Senior Design Engineer

Job Title

Senior Design Engineer

Role Summary

Senior FEA Modeling Engineer on the Advanced Packaging Modeling team responsible for leading thermal-mechanical simulation projects that inform package architecture, material selection, process windows, qualification strategy, and reliability risk reduction.

Works cross-functionally with design, process integration, reliability, manufacturing, and external partners to deliver validated simulation results and actionable engineering recommendations.

Experience Level

Senior-level - approximately 5+ years of relevant industrial experience in thermal-mechanical FEA, preferably in semiconductor packaging, electronics, or an adjacent high-reliability domain.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include developing, validating, and applying high-fidelity finite-element models to predict reliability and guide engineering decisions.

• Define, develop, validate, and deploy FEA models for advanced semiconductor package technologies.
• Lead thermo-mechanical reliability analyses to predict performance and failure risks (thermal cycling, fatigue, creep, delamination, interfacial failure).
• Analyze stress, strain, warpage, delamination risk, creep, plasticity, viscoelasticity, and interfacial behavior across flip-chip, fan-out, 2.5D/3D, chiplet, TSV, HBM, and hybrid-bonded structures.
• Develop coupled thermal and multi-physics models to support package design, material tradeoffs, process integration, and cooling concepts.
• Translate engineering and business questions into simulation requirements, model hierarchies, validation plans, and decision-ready outputs.
• Plan and execute sensitivity analyses, design-of-experiment studies, optimization, and uncertainty assessments to identify robust design/process windows.
• Correlate models with metrology, material characterization, reliability testing, and failure analysis; calibrate constitutive models and quantify predictive limits.
• Provide clear technical recommendations, risk statements, and proposed validation actions to design, process, reliability, manufacturing, and customer teams.
• Own simulation workflows and technical reviews to ensure model quality, traceability, and timely delivery.
• Mentor junior engineers and drive automation, standardization, and reuse of modeling methods across the team.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and experience; preferred items are listed separately.

• Minimum ~5 years experience in thermal-mechanical FEA in semiconductor packaging, electronics, or similar high-reliability industries.
• Proficiency with commercial FEA tools such as ANSYS, Abaqus, COMSOL, or equivalent, including nonlinear and temperature-dependent material modeling.
• Strong knowledge of advanced packaging architectures and processes (die attach, underfill, molding, bumping, bonding, reflow, wafer-level processes, package assembly).
• Practical understanding of polymers, metals, ceramics, interfaces, and their behavior under thermal/mechanical loading.
• Proven ability to validate models, diagnose numerical and physical issues, and communicate findings to technical and leadership audiences.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and collaborate across design, process, reliability, manufacturing, and external partners.
• Evidence of technical leadership (mentoring, methodology ownership, publications, patents, or cross-functional project leadership).
• Nice-to-have: scripting/automation (Python, MATLAB, APDL, TCL), coupled electro-thermal-mechanical or fracture/cohesive-zone modeling, optimization/surrogate/UQ experience, familiarity with JEDEC qualification and emerging integration technologies (HBM, hybrid bonding, FOWLP, chiplets).

Education Requirements

M.S. or Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Applied Mechanics, Applied Physics, or a closely related field.

About the Company

Company: Applied Materials

Headquarters: Santa Clara, CA, United States

Global leader in materials engineering solutions for the semiconductor and display industries, designing, manufacturing, and servicing equipment used to produce chips and advanced displays worldwide. Enables customers' production of semiconductor devices and display technologies and supports innovations like AI and IoT.