Headquarter Application Engineer Photonic Solutions

Around 80 percent of all microchips worldwide are produced using ZEISS technologies. As the centerpiece of every electronically controlled system, they have become an integral part of our everyday lives - whether in smartphones, smart homes or smart factories. ZEISS is a technology leader in the field of semiconductor manufacturing equipment. With high-precision lithography optics, photomask systems and process control solutions, ZEISS enables the production of ever smaller, increasingly powerful, and more energy-efficient microchips, and thus plays a pivotal role in the age of micro- and nanoelectronics.

The Business Incubation department incubates innovative product ideas by developing and building demonstrator systems in close collaboration with international end customers and SSCs.

Your Role

• You shape new customer applications in application-driven incubation projects for photonics-related technologies (e.g., PIC testing) and translate early customer needs into viable application concepts and demonstrators.
• You own tests, validations, and customer acceptances for new application solutions and demonstrators, ensure smooth handovers, and enable scalable knowledge transfer through documentation and training.
• You become the person with the deepest end-to-end understanding and hands-on experience of the product, its application space, and the customer use cases it enables.
• Over time, you provide technical guidance to an international application engineering team, creating clarity and direction in a dynamic incubation environment at the interface of photonics, semiconductor applications, and emerging customer use cases.
• You are a trusted contact for field application engineers and internal and external stakeholders, structure complex data and problems, and support sound decisions also in critical customer situations.
• You work closely with product management, RnD, software development, hardware-related functions, and customer- or site-facing teams.

• You have a degree in natural sciences or engineering, for example in physics or materials science, and combine strong technical understanding with curiosity, sound judgment, and fast learning.
• You bring practical experience in semiconductor, photonics, or application-related environments and think customer-oriented, entrepreneurial, and implementation-focused.
• You understand complex technical interdependencies in photonics-related application development, measurement methodology, and the interaction of software, measurement applications, and hardware, and can explain them clearly to different audiences.
• You keep an overview in complex, cross-site projects, set clear priorities, and act with ownership, precision, and a strong hands-on mindset.
• You communicate confidently and respectfully, enjoy teamwork, and can moderate different interests with assertiveness, diplomacy, and sound judgment.
• You are comfortable in an international environment, bring excellent English skills and willingness to travel, and interact professionally with customers, partners, and colleagues.