Semiconductor Engineering Expert

Confidential; United States; Remote; USD 110,000 - 255,000; Part time

Job summary

Zekai is seeking a Semiconductor Engineering Expert for a fully remote contractor role. Candidates should have a Master’s or PhD in electrical engineering, materials science, or applied physics, plus principal‑level industry experience or a faculty appointment.

The work involves designing challenging problems, providing correct analyses, and setting objective criteria for grading solutions. Responsibilities include developing problems across device physics, process integration, circuit design,

Qualifications

• Master’s or PhD in electrical engineering, materials science, applied physics, or a closely related field.
• Principal, staff, or fellow-level experience at a major semiconductor company, or a faculty appointment at a leading university.
• Deep technical depth in at least one semiconductor subdomain with hands-on ownership of the work.
• Ability to explain why an answer is correct clearly for verification by another engineer.
• Publications, patents, or a record of technical leadership is a strong plus.
• AI or LLM evaluation experience is a plus, but not required.

Responsibilities

• Design difficult technical problems from your own area — device physics, process integration, circuit design, lithography, packaging, yield and reliability — with realistic constraints and supporting data.
• Provide the correct solution and walk through the reasoning that gets there.
• Define objective criteria for correctness, so another expert reviewing the work would reach the same verdict.
• Review problems built by other contributors for technical accuracy and soundness of method.
• Flag problems that turn out to be ambiguous or ungradable rather than submitting them.

Skills

Device physics

Process integration

Circuit design

Lithography

Yield & reliability

Education

Master’s or PhD in electrical engineering, materials science, applied physics, or related field

Job description

Role Title: Semiconductor Engineering Expert

Role Type: Contractor

Location: Remote

Opportunity Snapshot

Pay: $80- $185/hour

Commitment: Flexible — fits alongside your current role

Location: Fully remote

You’ll need: Master’s or PhD in electrical engineering, materials, physics, or a closely related field, plus principal-level industry experience or a faculty appointment

Your tasks: Build challenging technical problems from your own domain and define what makes an answer correct

You’ll be working on

The problems where the textbook answer isn’t enough, where the right approach depends on reading the constraints correctly, where a plausible-looking solution is quietly wrong. You’ll build those problems, provide the correct analysis, and define what separates a right answer from one that only looks righ

What you’ll do

• Design difficult technical problems from your own area — device physics, process integration, circuit design, lithography, packaging, yield and reliability — with realistic constraints and supporting data.
• Provide the correct solution and walk through the reasoning that gets there.
• Define objective criteria for correctness, so another expert reviewing the work would reach the same verdict.
• Review problems built by other contributors for technical accuracy and soundness of method.
• Flag problems that turn out to be ambiguous or ungradable rather than submitting them.

What we’re looking for

• Master’s or PhD in electrical engineering, materials science, applied physics, or a closely related field.
• Principal, staff, or fellow-level experience at a major semiconductor company, or a faculty appointment at a leading university.
• Deep technical depth in at least one semiconductor subdomain, with hands‑on ownership of the work.
• Able to explain why an answer is correct clearly enough that another engineer could verify it.
• Publications, patents, or a record of technical leadership is a strong plus.
• AI or LLM evaluation experience is a plus, but not required.

How the selection process works

• Profile review
• Onboarding — our Talent Ops team will get you set up

This is a 100% remote contract role, open to applicants worldwide in the countries the employer accepts.