Software Architect

Who We Are

Applied Materials is the global leader in materials science and engineering solutions that are at the foundation of virtually every new semiconductor chip and advanced display in the world. The equipment that we create and service is essential to advancing AI and accelerating the commercialization of next-generation semiconductor chips. Join us and push the boundaries of materials science and engineering in a company at the foundation of the electronics industry. The work we do together advances the world’s technology.

What We Offer

Salary:

$152,000.00 - $209,000.00

Location:

Benicia,CA

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. 

The Software Architect defines and drives the technical vision, architecture, and design of complex software products and platforms. The role provides technical leadership across development teams and ensures solutions are scalable, reliable, secure, maintainable, and aligned with product strategy and business objectives.

Key Responsibilities

·    Define and own the end-to-end software architecture for assigned products, platforms, and major subsystems.

·    Translate product, functional, and non-functional requirements into robust technical solution concepts and architectural designs.

·    Lead architecture and design reviews, approve technical solutions, and establish software design principles, standards, and best practices.

·    Protect the product design from erosion by identifying technical debt, refactoring needs, infrastructure limitations, and long-term scalability risks.

·    Guide technology selection, system integration, API strategy, modularity, performance optimization, and modernization initiatives.

·    Collaborate with product management, systems, algorithms, hardware, DevOps, quality, and field teams to deliver end-to-end solutions.

·    Provide hands-on technical guidance through design reviews, code reviews, proof-of-concepts, and resolution of complex technical blockers.

·    Mentor technical leads and engineers, strengthen architectural thinking, and promote knowledge sharing across the engineering community.

·    Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend adoption based on technical value, risk, return on investment, and organizational alignment.

·    Support delivery and operational readiness by ensuring software quality, reliability, debuggability, maintainability, security, and performance.

Required Qualifications

·    Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related discipline.

·    10+ years of software engineering experience, including significant responsibility for architecture and system design.

·    Strong knowledge of software architecture patterns, object-oriented design, distributed systems, APIs, and modular application design.

·    Proficiency in one or more modern programming languages such as C++, C#, Java, or Python.

·    Experience with software development lifecycle practices, Agile delivery, CI/CD, DevOps, automated testing, and code-quality tools.

·    Proven ability to analyze complex requirements, make sound technical decisions, and communicate trade-offs to technical and business stakeholders.

·    Strong problem-solving, influencing, collaboration, and written and verbal communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

·    Experience architecting large-scale, high-reliability, customer-facing, industrial, or hardware-coupled software systems.

·    Knowledge of cloud-native technologies, containers, microservices, high-performance computing, AI/ML, or data-intensive architectures.

·    Experience in semiconductor equipment, inspection, metrology, imaging, automation, or other complex engineering domains.

·    Track record of leading technical transformation, reducing technical debt, and improving engineering productivity and product quality.

·    Experience working with globally distributed and cross-functional teams.

Leadership Expectations

·    Act as the technical authority for assigned products or platforms while building alignment across teams and architecture forums.

·    Balance business priorities, delivery commitments, product evolution, and accumulated technical debt.

·    Challenge weak solutions early, encourage critical thinking, and create clear decision records for major architecture choices.

·    Influence product and technology roadmaps through forward-looking architectural guidance.

·    Develop technical talent and create a culture of engineering excellence, accountability, and continuous learning.

Success Measures

·    Scalable, reliable, secure, and maintainable architecture that supports current and future product needs.

·    Reduction of architectural risk and technical debt with visible progress on planned refactoring.

·    Improved software quality, performance, testability, debuggability, and delivery predictability.

·    Successful adoption of architecture standards and reusable solutions across engineering teams.

·    Growth of technical leadership capability and reduced dependency on individual experts.

Additional Information

Time Type:

Full time

Employee Type:

Assignee / Regular

Travel:

Yes, 10% of the Time

Relocation Eligible:

Yes

The salary offered to a selected candidate will be based on multiple factors including location, hire grade, job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and with consideration of internal equity of our current team members. In addition to a comprehensive benefits package, candidates may be eligible for other forms of compensation such as participation in a bonus and a stock award program, as applicable.

For all sales roles, the posted salary range is the Target Total Cash (TTC) range for the role, which is the sum of base salary and target bonus amount at 100% goal achievement.

Applied Materials is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, citizenship, ancestry, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law.

In addition, Applied endeavors to make our careers site accessible to all users. If you would like to contact us regarding accessibility of our website or need assistance completing the application process, please contact us via e-mail at [email protected], or by calling our HR Direct Help Line at 877-612-7547, option 1, and following the prompts to speak to an HR Advisor. This contact is for accommodation requests only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications.