout of physics models, data management and inference solutions for KLA products. 

Although familiarity with Machine Learning and Deep Learning solutions would be a big plus, this is primarily a Software Engineering position.  Successful candidates are passionate about software and will have exceptional skills and hands on experience with development in C/C++ and Python in a Unix environment.  Deep conceptual understanding of multi-threaded and multi process software systems is also necessary.

In addition to the above fundamental software skills, any of the following technical hands-on skills are highly desirable.

1) System Programming and Operating Systems.
2) Distributed systems for data management.
3) Distributed computing infrastructure.
4) Cloud technologies for storage, containerization and compute clusters.
5) Data Structures and algorithms
6) GPU architectures and data management.
7) Traditional machine learning using Random Forest, XG Boost, Logistic Regression.
8) Deep Learning for regression, classification.  Generative models.
9) TensorFlow, NumPy, scikit-learn, and other ML and DL frameworks.
10) MPI and similar distributed computing framework.
11) GPU Architectures and CUDA (CuGraph, CuData, CuML etc).
12) GO Systems Programming, Java Programming.

Successful candidates for this position will also demonstrate the following non-technical skills.

1) Capability to formulate creative solutions through analyzing complex data
2) Good communication skills
3) Strong team player and motivated by team success
4) Strong problem-solving skills

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelors degree and 8+ years of experience OR Masters level degree and a minimum of 6+ years of experience OR a PhD and 3+ years of experience

The company offers a total rewards package that is competitive and comprehensive including but not limited to the following:  medical, dental, vision, life, and other voluntary benefits, 401(K) including company matching, employee stock purchase program (ESPP), student debt assistance, tuition reimbursement program, development and career growth opportunities and programs, financial planning benefits, wellness benefits including an employee assistance program (EAP), paid time off and paid company holidays, and family care and bonding leave.

KLA is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status or any other status protected by applicable law. We will ensure that qualified individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us at talent.acquisition@kla.com or at +1-408-352-2808 to request accommodation.

Be aware of potentially fraudulent job postings or suspicious recruiting activity by persons that are currently posing as KLA employees.  KLA never asks for any financial compensation to be considered for an interview, to become an employee, or for equipment. Further, KLA does not work with any recruiters or third parties who charge such fees either directly or on behalf of KLA. Please ensure that you have searched KLA’s Careers website for legitimate job postings.  KLA follows a recruiting process that involves multiple interviews in person or on video conferencing with our hiring managers.  If you are concerned that a communication, an interview, an offer of employment, or that an employee is not legitimate, please send an email to talent.acquisition@kla.com to confirm the person you are communicating with is an employee. We take your privacy very seriously and confidentially handle your information.