Senior Principal Applications Engineer / Technical Lead

FormFactor, Inc. provides test and measurement technologies for the semiconductor product life cycle. The Senior Principal Applications Engineer / Technical Lead serves as a senior customer-facing technical leader, driving customer success from technology evaluation through production support while leading advanced wafer probe and semiconductor test applications. The role also leads cross-functional technical efforts, customer escalations, technology adoption, and strategic customer engagements.

Responsibilities:

• Serve as the primary technical advisor for strategic semiconductor customers
• Build trusted relationships with customer engineering, manufacturing, operations, and executive teams
• Lead customer engagements from evaluation through qualification, production release, and HVM ramp
• Conduct on-site customer technical reviews, production readiness reviews, roadmap discussions, and executive briefings
• Present FormFactor's technology roadmap, product capabilities, and application solutions to customers and industry stakeholders
• Support product demonstrations, benchmarking activities, acceptance testing, and customer evaluations
• Partner with customers to improve yield, throughput, measurement accuracy, and manufacturing productivity
• Act as the senior technical escalation point for business-critical customer issues
• Develop and deploy advanced application methodologies for semiconductor probe and test solutions
• Support electrical, parametric, RF, optical, photonics, and high-speed device characterization
• Drive successful adoption of new products and advanced technologies
• Develop technical documentation, application notes, best practices, and customer training materials
• Analyze customer application challenges and recommend optimized solutions
• Support beta evaluations, technology transfers, qualification programs, and production ramps
• Serve as a recognized subject matter expert in semiconductor test, wafer probing, and device characterization
• Lead complex root cause investigations involving product, process, applications, and manufacturing issues
• Provide technical leadership across Applications, Engineering, Product Management, Service, and Manufacturing teams
• Mentor and coach Applications Engineers and other technical team members
• Establish best practices and drive knowledge sharing across global organizations
• Influence technical direction and contribute to the development of future customer solutions
• Lead cross-functional teams in highly dynamic and ambiguous situations where ownership, requirements, or technical direction may not be fully defined
• Drive clarity, accountability, and execution during customer escalations and critical business situations
• Balance customer requirements, business priorities, and technical constraints to achieve successful outcomes
• Make sound technical and business decisions under pressure and with limited information
• Create momentum and organizational alignment when addressing high-impact customer challenges
• Serve as the Voice of Customer to Product Management and Engineering organizations
• Identify emerging technology trends and customer requirements
• Influence product roadmaps through customer feedback and market insights
• Support strategic growth initiatives in Silicon Photonics, Co-Packaged Optics, AI/HPC, Foundry, Memory, and Advanced Packaging markets
• Assist Sales and Business Development teams with technical strategy and growth opportunities

Requirements:

• Minimum of 8 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 6 years and a Master's degree; or a PhD with 3 years experience; or equivalent experience
• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Photonics, Materials Science, Mechanical Engineering, or related technical discipline
• Experience in semiconductor test, semiconductor capital equipment, probe card technologies, wafer probe systems, device characterization, or related fields
• Demonstrated success supporting strategic semiconductor customers in both development and production environments
• Proven ability to lead complex technical engagements and customer escalations
• Strong communication and presentation skills with the ability to communicate effectively at both engineering and executive levels
• Automated Test Equipment (ATE)
• Wafer Probe Systems
• Probe Cards
• Semiconductor Test
• Device Characterization
• Parametric Test
• Wafer Sort
• Production Test
• RF and Microwave Measurements
• High-Speed Digital Testing
• Signal Integrity
• Silicon Photonics
• Optical Characterization
• Co-Packaged Optics (CPO)
• Advanced Packaging
• Heterogeneous Integration
• Yield Improvement
• Product Qualification
• New Product Introduction (NPI)
• Failure Analysis
• High Volume Manufacturing (HVM)
• Automated Test Equipment (ATE), Automated Test Equipment (ATE), Business Acumen, Cross-Functional Leadership, Data Analytics, Decision Making, Escalation Management, Executive Communications, High Volume Manufacturing, JMP Scripting Language (JSL), MATLAB, Mentorship, Probe Cards, Process Optimization, Python (Programming Language), RF Testing, Risk Management, Root Cause Analysis (RCA), Semiconductor Manufacturing, Semiconductor Testers, Signal Integrity, Silicon Photonics, Strategic Customer Management, Strategic Thinking, Technical Leadership {+ 1 more}