Associate / Specialist, Software Technology

About the job

To make electronics, you need chips, wafers, transistors, reticles, and... To make these, you must see, test and manufacture them at scale—faster and better than ever before. That's where KLA comes in. Whether you're early in your career or an experienced professional, you'll solve complex challenges, work alongside brilliant minds and help shape the future of technology.

Group/Division The Semiconductor Products and Customers (Semi PC) business unit designs, builds and sells KLA’s product portfolio to help chip manufacturers meet high-quality standards for technologies like AI, data centers, automotive and electronic devices. Our inspection, metrology, and analytics systems detect and monitor defects across logic and memory chips, specialty semiconductors, wafers, reticles, advanced packaging, process equipment and materials. We also develop technologies for specialty processes, IC substrates, and PCB manufacturing, including etch and deposition, component inspection, and imaging and analytics. The LS-SWIFT division delivers high-throughput patterned wafer inspection systems that support advanced semiconductor manufacturing. Its mission is to provide industry-leading defect detection with optimal cost of ownership across a wide range of applications. LS systems enable precise, cost-effective inspection for cutting-edge process nodes, while SWIFT systems offer comprehensive macro inspection of all wafer surfaces—capabilities that are especially critical for advanced packaging, as well as logic, memory, and automotive applications.

What You'll Do In this role, you will play a key part in advancing business priorities by delivering high-impact work across your area of expertise.

Key Responsibilities Technical Leadership

- Drive technical discussions, architecture decisions, and implementation strategies for customer-facing software features and platform capabilities.

- Design, develop, and maintain high-performance, production-grade software using C#, C++, Python/Java.

- Provide technical leadership for complex software initiatives while influencing engineering direction across teams.

- Evaluate and adopt modern software engineering practices, frameworks, development tools, and AI-assisted productivity solutions where appropriate.

- Contribute to software architecture reviews, design discussions, and technical roadmaps. Software Development & System Engineering

- Develop deep technical expertise in LS-SWIFT inspection system software and associated workflows.

- Participate in the complete software development lifecycle, including requirements, design, implementation, testing, deployment, support, and continuous improvement.

- Debug and resolve complex issues across multi-process, multi-threaded, and multi-system software environments spanning Windows and Linux platforms.

- Design scalable, reliable, maintainable, and performant software systems that meet demanding product and customer requirements.

- Acquire and apply domain knowledge related to semiconductor defect inspection and inspection system workflows. Cross-Functional Collaboration

- Collaborate closely with global engineering teams across multiple geographies.

- Work effectively with systems, hardware, applications, manufacturing, service, and marketing teams throughout product development and deployment.

- Support product releases, customer escalations, field issues, and continuous product improvement efforts.

- Act as a technical integrator across teams to help drive successful product execution and divisional objectives.

- Mentor engineers through technical guidance, design reviews, and engineering best practices. Innovation & Continuous Improvement

- Leverage AI productivity tools and modern engineering approaches to improve development efficiency and product quality.

- Identify opportunities for technical innovation, automation, and architecture improvements.

- Promote engineering excellence through robust design, code quality, testing, and maintainability practices.

Travel

- Travel to KLA and customer sites globally as required to support product development, deployment, customer engagement, and technology advancement.

Preferred Qualifications

- Experience with C++ and Python development.

- Experience working in Linux environments.

- Familiarity with distributed systems, high-performance computing (HPC), or large-scale software platforms.

- Experience with AI productivity and development tools such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf, or similar technologies.

- Experience developing software for semiconductors, industrial automation, instrumentation, manufacturing, or other complex engineering domains.

- Demonstrated ability to influence technical decisions and drive execution across organizational boundaries.

Desired Attributes

- Strong ownership mindset and accountability.

- Ability to influence and lead through technical expertise.

- Passion for solving challenging engineering problems.

- Continuous learner with curiosity for emerging technologies and industry trends.

- Collaborative team player capable of working effectively across global organizations.

- Ability to energize teams and drive outcomes in a fast-paced, innovation-driven environment.

Minimum Qualifications

- Bachelor's or master’s degree in BE / BTech / MS / MCA / MTech in Computer Science, Electronics, Electrical Engineering, or related disciplines.

- 10+ years of software development experience delivering complex software products.

- Strong expertise in C# and .NET application development.

- Strong software design, architecture, and object-oriented programming skills.

- Strong debugging and root-cause analysis capabilities in complex software environments.

- Solid understanding of Windows internals and .NET runtime concepts.

- Thorough knowledge of software engineering principles, SDLC, and software quality practices.

- Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.

- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

- Proven ability to work effectively in global cross-functional teams.

About KLA We provide advanced inspection tools, metrology systems, process solutions, and computational analytics that make electronics possible, tackling complex challenges. From electron and photon optics to machine learning and data analytics, we seek perfection at the most fundamental level of matter in the universe. If you want to make electronics that push industries forward and make the world a better place, join us.

Use of AI Statement  At KLA, our interviews seek to understand your individual skills, problem-solving approach and authentic thinking. To ensure a fair and consistent evaluation, the use of AI, recording tools or other technologies to generate, suggest or provide responses during interviews—whether virtual or in person—is not permitted unless explicitly approved in advance as part of a reasonable accommodation or invited by the interviewer. Use of these tools may interfere with our ability to evaluate your individual qualifications and affect your candidacy. KLA is committed to advancing innovation through responsible AI, and we value candidates who share this mindset.

We offer a competitive, family friendly total rewards package. We design our programs to reflect our commitment to an inclusive environment, while ensuring we provide benefits that meet the diverse needs of our employees.

KLA is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.