Who We Are

Applied Materials is a global leader in materials engineering solutions used to produce virtually every new chip and advanced display in the world. We design, build and service cutting-edge equipment that helps our customers manufacture display and semiconductor chips - the brains of devices we use every day. As the foundation of the global electronics industry, Applied enables the exciting technologies that literally connect our world - like AI and IoT. If you want to push the boundaries of materials science and engineering to create next generation technology, join us to deliver material innovation that changes the world.

What We Offer:

Salary:
$171,500.00 - $236,000.00

Location:
Santa Clara,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.

We are seeking a senior technology leader responsible for building, guiding, and scaling a high‑performing team of Functional Solution Architects who deliver innovative, cost‑effective, and scalable enterprise solutions. This leadership role goes beyond individual architecture execution its core mission is to drive architectural vision, develop talent, enforce standards, and ensure functional and cross‑domain alignment across major programs.
This leader will collaborate extensively with business partners, product and engineering leaders, and cross‑functional teams to ensure architectural consistency, strategic alignment, and long‑term scalability across the organization.

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership & Team Management:

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of Functional Solution Architects, ensuring clarity of roles, high performance, technical depth, and continuous professional growth.

• Establish architecture governance practices, reusable frameworks, and functional architectural standards adopted across programs.

• Provide coaching, feedback, goal‑setting, and succession planning to build long‑term architectural capability within the organization.

Architecture Strategy & Oversight:

• Define and own the overarching functional architecture vision and ensure architects' work aligns with enterprise strategy and business outcomes.

• Review and approve high‑level functional architecture, solution designs, integration patterns, and cross‑application data flows.

• Ensure all solution blueprints created by the team are scalable, maintainable, and aligned with enterprise principles.

• 1. Cross‑Functional Influence & Stakeholder Management

• Serve as the primary functional architecture representative in discussions with business units, program leadership, PMO, engineering, and product teams.

• Champion functional alignment across domains and proactively influence decisions affecting process design, system behavior, and cross‑application interactions.

• Facilitate and oversee design workshops, functional requirements alignment, and cross‑team architectural sign‑offs.

Technical Leadership & Governance:

• Guide the team through complex architectural decision‑making, enforcing standards, best practices, and architectural integrity across programs.

• Oversee technical reviews across team deliverables, ensuring compliance with performance, security, and regulatory expectations.

• Drive the identification and mitigation of architectural risks across multiple projects and portfolios.

Program & Delivery Support:

• Ensure architects provide required support across discovery, design, development, testing, and rollout phases of enterprise initiatives.

• Serve as a senior escalation point for architecture‑related challenges, conflicts, or design decisions.

• Align team capacity and assignment strategy to program priorities, ensuring the right architectural support at the right time.

Quality Assurance & Continuous Improvement:

• Continuously evaluate existing systems and architectures to identify improvement opportunities and reduce functional or technical debt.
• Establish and promote reusable functional patterns, reference models, and standardized documentation.
• Monitor industry trends and emerging technologies to evolve the organization's architecture practices.

Qualifications:

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related field.
• Master's degree is preferred.

Experience:

• 15+ years of progressive experience in enterprise systems, functional or solution architecture, or large‑scale systems design.
• 3-5+ years in a leadership role managing architects or technical design teams.
• Demonstrated success delivering large‑scale enterprise or multi‑system solutions.
• Experience in MES, MCS, ERP, or semiconductor‑related systems is a strong plus.
• Deep understanding of cloud ecosystems (AWS, Azure, GCP), microservices, and enterprise integration.
• Strong background in Agile delivery and DevOps‑aligned practices.

Skills

• Deep expertise in architectural design patterns (SOA, microservices, event‑driven, cloud‑native).

• Strong understanding of cross‑application functional design and enterprise integration frameworks.

• Exceptional communication and storytelling skills for explaining complex architectures to senior stakeholders.

• Highly developed problem‑solving, negotiation, and conflict‑resolution abilities.

• Ability to balance multiple complex priorities while ensuring high‑quality architectural outcomes.

• Preferred Skills

• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure automation.

• Familiarity with ITIL or enterprise service management frameworks.

• Architecture certifications (TOGAF, AWS, Azure, etc.) are highly desirable.

• Leadership & Soft Skills

• Inspirational leadership with the ability to elevate both people and architecture maturity.

• Ability to influence across diverse stakeholder groups, including business, engineering, and executive leadership.

• Strong customer orientation and business‑value mindset.

• Demonstrated ability to drive clarity, alignment, and delivery excellence across complex programs.

Additional Information:

Time Type: Full time

Employee Type: Assignee / Regular

Travel:No

Relocation Eligible:
No

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 Accommodations_Program@amat.com, 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.