It Application Engineer Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Location: Newport Beach, CA, USA, 92660

Company: Tower Semiconductor Ltd.

Looking for a career path in the high-tech industry? Become part of a team focused on delivering the most exciting semiconductor technology in the world! If you enjoy working with others in a dynamic, fast-paced environment and are looking for an opportunity to grow your career in this exciting industry, then Tower Semiconductor is the place to be!

Tower Semiconductor, the leading foundry of high-value analog semiconductor solutions, provides technology, development, and process platforms for analog integrated circuits to more than 300 customers worldwide across growing markets such as communications, mobile, infrastructure, consumer, industrial, automotive, medical, and aerospace and defense, among others.

Join Tower and become part of a dynamic organization with exceptionally talented and dedicated team members who work collaboratively to provide best-in-class technological solutions to our clients.

As a Semiconductor IT Application Engineer, you will design, develop, integrate, and support mission-critical factory systems that enable safe, reliable, and efficient semiconductor manufacturing.
You will partner with Manufacturing, Equipment Engineering, Process Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Quality, and IT teams to automate fab tools, integrate equipment with the Manufacturing Execution System (MES), improve production control and traceability, and deliver scalable solutions for a 24×7 manufacturing environment.

• Fab Tool Automation & Integration: Design, implement, and support automated interfaces between semiconductor manufacturing equipment and factory systems using protocols and standards such as SECS/GEM, GEM300, EDA/Interface A, OPC, and vendor APIs.
• MES Integration & Manufacturing Workflows: Develop and maintain MES integrations for lot movement, dispatching, track-in/track-out, resource and chamber selection, recipe verification, material control, rework, holds, genealogy, and production traceability.
• Equipment Automation Applications: Build and enhance solutions for equipment automation, data collection, recipe management, alarm handling, fault detection, carrier and reticle management, and automated material-handling systems.
• System Architecture & Development: Lead the complete software development lifecycle, including requirements analysis, architecture, implementation, testing, deployment, monitoring, maintenance, and lifecycle support.
• Manufacturing Data & Analytics: Design real-time and batch data pipelines that collect, validate, contextualize, and analyze equipment, process, alarm, and MES data.
• Operational Improvement: Use manufacturing data to support yield improvement, cycle-time reduction, predictive maintenance, quality control, tool utilization, and operational decision-making.
• Cross-Functional Delivery: Translate manufacturing and engineering requirements into reliable technical solutions. Coordinate with fab users, infrastructure teams, cybersecurity, database administrators, vendors, and global IT organizations.
• DevOps and Quality: Establish source control, automated testing, CI/CD, observability, and release-management practices suitable for high-availability manufacturing systems.

• Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline.
• Experience: Five or more years of software engineering, application engineering, systems integration, or production-support experience in semiconductor manufacturing or a comparable high-availability manufacturing environment.
• Semiconductor Manufacturing Knowledge: Strong understanding of fab operations, equipment states, lots, wafers, recipes, routes, resources, chambers, carriers, reticles, work-in-process, genealogy, and production traceability.
• MES Expertise: Hands-on experience implementing, integrating, administering, or supporting a semiconductor MES. Experience with dispatching, workflow configuration, equipment interfaces, data collection, or recipe management is strongly preferred.
• Equipment Connectivity: Practical experience with SECS-I/II, HSMS, GEM, GEM300, EDA/Interface A, OPC, message-oriented middleware, REST/SOAP services, or comparable equipment-integration technologies.
• Software Engineering: Proficiency in Java, C#/.NET, Python, or comparable enterprise programming languages. Strong knowledge of object-oriented design, APIs, multithreading, integration patterns, automated testing, and secure coding practices.
• Data and Platforms: Strong SQL and relational-database skills, with experience using Linux/Unix, shell scripting, application servers, message queues, and monitoring tools. Experience with Oracle, SQL Server, or similar platforms is beneficial.
• Delivery and Operations: Experience with Git-based source control, CI/CD, automated deployment, change control, monitoring, troubleshooting, and highly available production systems.
• Cloud and Containers: Experience with cloud platforms, Docker, Kubernetes, or similar technologies is beneficial where applicable to the manufacturing environment.
• Communication and Leadership: Ability to lead technical initiatives, document complex systems, communicate effectively with manufacturing and engineering users, manage competing priorities, and make sound decisions during production incidents.