Principal Thin Film Process Engineer

It’s fun to work in a company where people truly BELIEVE in what they’re doing! We’re committed to bringing passion and customer focus to the business. If you like wild growth and working with happy, enthusiastic over-achievers, you’ll enjoy your career with us! We are seeking a Principal Thin Film Process Engineer to serve as a technical lead at our San Jose Wafer Fab. This individual will provide strategic direction and deep technical mastery in Sputter Deposition (PVD) and Electron Beam (EB) Evaporation to scale and sustain High-Volume Manufacturing (HVM). The successful candidate will oversee the stability of complex dielectric, oxide, and metal coatings, ensuring process robustness and scalability in a production environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Subject Matter Expert (SME) for PVD (DC, RF, Reactive) and EB Evaporation.
• Leverage extensive hands-on experience in thin-film growth kinetics to manipulate optical, structural, and mechanical properties for complex multilayer stacks.
• Provide high-level technical oversight of vacuum hardware (turbo pumps, MFCs, pressure controllers).
• Lead the integration of process changes across PLCs and control interfaces to ensure 'Copy Exactly' matching across the tools.
• Drive Continuous Improvement Projects (CIP) focused on sustaining and enhancing High-volume Manufacturing.
• Focus on improving recipe robustness and cycle-time optimization to reduce Cost of Ownership (COO).
• Hands on experience in leading complex Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and FMEA for systemic yield detractors.
• Utilize Pareto Analysis to drive tool-to-tool matching and eliminate in-film defects.
• Develop automated process health monitors using Python, MATLAB, or JMP and maintain process health for high-volume production, responding to deviations and implementing corrective actions to ensure consistent manufacturing output.
• Own the end-to-end lifecycle of new equipment procurement, from defining technical specifications and vendor selection to final Site Acceptance Testing (SAT) and HVM qualification.
• Partner with cross function team (include Planning, Quality, and R&D) for new process qualifications and Process Change Notices (PCN).
• Actively coach and develop a team of process engineers and technicians, fostering a culture of technical excellence and data-driven decision-making.

Technical Skills & Qualification

• Deposition Expertise: Advanced knowledge of Sputter Coating (DC, RF, Reactive) and EB Evaporation for metals, dielectrics, and oxides.
• Fab Experience: Proven track record in a Wafer Fab Manufacturing environment, specifically supporting HVM toolsets and high-uptime requirements.
• Statistical Methodology: Expert-level understanding of SPC, DOE, and FMEA for rigorous process characterization and stability control.
• Characterization: Advanced proficiency in Ellipsometry, SEM-EDX, TEM, AFM, XPS, FIB, XRR, SAXS, FTIR, and Defect Metrology.
• Analytical Tools: Data-driven decision-making using Python, MATLAB, JMP, or Minitab for large-scale dataset analysis.

Education & Experience

Ph.D. or Master’s degree in Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, Physics, or a related field. 10+ years of extensive hand-on experience in semiconductor process engineering, specifically with Sputter/PVD and EB Evaporator systems in a high-volume manufacturing.

Pay Range

Pay Range: P70-USA-1 :$134,750.00 - $192,500.00

Disclaimer

Disclaimer: Final base salary for the successful candidate will depend on multiple factors, including but not limited to, job location, where work will be performed, qualifications, work history and relevant experience. With our continual goal of making Lumentum a best place to work for our employees, we strive to offer employees competitive total compensation packages, which may include annual bonus, commission for certain sales roles, equity, and health and welfare benefits.

Lumentum is illuminating the networks of tomorrow with advanced photonic technologies that enable AI, data centers, telecom, industrial, and sensing applications. As AI accelerates the global demand for bandwidth and energy efficiency, we deliver the building blocks that keep data moving reliably, efficiently, and at massive scale. Our optical products support AI and compute infrastructure, cloud and DCI environments, metro and long-haul networks, while our lasers drive breakthroughs in precision manufacturing and sensing. For nearly five decades, Lumentum has been at the intersection of light and innovation. What began as a vision with JDS Uniphase to harness the power of photonics has evolved into a global force driving the communication infrastructure of tomorrow. At Lumentum, we’re building more than a business—we’re building a team of passionate innovators whose drive to collaborate, create, and connect the world fuels everything we do. We are part of the AI technology revolution and we are illuminating the path forward.

Headquartered in San Jose, California, we operate worldwide through a network of R&D, manufacturing, and sales locations.