Principal Systems Engineer

Job Title

Principal Systems Engineer

Role Summary

Lead the architecture, integration, and validation of advanced semiconductor metrology equipment. Provide technical authority across optics, mechanics, electronics, software, and controls to ensure system performance, reliability, and scalability from concept through production.

Experience Level

Senior-level; requires 10+ years of experience in complex system design and integration.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include system architecture, requirements management, integration, validation, and cross-functional leadership.

• Define and own system architecture and translate product requirements into detailed system and subsystem specifications.
• Lead trade studies, system partitioning, and system-level design reviews across multiple engineering disciplines.
• Develop, manage, and maintain system requirements, interfaces, and traceability.
• Plan and lead system integration efforts; develop system-level test plans, validation strategies, and acceptance criteria.
• Drive root cause analysis and resolution of cross-domain performance and reliability issues.
• Establish performance models, error budgets, and sensitivity analyses; ensure environmental robustness (thermal, vibration, contamination).
• Collaborate with product management, manufacturing, quality, and field service; mentor and influence engineering teams.
• Support project planning, risk assessment, milestone delivery, and customer engagements.

Requirements

Must-have skills and experience.

• 10+ years of systems engineering experience in semiconductor equipment, photonics, aerospace, or precision instrumentation.
• Proven experience with system architecture, integration, testing, and validation for multidisciplinary systems (mechanics, optics, electronics, controls, software).
• Strong problem-solving, root-cause analysis, and performance modeling capabilities.
• Experience defining and controlling system interfaces and managing requirements with traceability.
• Demonstrated technical leadership, ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders, and mentoring experience.
• Experience with design for reliability, maintainability, and manufacturability at the system level.
• Effective communication skills with technical and non-technical audiences.

Nice-to-have:

• Experience with semiconductor metrology, inspection, or lithography systems.
• Knowledge of precision motion systems, optics, vacuum systems, or laser-based instrumentation.
• Familiarity with modeling and simulation tools (e.g., MATLAB/Simulink).
• Cleanroom experience and exposure to high-reliability production environments.

Education Requirements

Master's degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Optical), Physics, or a related technical field.

About the Company

Company: Onto Innovation

Headquarters: Wilmington, MA, United States

Onto Innovation develops process-control solutions for the semiconductor industry, offering optical inspection, 3D metrology, defect inspection, composition analysis, factory analytics, and lithography technologies to improve yield, performance, and reliability across the semiconductor value chain.