HPC Systems Engineer

Company Overview

KLA is a global leader in diversified electronics for the semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem. Virtually every electronic device in the world is produced using our technologies. No laptop, smartphone, wearable device, voice-controlled gadget, flexible screen, VR device or smart car would have made it into your hands without us. KLA invents systems and solutions for the manufacturing of wafers and reticles, integrated circuits, packaging, printed circuit boards and flat panel displays. The innovative ideas and devices that are advancing humanity all begin with inspiration, research and development. KLA focuses more than average on innovation and we invest 15% of sales back into R&D. Our expert teams of physicists, engineers, data scientists and problem-solvers work together with the world’s leading technology providers to accelerate the delivery of tomorrow’s electronic devices. Life here is exciting and our teams thrive on tackling really hard problems. There is never a dull moment with us.

Group/Division

KLA has always had a close relationship with physics and data. Our optical and electron beam inspection and measurement tools use cutting edge physics models, both for hardware design and as part of their algorithms. AI, including several traditional machine learning techniques and deep learning are routinely used to process this data to meet application requirements. The AI & Modeling Center of Excellence was setup with the mission of advancing KLA’s traditional strengths in physics and data and providing implementation solutions for multiple KLA Inspection and Metrology products targeted at the semiconductor manufacturing industry. The AI & Modeling Center of Excellence is part of the company’s Central Engineering organization providing product development expertise in a critical area for a wide variety KLA products. As a part of this group, you will be part of a world class team of physicists, HPC system designers, machine learning and application engineers who build cutting edge solutions for modeling complex imaging techniques and semiconductor processes. You will also work with a data scientists and AI infrastructure engineers whose mission is to build and scale machine learning based solutions for our semiconductor customers. We are looking for engineers in a few different fields. If you are passionate about Physics Modeling, High Performance Computing - HPC (including GPU), Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Data Sciences, or cutting-edge Cloud technologies – this is the place for you!

Job Description/Preferred Qualifications

As an AI Infrastructure Engineer, you will research, evaluate, and develop next-generation hardware and software technologies that enable large-scale AI and machine learning workloads across KLA. You will help design and build the infrastructure that powers model training, inference, networking, storage, data protection, and emerging agentic AI systems. This role sits at the intersection of systems engineering, AI platform development, MLOps, and DevOps, ensuring that AI teams have reliable, scalable, high-performance infrastructure to develop, train, deploy, and operate AI solutions. You will also define and develop reference architectures and platform standards that can be embraced across KLA products and engineering organizations, enabling secure, cost-effective, and repeatable AI infrastructure deployments.

Responsibilities

• Design & Build AI Infrastructure: Architect, deploy, and operate scalable, secure, and cost-effective AI platforms, distributed training environments, and model serving systems.
• Research & Innovation: Evaluate emerging technologies in AI infrastructure, compute, storage, networking, orchestration, and security, and develop reference designs for enterprise adoption.
• Hardware & Software Orchestration: Bring up, integrate, and lead AI compute infrastructure while diagnosing hardware, firmware, operating system, and platform issues.
• Data & Storage Management: Design and maintain high-performance storage, networking, and data pipelines supporting large-scale AI workloads.
• Performance & Reliability: Develop observability and monitoring solutions, optimize AI workload performance, and ensure infrastructure meets reliability and availability targets.
• Security & Compliance: Implement security-by-design principles including encryption, identity and access management, secrets management, and AI data security. Contribute to the architecture and implementation capabilities for protecting AI workloads, intellectual property, and sensitive data at KLA.
• Collaboration: Partner with AI researchers, data scientists, software engineers, IT, and security teams to align platform capabilities with business and product needs.

Tools you will use in the role:

• Technical Skills: Linux administration, Kubernetes/Docker, Slurm, Ray, TensorFlow, PyTorch, GPU/TPU optimization, containerization, orchestration, and programming skills.
• Infrastructure Knowledge: High speed networking, storage systems, virtualization, and server management.
• AI/ML Integration: Understanding of model training, fine‑tuning, RAG pipelines, and agentic AI systems
• Automation & Scripting: Bash, Python, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code (IaC).
• Security: TPM-based encryption, Kubernetes security (RBAC, OPA/Gatekeeper), container security.

Qualifications:

• Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related field
• 5–8 years in systems engineering, DevOps, or ML infrastructure
• Hands‑on experience building AI/GPU cluster

Minimum Qualifications

Doctorate (Academic) Degree and 0 years related work experience; Master's Level Degree and related work experience of 3 years; Bachelor's Level Degree and related work experience of 5 years

Base Pay Range: $136,300.00 - $231,700.00 Annually

Primary Location: USA-CA-Milpitas-KLA

KLA’s total rewards package for employees may also include participation in performance incentive programs and eligibility for additional benefits including but not limited to: medical, dental, vision, life, and other voluntary benefits, 401(K) including company matching, employee stock purchase program (ESPP), student debt assistance, tuition reimbursement program, development and career growth opportunities and programs, financial planning benefits, wellness benefits including an employee assistance program (EAP), paid time off and paid company holidays, and family care and bonding leave.

Interns are eligible for some of the benefits listed. Our pay ranges are determined by role, level, and location. The range displayed reflects the pay for this position in the primary location identified in this posting. Actual pay depends on several factors, including state minimum pay wage rates, location, job-related skills, experience, and relevant education level or training. We are committed to complying with all applicable federal and state minimum wage requirements where applicable. If applicable, your recruiter can share more about the specific pay range for your preferred location during the hiring process.

               

KLA is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We will ensure that qualified individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us at [email protected] or at +1-408-352-2808 to request accommodation.

Be aware of potentially fraudulent job postings or suspicious recruiting activity by persons that are currently posing as KLA employees.  KLA never asks for any financial compensation to be considered for an interview, to become an employee, or for equipment. Further, KLA does not work with any recruiters or third parties who charge such fees either directly or on behalf of KLA. Please ensure that you have searched KLA’s Careers website for legitimate job postings.  KLA follows a recruiting process that involves multiple interviews in person or on video conferencing with our hiring managers.  If you are concerned that a communication, an interview, an offer of employment, or that an employee is not legitimate, please send an email to [email protected] to confirm the person you are communicating with is an employee. We take your privacy very seriously and confidentially handle your information.