Senior Dry Etch & Plasma Engineer for Production Scale

SMART Photonics; Eindhoven; On-site; EUR 43,000 - 94,000; Full time

Job summary

SMART Photonics in Eindhoven is seeking a Senior Dry Etch Engineer in the Plasma team to own dry etch and plasma process development, qualification, and optimization for our photonics components. You will ensure production-ready processes that are stable, scalable, and capable, while driving yield, capacity, quality, and cost improvements.

The role requires hands-on leadership, data-driven problem solving, and collaboration across Process Engineering, Equipment, Operations and R&D to bring new

Qualifications

• 7+ years of industrial experience in semiconductor processing, or a closely related manufacturing environment, with a strong background in dry etch and plasma etching.
• Proven experience with dry etching, preferably including III-V and/or InP processing.
• Experience in photonics or optoelectronics manufacturing is a strong advantage.
• Practical familiarity with dielectric thin film deposition techniques (such as PECVD) and surface coating interactions.
• MSc degree in relevant technical fields such as Materials Science, Physics, Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related discipline. Highly relevant PhD research may be considered.
• Strong understanding of semiconductor fabrication and plasma processing, with demonstrated experience improving process performance in a production environment.
• Hands-on experience with process characterization, optimization, SPC, DOE, FMEA, statistical analysis, and structured root-cause analysis.
• Experience with process qualification, tool qualification, equipment/process release, and introduction of new dry etching processes or equipment into manufacturing.
• Strong project management skills, with the ability to define problems, structure an approach, coordinate stakeholders, and drive projects through to implementation and measurable results.
• Able to work effectively across teams, such as Process Engineering, Equipment, Operations and R&D, communicating technical topics clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Proactive, hands-on, and solution-oriented, with a strong bias toward action and practical problem solving.

Responsibilities

• This includes owning dry etch and plasma process development, qualification, and optimization for photonics components.
• You will ensure production-ready processes that are stable, scalable, and capable while driving yield, capacity, quality, and cost improvements.
• You will translate technical challenges into manufacturing solutions and lead projects from process optimization to tool qualification and release.
• You will support the technology roadmap for InP and other III-V semiconductor technologies, turning concepts into reliable production processes.

Job description

SMART Photonics in Eindhoven is seeking a Senior Dry Etch Engineer in the Plasma team to own dry etch and plasma process development, qualification, and optimization for our photonics components. You will ensure production-ready processes that are stable, scalable, and capable, while driving yield, capacity, quality, and cost improvements.

The role requires hands-on leadership, data-driven problem solving, and collaboration across Process Engineering, Equipment, Operations and R&D to bring new