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Applied Materials

Builds equipment for chip and display factories

Physicist/Scientist 5

Full-Time
$161k - $221k+ Bonus + Stock award
Expert
Master's, PhD
Santa Clara, CA, USA
In PersonTravel required 20% of the time; relocation assistance is available.
Manufacturing & Process EngineeringProcess Engineering
Company Historically Provides H1B Sponsorship

About the job

Requirements
  • The candidate must have an MS or Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering, Electric Engineering, or equivalent.
  • The candidate must have 10–15 years of experience.
  • The candidate must have at least five years of hands-on experience in OPC, resist modeling, and SMO in semiconductors.
  • The candidate must have experience with computational lithography.
  • The candidate must have in-depth knowledge of lithography materials and processes.
  • The candidate must demonstrate strong problem-solving and creative-thinking skills.
  • The candidate must have excellent written and verbal communication skills for internal and external audiences.
  • The candidate must be flexible in working time.
Responsibilities
  • Technically lead or execute engineering projects and spearhead research and development of new technologies as appropriate.
  • Define experiments and determine the meaningful data required to support evaluations and technical decisions.
  • Lead or develop and execute significantly complex system projects.
  • Approve qualification results of complex modules.
  • Identify and troubleshoot a wide range of significantly complex problems.
  • Function as a specialist for physics and scientist issues, influencing and using expertise while interfacing with external and internal customers.
  • Develop and execute system projects, troubleshoot system problems, and define system specifications and schedules.
  • Interact regularly with senior managers on matters involving functional areas, departments, customers, projects, operations, and schedules, persuading others or gaining acceptance in sensitive situations.
  • Apply advanced principles, theories, and concepts, and contribute to developing new principles and concepts.
  • Participate in product risk-management discussions, using expertise to influence risk-management decisions.
  • Research new technologies and analyze competitor technologies.
  • Evaluate new technologies and plan and execute complex feasibility studies, leading the decision-making process.
  • Prepare and deliver papers or readouts about new technologies, and share and promote new ideas and capabilities.
  • Own OPC KW.
  • Own resist modeling, sampling plans, and data cleaning.
  • Own SMO/RET downselection.
  • Maintain OPC infrastructure.
  • Mentor less-experienced physicists and scientists.
  • Present OPC and modeling verification readouts to the team before final tape-out.
  • Lead projects with notable risk and complexity and develop the strategy for project execution.
  • Anticipate business and regulatory issues and recommend product, process, or service improvements.
  • Solve unique and complex problems with broad business impact using conceptual and innovative thinking.
  • Influence direction and resource allocation for programs, projects, or services within functional policies and industry guidelines.
  • Communicate complex ideas, anticipate potential objections, and persuade others, often at senior levels, to adopt a different point of view.
Desired Qualifications
  • Direct experience in the lithography process is a plus.

About the company

Applied Materials designs and builds precision machines that chipmakers and display manufacturers use to form, shape and inspect thin layers of material. Its platforms handle steps such as depositing films and removing unwanted material, helping chipmakers create transistors and wiring at atomic scale. Customers include makers of logic chips and memory, as well as manufacturers of advanced displays. The company earns money from equipment sales, replacement parts and services, and factory software that schedules production and monitors manufacturing processes. Applied Materials was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.

Company Size

10,001+

Company Stage

IPO

Headquarters

Santa Clara, California

Founded

1967

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Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Installed equipment brings repeat business: Applied Global Services sells long-term service agreements, replacement parts and equipment upgrades.
  • Sales are expanding: Applied's August 2026 report showed fiscal Q3 revenue of $9.12 billion, up 25% yearly.
  • Employees join profitable operations: Applied reported $3.08 billion of operating profit for fiscal Q3 in August 2026.

What critics are saying

  • Singapore manufacturing hires face late shifts: Applied's live engineering posting specifies 4 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. schedules.
  • Export compliance has real costs: Applied and its Korea subsidiary settled a $252 million penalty in February 2026.
  • Sales depend on China access: Applied's December 2025 filing attributed 30% of fiscal 2025 revenue to customers there.

What makes Applied Materials unique

  • Applied combines manufacturing steps under vacuum: its Endura copper platform integrates seven processes to protect delicate material interfaces.
  • Factory software reaches beyond chips: Applied SmartFactory serves battery and pharmaceutical manufacturers alongside semiconductor plants.
  • Research targets future chip generations: Applied's EPIC partners work on technology three to four generations ahead of production.

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Benefits

Health Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

Life Insurance

Disability Insurance

Relocation Assistance

Performance Bonus

Stock Options

Flexible Work Hours

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

0%

1 year growth

-1%

2 year growth

-1%
Yahoo Finance
Oct 14th, 2026
Applied Materials vs Intel: why the $9.1B-quarter equipment maker beats the foundry turnaround

A Motley Fool comparison of chip equipment maker Applied Materials and chipmaker Intel favours Applied Materials as the better 2026 buy, though the author suggests buying shares gradually. Applied Materials' revenue rose 25% to $9.1 billion in the quarter ended July 26, 2026, and net income rose 43% to $2.5 billion. Risks include cyclical demand and China, which made up 28% of revenue. In February 2026 it agreed to pay $252.5 million to settle US export allegations. Intel's second-quarter revenue also rose 25%, to $16.1 billion. It posted an $11.0 billion net loss, driven by a $12.5 billion noncash charge tied to its US government deal. Its foundry unit lost $2.1 billion, and an August share sale raising about $23 billion diluted existing owners. On valuation, Applied trades at 42.2x forward earnings against Intel's 77.7x.

Yahoo Finance
Oct 13th, 2026
Applied Materials targets 54% gross margin and $12B services revenue by 2030 on AI demand

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) expects to gain more than two percentage points of wafer-fab-equipment market share by 2030, driven by demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. The company outlined its strategy at the SEMICON West technology breakfast. Chief executive officer Gary Dickerson said AI spending is concentrating in leading-edge logic, DRAM memory and advanced packaging, which should make up about 75% of incremental industry growth. For 2030, Applied targets a 54% non-GAAP gross margin, a 40% operating margin and more than $12 billion in services revenue. It expects more than $1 billion in high-bandwidth-memory packaging revenue this year. The company plans to more than double its laboratory and manufacturing capacity, and return 80% to 100% of free cash flow to shareholders.

Yahoo Finance
Oct 12th, 2026
Applied Materials stock prices in 36.3% sales growth for fiscal 2027

Applied Materials stock trades at 39.5 times adjusted earnings for the past twelve months, despite sales growth of just 7.8% over the period. The price leans on forecasts that sales will rise 36.3% between fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2027, with profit growing 40.0%. Net margin is expected to widen from 27% in fiscal 2025 to 31% in fiscal 2027. On those estimates, the stock costs 38.7 times fiscal 2026 profit and 27.7 times fiscal 2027 profit. Sales growth reached 24.8% in the most recent quarter, up from declines earlier in the year. Management said clean room space at customers' factories will limit shipments in 2027, and costs could squeeze margins. The company presents to investors on October 13, 2026, at SEMICON West.

Fox Business
Oct 12th, 2026
Applied Materials CEO calls AI economy's biggest inflection point as $5B EPIC Center opens

Applied Materials chief executive officer Gary Dickerson called AI the biggest economic "inflection" point of our lifetime. He spoke about the company's $5 billion EPIC Center in Silicon Valley, its research into next-generation chips, and surging demand for AI chips. Dickerson made the remarks on "The Claman Countdown.

Yahoo Finance
Oct 12th, 2026
Applied Materials opens $5B EPIC Center, the world's largest chip equipment R&D facility

Applied Materials unveiled its Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialization (EPIC) Center in Sunnyvale, California, on October 12, 2026. The $5 billion facility is billed as the world's largest dedicated to collaborative semiconductor process technology and equipment R&D. Chipmakers, systems companies, equipment partners and universities will work alongside Applied's engineers. Founding partners are TSMC, Intel, Samsung Electronics, Micron and SK hynix. Broadcom, Advantest, SCREEN, KIOXIA and Besi join as innovation partners, along with five research universities. The 600,000-square-foot building holds nearly four acres of cleanroom space. It aims to remove the handoffs between materials research, equipment development and pilot production, speeding new chip technologies to volume manufacturing for the AI era. Applied expects capital spending to scale to about $5 billion as customer projects begin.