Senior Firmware & Software Engineer

To make electronics, you need chips, wafers, transistors, reticles, and... To make these, you must see, test and manufacture them at scale—faster and better than ever before. That's where KLA comes in. Whether you're early in your career or an experienced professional, you'll solve complex challenges, work alongside brilliant minds and help shape the future of technology.

Group/Division

The Semiconductor Products and Customers (Semi PC) business unit designs, builds and sells KLA’s product portfolio to help chip manufacturers meet high-quality standards for technologies like AI, data centers, automotive and electronic devices. Our inspection, metrology, and analytics systems detect and monitor defects across logic and memory chips, specialty semiconductors, wafers, reticles, advanced packaging, process equipment and materials. We also develop technologies for specialty processes, IC substrates, and PCB manufacturing, including etch and deposition, component inspection, and imaging and analytics. KLA Instruments™ is our instrumentation division, which designs advanced metrology and inspection instruments used in both R&D and production across industries and academia. Our tools—ranging from optical profilers and nano-indenters to thin film and defect inspection systems—enable precise surface and material analysis. We partner closely with customers to enable R&D, improve yield, optimize processes, and reduce production costs through innovative hardware, software and application expertise.

What You'll Do

In this role, you will play a key part in advancing business priorities by delivering high-impact work across your area of expertise.

As a Senior Firmware & Software Engineer on this team, you will design, develop, release, and support the embedded firmware and Windows desktop software that power our families of surface profiler, thin film, sheet resistance and nanoindentation measurement instruments. Working at the intersection of software, firmware, and electronics, you will build everything from low-level, real-time firmware running on instrument hardware to rich C#/.NET desktop applications, leveraging cutting-edge technologies and the latest advancements in software engineering and AI/ML/DL.

Responsibilities:

• Deliver well-defined features/components with high-level guidance: estimate work, communicate risks/tradeoffs, and deliver on schedule
• Collaborate cross-functionally across the development lifecycle to define architecture and create system- and subsystem-level requirements/specifications
• Design, implement, and debug embedded firmware (C/C++) for microcontrollers and real-time control of instrument hardware, including communication interfaces such as USB, Ethernet, serial/UART, SPI, and I2C
• Develop Windows desktop software in C#/.NET (WPF/WinForms) and C++ for instrument control, GUI, and data analysis; write maintainable, multithreaded code and use AI-assisted tools responsibly under company security policies
• Partner closely with electrical and hardware engineers on board bring-up, signal and schematic debugging, and firmware/hardware co-development using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and in-circuit debuggers
• Build robust unit/integration tests and use profiling to improve performance, memory usage, reliability, and security
• Participate in design reviews and incorporate feedback from stakeholders and subject matter experts
• Troubleshoot system/subsystem issues using logs and experiments; contribute to root-cause analysis, implement fixes with guidance, and help prevent recurrence
• Demonstrate motivation to independently learn and apply new software technologies

Travel - Occasional travel may be required to KLA headquarters, customer sites, or other business locations. Travel is expected to be less than 10% of working time.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree (required) + significant relevant experience; Master’s or advanced degree (desired) + relevant experience in Electrical, Computer, Software, Industrial, or Manufacturing Engineering, or Physics. A software engineer with a strong electrical engineering or hardware background is ideal.
• A solid understanding and demonstrated track record in the practice of software engineering fundamentals, including architecture, data structures, design patterns, event-driven design, multithreaded and real-time design, testing, and debugging.
• Experience with:
  • Microsoft .NET and C# for Windows desktop application development (WPF and/or WinForms)
  • C and C++ programming, including embedded firmware development
  • Embedded systems and microcontroller firmware, including real-time control and hardware communication protocols (USB, serial/UART, SPI, I2C)
  • Interfacing software and firmware with electronic hardware, and using lab instruments such as oscilloscopes and logic analyzers for debugging
  • Microsoft Visual Studio development environment
  • Source code control systems such as Git
  • Adherence to software design and coding standards
• Working knowledge of electronics with the ability to read schematics and component datasheets and collaborate effectively with electrical and hardware engineering teams
• Ability to communicate effectively with peers, interdisciplinary engineering groups, customers, and suppliers, including delivering clear technical presentations
• Adept at collaborating with teams across the US, Europe, and Asia
• Self-driven individual with strong technical ability, a systematic approach, and excellent problem-solving skills

Preferred:

• Experience contributing to architecture and design for complex subsystems and influencing technical decisions through strong design and code reviews
• Experience improving performance and diagnostics/observability for system-level software
• Experience with RTOS, bare-metal firmware, device drivers, and low-level debugging
• Familiarity with digital and analog electronics, sensors, motion control, and signal processing
• Experience collaborating across teams on system integration and software releases for complex systems
• Experience delivering AI/ML capabilities in products
• UX skills including wireframing, prototyping, and user flow design

Occasional domestic and international travel, including to the United States, may be required as part of this role

What we will offer you?

KLA’s benefits package includes:

Annual leave starting at 25 days (plus bank holidays), contributory pension scheme, cash health plan, cycle to work scheme, global bonus plan, share scheme, rewards scheme and life assurance

Minimum Qualifications

Doctorate (Academic) Degree and related work experience; Master's Level Degree and related work experience; Bachelor's Level Degree and related work experience

About KLA

We provide advanced inspection tools, metrology systems, process solutions, and computational analytics that make electronics possible, tackling complex challenges. From electron and photon optics to machine learning and data analytics, we seek perfection at the most fundamental level of matter in the universe. If you want to make electronics that push industries forward and make the world a better place, join us.

Use of AI Statement 

At KLA, our interviews seek to understand your individual skills, problem-solving approach and authentic thinking. To ensure a fair and consistent evaluation, the use of AI, recording tools or other technologies to generate, suggest or provide responses during interviews—whether virtual or in person—is not permitted unless explicitly approved in advance as part of a reasonable accommodation or invited by the interviewer. Use of these tools may interfere with our ability to evaluate your individual qualifications and affect your candidacy. KLA is committed to advancing innovation through responsible AI, and we value candidates who share this mindset.

We offer a competitive, family friendly total rewards package. We design our programs to reflect our commitment to an inclusive environment, while ensuring we provide benefits that meet the diverse needs of our employees.

KLA is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.