Senior Software Systems Engineer - USA
About Nearfield Instruments
Nearfield Instruments is a scale-up bringing together some of the world’s most creative minds in science and technology. We develop revolutionary high-throughput Atomic Force Microscopy systems that provide atom-scale 3D metrology at production-level throughput.
Our technology helps leading semiconductor manufacturers solve complex process-control challenges. We design, develop, integrate, and support advanced metrology systems for next-generation semiconductor manufacturing.
As we continue to expand in the United States, we are looking for an experienced Senior Software Systems Engineer who can connect customer needs and field experience with our software development organization.
What will you be doing?
As Senior Software Systems Engineer, you will act as the technical bridge between our customers, the U.S. field organization, and our Research & Technology Development software teams.
This is not primarily a software development or coding position. Your main responsibility is to understand how our software and equipment perform in a semiconductor manufacturing environment. You will gather and analyze customer requirements, investigate system issues, and translate operational needs into clear, actionable requirements for our RTD teams.
You will work directly with customers and internal engineering teams to improve system functionality, stability, usability, and productivity. This requires a strong system-level mindset and the ability to understand how software interacts with hardware, automation, motion control, and other parts of a complex semiconductor metrology system.
Your responsibilities
Act as the primary software systems expert supporting Nearfield equipment at customer sites.
Engage with customers and field teams to gather, analyze, and clarify operational and software requirements.
Translate customer needs and field observations into clear functional requirements, improvement requests, and problem statements for RTD software teams.
Serve as the voice of the customer when discussing software priorities and product improvements.
Troubleshoot software, system-integration, and platform issues across complex semiconductor metrology equipment.
Determine whether system issues originate from software, hardware interfaces, automation, configuration, networking, or other system interactions.
Work closely with RTD software teams to investigate defects, define required improvements, and validate corrective actions.
Install, configure, validate, and support software releases, upgrades, patches, service packs, and hot fixes.
Validate new software functionality in a customer environment before broader deployment.
Support root-cause investigations involving software, hardware, motion control, automation, and overall system performance.
Partner with Applications, Service Engineering, Systems Engineering, Program Management, and Product Development to improve product performance.
Develop troubleshooting guides, best-known methods, and field documentation.
Support software-related customer escalations requiring detailed technical analysis and cross-functional coordination.
Assist with customer demonstrations, product evaluations, and new product introductions.
Travel to customer locations in the United States and periodically to Nearfield’s headquarters in the Netherlands.
What do we require from you?
Our ideal candidate combines semiconductor manufacturing experience with strong systems understanding, requirements-gathering capabilities, and customer-facing communication skills.
You understand how software operates within advanced capital equipment, but your strength is not limited to writing code. You can work with customers to identify their real operational needs, ask the right technical questions, and translate complex input into structured requirements for software and engineering teams.
Desired qualifications
Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Physics, or a related technical discipline.
At least eight years of experience supporting complex capital equipment, integrated hardware-software products, or similarly advanced technical systems.
Direct experience with semiconductor manufacturing equipment, semiconductor metrology, wafer processing, inspection, process control, or factory automation is strongly preferred.
Experience working in or directly supporting semiconductor fabs and technically demanding customer environments is highly valued.
Demonstrated experience gathering, analyzing, documenting, and translating customer or product requirements into actionable software requirements.
Strong system-level understanding of how software interacts with hardware, motion control, automation, networking, databases, and system communications.
Experience troubleshooting distributed software applications in Windows and/or Linux environments.
Ability to distinguish between software, hardware, configuration, networking, and system-integration issues during root-cause analysis.
Experience working with software development teams to define requirements, investigate defects, prioritize improvements, and validate solutions.
Experience supporting software releases, upgrades, patches, configuration management, and version control.
Strong customer-facing communication skills and the ability to explain complex technical topics clearly.
Ability to manage multiple priorities and coordinate activities across global engineering teams.
Ability to work independently in a customer environment while maintaining close alignment with internal stakeholders.
Definition of success
You will be successful in this role when you can:
Build credibility with semiconductor customers and understand their manufacturing environment.
Identify the real operational need behind a customer request or system issue.
Translate customer and field requirements into clear, structured input for RTD teams.
Troubleshoot complex interactions between software, hardware, automation, and system performance.
Drive issues and improvement requests from initial investigation through validation and implementation.
Improve the reliability, usability, and productivity of Nearfield’s systems in the field.
Strengthen collaboration between customers, the U.S. field organization, and our development teams.
What can you expect from us?
You will join a technically demanding environment where your contribution will directly influence the performance and evolution of Nearfield’s software platform.
You will work closely with customers and global engineering teams on some of the world’s most advanced semiconductor manufacturing technologies. Your understanding of customer requirements and field performance will help shape future product capabilities and improve customer productivity.
At Nearfield Instruments, we believe our people are our greatest competitive advantage. We rely on each other’s expertise, encourage initiative, and create an environment where collaboration leads to exceptional results.
If you have experience with complex semiconductor equipment and enjoy turning customer challenges into effective system and software improvements, we look forward to hearing from you.
