SW Technical Team Leader – Calibration Systems

Who We Are

Applied Materials is a global leader in materials engineering solutions used to produce virtually every new chip and advanced display in the world. We design, build and service cutting-edge equipment that helps our customers manufacture display and semiconductor chips – the brains of devices we use every day. As the foundation of the global electronics industry, Applied enables the exciting technologies that literally connect our world – like AI and IoT. If you want to push the boundaries of materials science and engineering to create next generation technology, join us to deliver material innovation that changes the world. 

What We Offer

Location:

Rehovot,ISR

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. 

Job Description: Senior Technical Team Leader – Calibration Systems 

We are looking for an experienced Senior Technical Team Leader to lead the development of calibration systems software for advanced electron microscope columns. 

What’s in it for you? 

You will lead a small, highly skilled team while remaining hands-on in architecture, design, and implementation. This role combines scientific computing, image processing, and distributed systems to enable fully automated calibration workflows used in semiconductor manufacturing and materials science. You will work at the intersection of software engineering, physics, and real laboratory hardware, building systems with real-world impact and stringent performance requirements. 

Our Group 

We are part of the R&D department of a major brand new and exciting Product, responsible for developing the next generation software and algorithm solutions that will power Applied Materials’ cutting-edge metrology and inspection system. 

What you'll be doing 

Technical Leadership 

• Lead architectural design and technical decision making for the Column Calibration System

• Establish and enforce coding standards and design patterns (Repository, Service Layer, Dependency Injection)

• Conduct code reviews with a strong focus on type safety, testability, performance, and scientific correctness

• Mentor 2–4 developers in Python best practices, scientific computing, and distributed systems

• Drive adoption and continuous improvement of AI-assisted development workflows

• Own technology stack evolution decisions and third-party library selection 

Hands-On Development 

• Architect and implement complex, stateful calibration workflows

• Design and build microservice-style solutions using REST and gRPC APIs

• Develop scientific computing modules using NumPy, SciPy, Pandas, and Matplotlib

• Implement robust numerical algorithms with fitting, retry, and fallback logic

• Optimize performance-critical image processing paths for real-time focus score calculation

• Build interactive web-based monitoring and visualization tools using Dash and Plotly 

• Develop hardware simulation modes to support algorithm development and automated testing

• Write comprehensive unit and integration tests 

Project Collaboration 

• Break down epics into clear, implementable stories with well-defined acceptance criteria

• Work closely with physicists and microscope operators to validate and refine calibration algorithms

• Participate in sprint planning, reviews, and retrospectives

• Document architectural decisions, APIs, and system designs

• Collaborate with DevOps on CI/CD pipelines, deployment, and system monitoring 

What you should have 

Experience 

• 8+ years of professional software development experience

• 3+ years in a technical lead or senior developer role

• 2+ years working on scientific computing or data-intensive systems 

Technical Skills 

• Expert-level Python, including type hints, async/await, and modern idioms

• Experience with FastAPI or similar Python web frameworks

• Strong background in NumPy, SciPy, Pandas, and Matplotlib

• Experience with Pydantic for data validation and serialization

• RESTful API design and OpenAPI/Swagger

• Microservices architecture and distributed systems

• Solid understanding of software design patterns (Repository, Service Layer, Dependency Injection) 

Software Engineering Practices 

• Unit and integration testing (pytest, unittest)

• Static type checking (mypy, Pylance)

• Git-based workflows and code reviews

• CI/CD pipelines and automated testing

• Docker and containerized deployments

• Linux-based development environments 

Scientific & Domain Knowledge 

• Numerical algorithms and optimization techniques

• Image processing fundamentals

• Familiarity with hardware control or instrumentation software 

Leadership & Communication 

• Proven experience mentoring and developing engineers

• Strong technical documentation and writing skills

• Ability to clearly communicate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences 

Education 

• B.Sc. in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field or equivalent industry experience with demonstrated expertise in scientific computing 

Preferred background areas include computational physics, applied mathematics, image processing, optics, microscopy, signal processing, or numerical analysis. 

Nice to have 

• Experience with Dash or Plotly 

• Familiarity with electron microscopy or semiconductor manufacturing equipment

• Performance profiling and optimization

• Async HTTP clients (httpx, aiohttp)

• Experience with C/C++ or Java backend development

• Linux system administration

• Agile/Scrum development experience 

Technology Stack 

• Python 3.9+

• FastAPI, Pydantic, Uvicorn 

• NumPy, SciPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, Pillow

• Dash, Plotly 

• pytest, mypy, Docker, Git

• MinIO, Redis, JSON-based storage

• Linux (Ubuntu) 

Who we are 

Applied Materials Israel is home to the Process Diagnostics and Control business unit (PDC). Based in Rehovot, we develop, manufacture, and market cutting-edge machine learni