Process Support Engineer III

Who We Are

Applied Materials is the global leader in materials science and engineering solutions that are at the foundation of virtually every new semiconductor chip and advanced display in the world. The equipment that we create and service is essential to advancing AI and accelerating the commercialization of next-generation semiconductor chips. Join us and push the boundaries of materials science and engineering in a company at the foundation of the electronics industry. The work we do together advances the world’s technology. 

What We Offer

Salary:

$108,000.00 - $148,500.00

Location:

Boise,ID

You’ll benefit from a supportive work culture that encourages you to learn, develop, and grow your career as you take on challenges and drive innovative solutions for our customers. We empower our team to push the boundaries of what is possible—while learning every day in a supportive leading global company. Visit our Careers website to learn more. 

At Applied Materials, we care about the health and wellbeing of our employees. We’re committed to providing programs and support that encourage personal and professional growth and care for you at work, at home, or wherever you may go. Learn more about our benefits. 

As a Process Support Engineer (PSE), you'll play a critical role in guiding products through their entire lifecycle, from initial concept to final qualification. You will provide high-visibility customer support through on-site installations, system diagnoses, and the service and repair of complex systems and equipment. PSEs work closely with customers and R&D teams to develop leading-edge processes used to manufacture advanced semiconductor chips, and create hypothesis experiments and design of experiments (DOEs). You'll analyze data with statistics and compile reports with high-level conclusions on technically challenging process engineering experiments. Additionally, you will troubleshoot complex problems, perform root cause analyses, and resolve difficult process engineering and customer product issues. Process Support Engineers work across technologies such as: Chemical Vapor Deposition, Atomic Layer Deposition, Plasma Reactive Ion Etch, Physical Vapor Deposition, Anneal and Implant.

Applied Materials is seeking a Process Support Engineer III (E3) to join our team supporting a customer account in Boise, ID.

The successful candidate will develop expert-level command of one process area, build working knowledge of a second, and act as the on-the-ground bridge between Applied business units and the customer, translating technical progress into clear, decision-ready updates for both audiences.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the customer-facing process expert on assigned co-optimization projects, providing highly visible, on-site technical support at the customer fab.

• Develop and maintain expert-level proficiency in at least one core process area (Etch preferred, DDP/Gapfill, Epi) while completing structured on-the-job training in a second process area to build cross-BU breadth.

• Drive co-optimization work across multiple business units, owning DOE (design of experiments) scope, scorecard management, and trade-off analysis across the combined process flow.

• Travel to supporting business units as needed to participate in lab demo activity, data analysis, and recipe optimization work tied to the co-optimization program.

• Own qualification/demo execution end-to-end: readiness, primary technical ownership, systematic troubleshooting, and timely escalation of hardware or process risks with clear impact and recovery plans.

• Prepare and deliver polished internal and external status updates; run recurring update meetings and maintain centralized, review-ready documentation (reports, recipes, raw data).

• Understand customer milestones and decision timelines, and proactively alert management to roadblocks that could affect program schedule or outcomes.

• Support technology transfer of qualified processes into the customer’s production environment (e.g., transfer to HVM).

• Mentor and coach less experienced engineers, and share best-known-methods (BKMs) and lessons learned across the account team.

What Makes This Role Unique

Unlike a single-BU PSE role, this position sits at the intersection of multiple Applied Materials business units. The engagements require the ability to:

• Navigate the cross-BU landscape — coordinating priorities, data, and decisions across two or more product groups that don’t normally work side by side.

• Build early, trust-based relationships with the customer’s R&D and integration teams

• Communicate a single, coherent story to two audiences at once — translating BU-specific technical detail into a unified customer narrative, and translating customer priorities back into actionable BU asks.

• Operate with more ambiguity and less established playbook than a mature, single-tool support role, given the newer, fast-evolving nature of co-optimized solutions.

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a related technical field (or equivalent experience).

Years of Experience

• Approximately 7 years of relevant semiconductor process or equipment engineering experience.

Work Experience

• Demonstrated, hands-on process expertise in Etch (required), plus working experience in at least one additional process area (e.g., Deposition/DDP, SRP, CMP, Epi, or Metrology).

• Prior experience supporting semiconductor customers directly in a fab environment (installation, qualification, troubleshooting, or demo support) strongly preferred.

• Experience working across multiple internal teams or business units to deliver a combined technical outcome.

Skills

• Strong, confident customer communication skills — able to present technical results, risks, and recommendations clearly to both engineering and program-level customer stakeholders.

• Proven ability to work across business units and navigate competing priorities, ambiguity, and matrixed reporting relationships.

• Solid data analysis and DOE fundamentals; comfortable owning a technical narrative from raw data to executive-ready conclusion.

• Independent problem solver who escalates early and clearly when risks emerge.

• Ability to mentor and coach earlier-career engineers.

Languages

• English — fluent, required.

Additional Information

Time Type:

Full time

Employee Type:

Assignee / Regular

Travel:

Yes, 25% of the Time

Relocation Eligible:

Yes

The salary offered to a selected candidate will be based on multiple factors including location, hire grade, job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and with consideration of internal equity of our current team members. In addition to a comprehensive benefits package, candidates may be eligible for other forms of compensation such as participation in a bonus and a stock award program, as applicable.

For all sales roles, the posted salary range is the Target Total Cash (TTC) range for the role, which is the sum of base salary and target bonus amount at 100% goal achievement.

Applied Materials is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, citizenship, ancestry, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law.

In addition, Applied endeavors to make our careers site accessible to all users. If you would like to contact us regarding accessibility of our website or need assistance completing the application process, please contact us via e-mail at [email protected], or by calling our HR Direct Help Line at 877-612-7547, option 1, and following the prompts to speak to an HR Advisor. This contact is for accommodation requests only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications.