Senior Director Process Engineer

Job Profile Summary

Drives innovative products and applications through customer qualification, adoption, and HVM ramp. The role combines deep technical expertise, customer technology leadership, operational discipline, and organizational development. A strong sense of urgency is essential: this leader must act decisively, drive timely results, and hold every team member to the same standard of responsiveness and follow-through. The role requires in-office execution, close collaboration with global customers and account teams, frequent nighttime calls across global time zones, and travel when needed, including at short notice.

Key Responsibilities

### HVM Productivity & Process Robustness

• Drive engineering solutions that transition advanced process capability from development into high-volume manufacturing.
• Establish HVM requirements for process stability, repeatability, chamber matching, uptime, defectivity, consumable lifetime, and productivity.
• Balance process performance with equipment productivity and manufacturing requirements.
• Use equipment and process data to identify performance gaps and prioritize improvements.
• Drive systematic root-cause analysis and continuous improvement for customer HVM issues.
• Ensure new technologies are designed not only to demonstrate best process performance but also to deliver sustainable manufacturing value.

Operational Excellence & Flawless Execution

• Lead and manage with a strong sense of urgency and hold every team member accountable for rapid response, timely decisions, and follow-through on commitments; mobilize cross-functional resources quickly to address customer needs while maintaining alignment and transparent communication.
• Standardize best practices across programs and global teams to improve quality, cycle time, productivity, and HVM readiness.
• Proactively identify technical, resource, schedule, and customer risks; ensure rapid containment, root-cause resolution, and prevention of recurrence.
• Drive first-time-right engineering through rigorous requirements, design and process reviews, change control, qualification discipline, and learning capture.
• Establish operating rhythms and performance indicators that improve execution predictability, issue visibility, and timely decision making.
• Translate strategy into executable plans with clear milestones, accountable owners, decision gates, risk controls, and measurable outcomes.

### Engineering & Organizational Leadership

• Lead and develop directors, managers, senior technical leaders, and productivity engineering teams.
• Build a culture of technical excellence, customer focus, innovation, accountability, and execution.
• Develop the next generation of technical and organizational leaders.
• Drive effective collaboration among process engineering, systems, hardware, software, applications, product, field, and customer teams.
• Establish clear priorities, technical decision mechanisms, ownership, and success criteria.
• Build organizational capabilities required for future etch and patterning technology generations.

### Advanced Patterning System & Application Leadership

• Provide technical and strategic guidance for innovative plasma patterning systems and applications.
• Drive process and hardware co-optimization to improve performance, process-window robustness, chamber stability, and manufacturability.
• Lead resolution of complex process, chamber, hardware, and system-level problems.
• Translate application requirements into equipment capability and technology-development priorities.

### Leading-Edge Customer Adoption

• Lead technical engagements with advanced logic, foundry, and memory customers from initial evaluation through production adoption.
• Understand customer device and technology roadmaps and translate future requirements into product and process-development priorities.
• Build trusted technical partnerships with customer engineering, integration, technology-development, and manufacturing organizations.
• Accelerate conversion of differentiated technology into customer adoption and production-of-record applications.

## Required Knowledge & Experience

The successful candidate should demonstrate strong technical knowledge, management skills, and leadership experience in:

• Minimum of 15 years of relevant technology and engineering leadership experience in the leading-edge semiconductor fabrication or equipment industry.
• Advanced degree in engineering, applied physics, materials science, or a related technical discipline preferred.
• Ability to lead by example in a fast-paced, customer-driven environment, execute work in the office, collaborate closely with customers and account teams, and support frequent nighttime calls across global time zones; expect the same urgency, responsiveness, and ownership from every team member.
• Ability to set direction, develop technical talent, influence across organizations, and convert technology strategy into measurable customer and business results.
• Ability to understand leading-edge customer roadmaps, identify critical technology gaps, and build trusted technical partnerships.
• Ability to direct the resolution of highly complex or unusual technical and business problems applying advanced analytical thought and judgment.
• HVM & Operational Excellence Mindset: Ability to convert excellent process performance into stable, repeatable, productive, and economically valuable manufacturing solutions through disciplined execution and continuous improvement.
• Plasma etch equipment and process technology development.
• Plasma physics, plasma chemistry, surface reactions, ion/radical interactions, RF power and bias control.
• Patterning profile, critical dimension (CD), selectivity, uniformity, loading, defectivity, and process-window control.
• Chamber hardware and process interactions.
• EUV patterning technology development and integration.
• Advanced logic, foundry, IDM, and memory patterning requirements.
• Leading-edge foundry and IDM technology development, production ramp, and HVM operations.
• Equipment and process co-optimization.
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally 25–50% of the time, including on short notice to provide on-site support for customer or business needs.

## Qualifications

### Education:

Bachelor's Degree

### Skills

### Certifications:

### Languages:

### Years of Experience:

15+ Years

### Work Experience:

## Additional Information

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### Shift:

10-Day 8-Hr (United States of America)

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### Travel:

Yes, 25% of the Time

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### Relocation Eligible:

No

### Referral Payment Plan:

Employee Referral (Standard)

Salary Range:

$200,000.00 - $275,000.00

The salary offered to a selected candidate will be based on multiple factors including location, hire grade, job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and with consideration of internal equity of our current team members. In addition to a comprehensive benefits package, candidates may be eligible for other forms of compensation such as participation in a bonus and a stock award program, as applicable.

For all sales roles, the posted salary range is the Target Total Cash (TTC) range for the role, which is the sum of base salary and target bonus amount at 100% goal achievement.

Applied Materials is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to diversity in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, citizenship, ancestry, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law.