Lead AI Engineer — Semiconductor AI Innovation
- Compensation
- Not disclosed
- Location
- Wilmington-MA (Upton)
- Work setup
- Not specified
- Seniority
- Lead
- Employment
- Full time
- Experience
- 3+ years
- Category
- Ai engineering
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- 5+ years applied ML/AI experience, with 3+ years in a technical leadership role.
- Hands-on expertise with at least two of the following domains: Large Language Models - RAG, fine-tuning, agent frameworks, prompt optimization. Predictive Modeling - tool failure prediction, anomaly d
- Strong background in ML systems architecture and production deployment.
- Advanced Python proficiency: C++/CUDA familiarity is a plus.
- Experience with MLOps stacks: containers, CI/CD, Ray Serve/Triton, model registries (e.g., MLflow), and GPU optimization.
- Strong stakeholder collaboration skills and the ability to translate between engineering, operations, and leadership.
- Demonstrated success delivering AI-powered products into production.
Nice to have
- Familiarity with semiconductor manufacturing, inspection, or metrology.
- Understanding of fab interfaces and data connectivity (SECS/GEM, GEM300).
- Prior experience deploying digital twins or simulation-driven optimization.
- Knowledge of vector databases, retrieval pipelines, and hybrid search.
- Experience implementing safety, security, and IP protections for AI systems.
- Exposure to datasets or tools from KLA, ASML, Applied Materials, Onto, Nova, or similar inspection/metrology vendors.
Full description
Onto Innovation is a leader in process control, combining global scale with an expanded portfolio of leading-edge technologies that include: 3D metrology spanning the chip from nanometer-scale transistors to micron-level die-interconnects; macro defect inspection of wafers and packages; metal interconnect composition; factory analytics; and lithography for advanced semiconductor packaging. Our breadth of offerings across the entire semiconductor value chain helps our customers solve their most difficult yield, device performance, quality, and reliability issues. Onto Innovation strives to optimize customers’ critical path of progress by making them smarter, faster and more efficient.
Job Summary & Responsibilities
Lead AI Engineer — Semiconductor AI Innovation
Driving AI-Powered Solutions for Semiconductor Equipment Operations
Location: Wilmington, MA (On-site)
Team: AI & Advanced Analytics
Reports to: Senior Director, Engineering
Direct Reports: Will hire and lead a team of 3 AI/ML engineers
About Us
Onto Innovation is a worldwide leader in the design, development, manufacture and support of defect inspection, advanced packaging lithography, process control metrology, and data analysis systems and software used by semiconductor device manufacturers worldwide. Onto Innovation provides a full-fab solution through its families of proprietary products that provide critical yield-enhancing information and real time process control responses, enabling microelectronic device manufacturers to drive down the costs and time to market of their products. The Company’s expanding portfolio of equipment and software solutions is used in both the wafer processing and final manufacturing of ICs, and in adjacent markets such as FPD, and LED manufacturing.
We design and manufacture advanced semiconductor inspection and metrology tools. Our solutions power innovation for the world’s leading chipmakers. As the industry moves faster than ever, we believe AI will be a key enabler of smarter, faster, and more reliable decision-making in semiconductor manufacturing.
We’re building a new AI Innovation Team to explore, develop, and deploy cutting-edge machine learning systems across our product and process ecosystem. You’ll be our founding Lead AI Engineer, responsible for setting the vision, building the team, and delivering impactful AI solutions at scale.
About the Role
This is a hands-on technical leadership role. You will work closely with senior tool designers, process engineers, and applications teams to understand complex workflows and data flows. You’ll architect, prototype, and productionize AI solutions that accelerate innovation, improve yields, and reduce tool downtime. You will also grow and mentor a team of three engineers specializing in LLMs, computer vision, predictive modeling, and MLOps.