The Principal Software Engineer operates with a high degree of autonomy, provides technical leadership across projects, influences software architecture and engineering standards, and partners closely with hardware, manufacturing, quality, and product development teams to deliver scalable, reliable, and high-performance software solutions.
Key Responsibilities
Software Development & Architecture
Lead the design, development, enhancement, and maintenance of software applications supporting semiconductor manufacturing and test equipment.
Architect, develop, and implement new software features from requirements gathering through design, coding, integration, validation, and release.
Provide technical leadership in software architecture, design reviews, code reviews, and technology decisions.
Establish and promote software engineering best practices, coding standards, design patterns, and development methodologies.
Software Modernization & Migration
Lead the migration and modernization of legacy MATLAB applications into C#/.NET-based software platforms.
Define migration strategies, architecture roadmaps, validation plans, and software transition approaches.
Refactor, optimize, and enhance existing software to improve maintainability, scalability, performance, and reliability.
Evaluate new technologies and frameworks that support future software platform development.
Equipment & Hardware Integration
Develop software interfaces for semiconductor equipment, motion control systems, industrial automation components, instruments, sensors, cameras, and data acquisition hardware.
Collaborate with hardware, systems, and manufacturing engineers to ensure seamless integration between software and equipment platforms.
Support development of real-time control, automation, and data collection solutions.
Legacy Application Support
Maintain and enhance existing MATLAB and LabVIEW applications, including troubleshooting, debugging, sustaining engineering, and feature development.
Support legacy software systems through performance improvements, hardware interface updates, reliability enhancements, and defect resolution.
Develop long-term strategies for sustaining or modernizing existing software assets.
Software Quality & Reliability
Develop and maintain automated unit, integration, and system-level testing frameworks.
Partner with Software Quality Assurance teams to improve test automation, simulation environments, regression testing, and software verification processes.
Implement robust debugging, diagnostics, logging, and monitoring capabilities to improve software quality and maintainability.
Ensure software releases meet quality, performance, and reliability requirements.
Troubleshooting & Problem Resolution
Diagnose and resolve complex software defects, manufacturing issues, equipment integration problems, and customer escalations.
Lead root cause investigations involving software, hardware, and system interactions.
Implement corrective and preventive actions that improve system stability and operational performance.
DevOps & Development Process Improvement
Contribute to CI/CD pipelines, source control strategies, automated builds, deployment processes, and release management practices.
Drive continuous improvement initiatives focused on software efficiency, development velocity, maintainability, and quality.
Champion modern software engineering practices across the development organization.
Technical Leadership & Collaboration
Serve as a technical expert and mentor for software engineers and cross-functional development teams.
Lead technical reviews, architecture discussions, and complex engineering investigations.
Collaborate with Product Management, Systems Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, and Customer Support teams to deliver business-critical solutions.
Influence long-term technology strategies and software platform roadmaps.
Preferred Qualifications & Experiences
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related technical field.
Strong hands-on experience with C#/.NET and object-oriented software development.
Experience developing and maintaining MATLAB applications.
Experience working with or migrating MATLAB code/applications to C#/.NET.
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Ability to work effectively across software, systems, mechanical, electrical, controls, and applications engineering teams.
Experience with Silicon Photonics, semiconductor equipment, wafer probing, optical test, or automated test systems.
Experience with motion control, machine vision, instrumentation, data acquisition, or industrial automation.
Experience with Azure DevOps, Git, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and Agile development.
Skills
C (Programming Language), C#.NET, C++ Programming Language, Code Optimization, Code Refactoring, LabVIEW Development, MATLAB, MATLAB Programming, MATLAB Simulations, National Instruments LabVIEW, Software Architectural Design, Visual Studio C#
Education & Experience
Minimum of 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 3 years and a Master’s degree; or a PhD without experience; or equivalent work | Required
Pay Range
$94,100.00 - $123,480.00
Pay Range Explained
This role in Beaverton, Oregon pays between $94,100.00 and $123,480.00 per year, depending on your experience, skills, and background. Pay may vary in other locations. We offer a full benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, life insurance, disability coverage, a 401(k) with company match, employee stock purchase plan (ESPP), and paid time off. You’ll also be eligible for quarterly profit-sharing bonuses and flexible spending or savings accounts.
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
FormFactor is an equal opportunity employer. FormFactor complies with all national, state, and local laws that seek to promote equal opportunities for any applicant or employee without regard to age, race, color, gender, gender identity/expression, national origin, sexual orientation, religion, disability, marital status, pregnancy or related condition, military service, or any other legally protected characteristics. These protections apply to all aspects of employment, including but not limited to, recruitment, hiring, training, promotions, and compensation.
For roles that are designated as remote-eligible, employees cannot be located in: AL, AK, AR, DE, GA, HI, IL, IA, KY, LA, ME, MD, MS, MO, NE, NV, NJ, NM, ND, OK, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, WV, WI, WY. This list is continuously evolving and being updated, please check back with us if the state you live in is on the exclusion list. A role is remote-eligible only when it is listed as "Remote" in the job location.
