Staff Systems Engineer

Job Title

Staff Systems Engineer

Role Summary

Lead technical development and productization of complex automated optical inspection and metrology systems for the semiconductor industry. This hands-on role spans the full product lifecycle and requires cross-functional collaboration with hardware, software, test, manufacturing and service teams.

Experience Level

Senior — typically requires 8+ years developing high-precision optical or semiconductor capital equipment or related complex technical systems.

Responsibilities

The role provides technical leadership across system definition, prototyping, validation, and transfer to manufacturing. Key responsibilities include:

• Lead system engineering activities: requirements definition, architecture, and total-system solutions under technical and business constraints.
• Drive early-stage concept development, rapid prototyping, and iterative testing with cross-functional teams.
• Plan and coordinate system integration, verification & validation, and transfer to manufacturing and service readiness.
• Identify and mitigate technical risks; evaluate and communicate development maturity and technical readiness to stakeholders.
• Mentor engineers and promote system-level thinking across teams.
• Support field deployments and customer sites, including international travel (minimum ~20%).

Requirements

Must-have skills and attributes, followed by desirable skills:

• Must-have: Extensive hands-on experience leading systems engineering for complex technical products and proven ability to ideate, prototype, and bring products to market.
• Must-have: Strong analytical and structured problem-solving skills, including root-cause analysis.
• Must-have: Ability to work autonomously, take ownership, and influence across engineering, operations, field service, and leadership.
• Must-have: Willingness and ability to travel internationally at least 20% of the time.
• Nice-to-have: Experience with optical inspection, metrology, spectroscopy, ellipsometry, or reflectometry.
• Nice-to-have: Knowledge of statistical signal processing and advanced control systems.
• Nice-to-have: Experience with MATLAB, LabVIEW, and ZEMAX.
• Other: Strong communication and stakeholder management skills; ability to document and present technical tradeoffs clearly.
• Compliance: Some positions may require U.S. export licensing review for applicants who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

Education Requirements

PhD preferred or an advanced degree in Physics, Engineering, Materials Science, or a related field (the posting states a PhD is preferred and lists advanced degrees in related technical fields).

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.