Staff Process Engineer – Thin Film & Metal Deposition
About the Role
As a Staff Process Engineer – Thin Film & Metal Deposition, you will lead the development, optimization, qualification, and sustainment of deposition processes critical to advanced photonic device manufacturing. You will work hands-on with deposition equipment, chamber hardware, materials, and metrology systems while collaborating with device, integration, lithography, etch, reliability, and manufacturing teams to develop robust, manufacturable process solutions.
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Qualifications
- M.S. or Ph.D. in Materials Science, Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, or a related technical discipline.
- B.S. degree with 5+ years of semiconductor, photonics, or advanced manufacturing experience will also be considered.
- Strong experience in thin film deposition, metallization, and related semiconductor fabrication processes.
- Experience with semiconductor process development, integration, yield improvement, and production support.
- Working knowledge of vacuum systems, deposition equipment, process control methodologies, and materials characterization techniques.
- Demonstrated experience using DOE, SPC, JMP, statistical analysis, and data-driven problem solving.
- Strong ownership mindset with demonstrated ability to drive projects independently and deliver measurable business impact.
- Excellent troubleshooting and root-cause analysis skills.
- Ability to prioritize effectively and respond quickly to manufacturing challenges.
- Strong communication and collaboration skills in cross-functional technical environments.
- Familiarity with AI-enabled engineering tools and modern data analytics methods.
Preferred Qualifications
- Hands-on experience with PECVD, PVD sputtering, e-beam evaporation, thermal evaporation, electroplating, ALD, or related deposition technologies.
- Experience with InP, GaAs, silicon photonics, III-V semiconductors, and optical device manufacturing.
- Understanding of optical device requirements including film stress control, refractive index control, optical loss reduction, adhesion, and long-term reliability.
- Experience developing Au-based metallization systems for photonic and optoelectronic devices.
- Familiarity with semiconductor characterization techniques including ellipsometry, profilometry, four-point probe, SEM, AFM, XRF, XRD, and film stress measurements.
- Experience with new equipment acceptance, qualification, process transfer, and factory ramp activities.
- Experience supporting high-volume manufacturing environments.
- Experience collaborating with equipment suppliers and technology partners on joint development activities.
- Passion for manufacturing excellence and continuous improvement.
- Proven success balancing long-term technology development objectives with urgent production support requirements.
Responsibilities
- Develop, qualify, and sustain thin film and metallization processes supporting InP photonic integrated circuit manufacturing.
- Own and optimize deposition processes including PECVD, PVD sputtering, evaporation, electroplating, and other vacuum-based deposition technologies.
- Support deposition of dielectric and metallic optical and electrical functional films.
- Lead development and optimization of electrochemical deposition processes, including plating chemistry control, bath maintenance, current density optimization, deposition rate control, thickness uniformity, stress management, and defect reduction
- Optimize critical process metrics including film thickness, within-wafer uniformity, refractive index, stress, adhesion, sheet resistance, contact resistance, composition, and defectivity.
- Develop robust metallization processes for lasers, modulators, SOAs, photodiodes, RF structures, and passive optical components.
- Drive defect reduction, yield improvement, and process capability enhancement using DOE, SPC, advanced analytics, and statistical process control methodologies.
- Perform root-cause analysis and implement corrective actions for process excursions, film quality issues, equipment failures, and integration-related challenges.
- Analyze processes from a first-principles, physics-based approach to understand and manipulate mechanisms, not just recipes
- Collaborate closely with lithography, wet etch, dry etch, device engineering, integration, reliability, and manufacturing teams to optimize overall process performance.
- Lead evaluations of new materials, process technologies, deposition hardware, and equipment upgrades.
- Partner with equipment vendors and material suppliers on chamber matching, hardware improvements, reliability enhancements, and cost-of-ownership initiatives.
- Support technology transfer from development into production while maintaining process stability and manufacturability.
- Provide rapid response and technical leadership during process excursions and production-impacting events.
- Support a 24x7 manufacturing environment through issue escalation, troubleshooting, and on-call support when required.
- Utilize AI-enabled engineering tools, automation, and advanced data analytics to improve process development efficiency and manufacturing performance.
About Nokia
Nokia is a Finnish multinational technology company specializing in telecommunications infrastructure, software, and licensing. It provides network equipment and services for mobile, fixed, and cloud networks to communications service providers and enterprises worldwide.
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