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About Us
Georgia Tech prides itself on its technological resources, collaborations, high-quality student body, and its commitment to building an outstanding and diverse community of learning, discovery, and creation. We strongly encourage applicants whose values align with our institutional values, as outlined in our strategic plan. These values include academic excellence, diversity of thought and experience, inquiry and innovation, collaboration and community, and ethical behavior and stewardship. Georgia Tech has policies to promote a healthy work-life balance and is aware that attracting faculty may require meeting the needs of two careers.
About Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech is a top-ranked public research university situated in the heart of Atlanta, a diverse and vibrant city with numerous economic and cultural strengths. The Institute serves more than 45,000 students through top-ranked undergraduate, graduate, and executive programs in engineering, computing, science, business, design, and liberal arts. Georgia Tech's faculty attracted more than $1.4 billion in research awards this past year in fields ranging from biomedical technology to artificial intelligence, energy, sustainability, semiconductors, neuroscience, and national security. Georgia Tech ranks among the nation's top 20 universities for research and development spending and No. 1 among institutions without a medical school.
Georgia Tech's Mission and Values
Georgia Tech's mission is to develop leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition. The Institute has nine key values that are foundational to everything we do:
- Students are our top priority.
- We strive for excellence.
- We thrive on diversity.
- We celebrate collaboration.
- We champion innovation.
- We safeguard freedom of inquiry and expression.
- We nurture the wellbeing of our community.
- We act ethically.
- We are responsible stewards.
Over the next decade, Georgia Tech will become an example of inclusive innovation, a leading technological research university of unmatched scale, relentlessly committed to serving the public good; breaking new ground in addressing the biggest local, national, and global challenges and opportunities of our time; making technology broadly accessible; and developing exceptional, principled leaders from all backgrounds ready to produce novel ideas and create solutions with real human impact.
Location
Atlanta, GA
Department Information
The Institute for Matter and Systems is one of Georgia Tech's Interdisciplinary Research Institutes. IMS brings together researchers across fields and operates shared fabrication and characterization facilities with more than 250 instruments, including more than 23,000 square feet of cleanroom space. The facilities serve users from academia, industry, and government and are part of the NSF-funded National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure.
Job Summary
The Institute for Matter and Systems is seeking a Research Engineer to serve as a technical leader within its shared microelectronics research infrastructure. The position owns and advances research capabilities in semiconductor fabrication and process integration, advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration, and device and interconnect characterization.
The Research Engineer develops new processes and methods, ensures that IMS capabilities produce reliable and research-quality results, supports facility users, collaborates on challenging academic and externally sponsored research, and provides opportunities to pursue independent applied research in a highly dynamic academic environment. The role combines hands-on experimental work with technical leadership, user development, applied research, and responsibility for helping IMS determine where to build future capability.
Responsibilities
Own and Advance Research Capabilities
Serve as the technical authority for semiconductor fabrication and process integration, advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration, and device and interconnect characterization. Define validated methods, baseline processes, performance metrics, and reproducibility standards, and integrate tools into reliable workflows for semiconductor devices, MEMS, photonics, sensors, advanced materials, and wide-bandgap research.
Develop New Processes Methods and Technology Platforms
Lead experimental development beyond standard equipment recipes. Use feasibility studies and designed experiments to define technical limits and advance successful methods through characterization, qualification, documentation, and user deployment.
Areas may include:
Semiconductor fabrication and process integration. Develop integrated process flows using photolithography, direct-write lithography, RIE, ICP, DRIE, PVD, CVD, ALD, thermal and wet processing, and metallization.
Advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration. Develop workflows for redistribution layers, electroplating, TSV/TGV integration, wafer bonding, die attach, lamination, metallization, wafer-level processing, and heterogeneous integration.
Device interconnect and package characterization. Develop electrical testing and validation methods using probe stations and parameter analyzers, including interconnect and package characterization, reliability assessment, and failure analysis.
Pursue Collaborative or Independent Research
Collaborate with Georgia Tech faculty, students, startups, industry, government laboratories, and sponsored research teams to translate research questions and device requirements into executable experiments. Select methods, integrate techniques, troubleshoot failures, interpret results, and contribute to proposals, reviews, reports, presentations, and publications. Pursue independently funded research aligned with IMS priorities.
Steward Scientific and Technical Performance
Maintain the scientific integrity, readiness, and performance of assigned capabilities. Lead acceptance, qualification, calibration, baseline monitoring, and root-cause troubleshooting. Define requirements for maintenance, repairs, upgrades, and process changes, coordinating with IMS staff, vendors, service engineers, and research partners as needed.
Train, Mentor and Sustain Institutional Knowledge
Train and qualify students, researchers, staff, and internal and external users in experimental design, process integration, measurement, troubleshooting, and reproducible use of shared infrastructure. Maintain standard operating procedures, recipes, training materials, baseline data, best practices, and troubleshooting guidance so institutional knowledge remains accurate and transferable.
Shape Future IMS Technical Direction
Identify emerging needs and technology trends to guide IMS capability roadmaps and investments. Recommend and commission new equipment, methods, and platforms; support proposals and partnerships; and build faculty and external collaborations. Initiate applied research aligned with IMS priorities in fabrication, packaging, integration, and characterization
Required Qualifications
This position vacancy is an open rank announcement. Final job offer will be dependent on candidate qualifications in alignment with Research Faculty ranks as outlined in section 3.2.1 of the Georgia Tech Faculty Handbook (https://www.policylibrary.gatech.edu/faculty-handbook/3.2.1-research-faculty-hiring-and-promotion=-guidelines)
Research Engineer I
Bachelor's Degree in engineering/science or related field.
Research Engineer II
A master's degree in science, engineering or related area, and three (3) years of relevant full-time experience after completion of that degree, or
A master's degree in science, engineering or related area, and five (5) years of relevant full-time experience after completion of a bachelor's degree, or
A Doctoral degree
Senior Research Engineer
A Master's degree and seven (7) years of relevant full-time experience after completion of that degree, or
A Master's degree and nine (9) years of relevant full-time experience after completion of a Bachelor's degree, or
A Doctoral degree and four (4) years of relevant full-time experience after completion of a Bachelor's degree.
Preferred Qualifications
Significant hands-on experience in semiconductor fabrication, micro/nanofabrication, or semiconductor process integration.
Demonstrated experience in experimental research, process development, experimental design, data analysis, and technical problem-solving.
Experience operating in cleanroom or advanced semiconductor fabrication environments.
Ability to work collaboratively with faculty, graduate researchers, technical staff, and external research partners.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to effectively engage diverse technical users and multidisciplinary research teams.
Research experience in semiconductor devices, MEMS, photonics, sensors, advanced materials, wide-bandgap semiconductors, or related micro/nanotechnology areas.
Experience developing fabrication processes using lithography, plasma etching, thin-film deposition, metallization, thermal processing, or wafer-level process integration.
Experience in advanced packaging, wafer-level packaging, electroplating, RDL, TSV/TGV processing, wafer bonding, or heterogeneous integration.
Experience in semiconductor device electrical characterization, packaging validation, reliability testing, or failure analysis.
Experience independently developing new experimental methodologies, research capabilities, or technology platforms.
Experience contributing to multidisciplinary research projects, sponsored research programs, technical publications, conference presentations, or research proposals.
Experience working in shared research facilities, university core laboratories, national laboratories, or semiconductor industry R&D environments.
Demonstrated ability to independently drive technical projects while collaborating effectively within multidisciplinary research teams.
Required Documents to Attach
Please provide three professional references.
Contact Information
For additional information about this job opening, please contact Cecelia Jones, [email protected]
USG Core Values
The University System of Georgia is comprised of our 25 institutions of higher education and learning as well as the System Office. Our USG Statement of Core Values are Integrity, Excellence, Accountability, and Respect. These values serve as the foundation for all that we do as an organization, and each USG community member is responsible for demonstrating and upholding these standards. More details on the USG Statement of Core Values and Code of Conduct are available in USG Board Policy 8.2.18.1.2 and can be found on-line at https://www.usg.edu/policymanual/section8/C224/#p8.2.18_personnel_conduct.
Additionally, USG supports Freedom of Expression as stated in Board Policy 6.5 Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom found on-line at https://www.usg.edu/policymanual/section6/C2653.
Equal Employment Opportunity
The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. The Institute is committed to maintaining a fair and respectful environment for all. To that end, and in accordance with federal and state law, Board of Regents policy, and Institute policy, Georgia Tech provides equal opportunity to all faculty, staff, students, and all other members of the Georgia Tech community, including applicants for admission and/or employment, contractors, volunteers, and participants in institutional programs, activities, or services. Georgia Tech complies with all applicable laws and regulations governing equal opportunity in the workplace and in educational activities.
Equal opportunity and decisions based on merit are fundamental values of the University System of Georgia ("USG") and Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech prohibits discrimination, including discriminatory harassment, on the basis of an individual's race, ethnicity, ancestry, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age, disability, genetics, or veteran status in its programs, activities, employment, and admissions. Further, Georgia Tech prohibits citizenship status, immigration status, and national origin discrimination in hiring, firing, and recruitment, except where such restrictions are required in order to comply with law, regulation, executive order, or Attorney General directive, or where they are required by Federal, State, or local government contract.
Background Check
A successful candidate must be able to pass a background check. Please visit: https://usg.policystat.com/policy/19298143/latest
Role Details
About This Role
Research Engineers bridge the gap between research and production. They implement papers, build experiment infrastructure, optimize training pipelines, and make research prototypes production-ready. They're the engineers who make research work at scale.
The role sits at a unique intersection. You need to understand the math well enough to implement novel architectures correctly, and you need the engineering chops to make them run efficiently on distributed systems. When a research scientist has a breakthrough idea, you're the person who turns it from a notebook prototype into a training pipeline that runs on 256 GPUs.
Across the 8,943 AI roles we're tracking, Research Engineer positions make up 3% of the market. At Georgia Tech, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Research Engineer roles are growing as AI labs recognize that research velocity depends on engineering quality. The role is less competitive than Research Scientist (no PhD required), but the bar for engineering skill is very high. These roles are concentrated at major labs and well-funded startups.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week involves: implementing a new attention mechanism from a recent paper, profiling and optimizing a training pipeline that's bottlenecked on data loading, building evaluation infrastructure for a new benchmark, debugging distributed training issues across a GPU cluster, and pair-programming with a research scientist on their latest experiment. The work is deeply technical.
Research Engineer roles are growing as AI labs recognize that research velocity depends on engineering quality. The role is less competitive than Research Scientist (no PhD required), but the bar for engineering skill is very high. These roles are concentrated at major labs and well-funded startups.
Skills in Demand for This Role
Strong software engineering fundamentals plus ML knowledge. Python, C++, and CUDA experience are common requirements. You'll need to read papers and turn ideas into working code. Distributed systems experience (especially distributed training) is highly valued. Performance optimization skills separate great candidates from good ones.
Experience with large-scale training infrastructure (FSDP, DeepSpeed, Megatron), GPU programming (CUDA, Triton), and the internals of ML frameworks (PyTorch internals, custom autograd functions) is what makes candidates stand out. The best research engineers can debug issues that span the full stack from GPU memory management to numerical precision to algorithmic correctness.
Strong postings mention the team's recent research, the infrastructure scale, and the specific technical challenges. They often list the research areas you'd support. Look for roles that emphasize both implementation quality and research understanding.
Compensation Benchmarks
Research Engineer roles pay a median of $252,000 based on 419 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $228,700.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $213,380. Top-quartile compensation starts at $264,148. The 90th percentile reaches $319,310. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($253,100) and AI Engineering Manager ($251,622). By seniority level: Entry: $110,408; Mid: $193,200; Senior: $228,700; Director: $272,250; VP: $235,000.
Georgia Tech AI Hiring
Georgia Tech has 5 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer, Research Scientist, Research Engineer. Positions span Atlanta, GA, US, Smyrna, GA, US. Compensation range: $110K - $170K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 6% (521 positions) offer remote work, while 8,351 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (2,878 roles, $221,000 median); San Francisco (2,416 roles, $263,811 median); Los Angeles (1,340 roles, $210,000 median).
Career Path
Common paths into Research Engineer roles include Software Engineer, ML Engineer, Research Intern.
From here, career progression typically leads toward Senior Research Engineer, Research Scientist, ML Architect.
This is one of the best entry points into AI research without a PhD. Build a strong engineering portfolio with ML projects, contribute to open-source ML frameworks, and demonstrate that you can implement complex ideas correctly and efficiently. The transition to Research Scientist is possible with published first-author work, which some research engineer roles support.
What to Expect in Interviews
Technical screens test both engineering skill and research understanding. Expect coding rounds with performance-critical implementations (GPU optimization, efficient data loading). Be prepared to discuss papers relevant to the team's research area and explain how you'd implement key ideas. System design questions focus on training infrastructure: distributed training, experiment tracking, and compute resource management.
When evaluating opportunities: Strong postings mention the team's recent research, the infrastructure scale, and the specific technical challenges. They often list the research areas you'd support. Look for roles that emphasize both implementation quality and research understanding.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 8,943 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 175 entry-level, 4,132 mid-level, 3,268 senior, and 1,368 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 6% of the market (521 positions). The remaining 8,351 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $213,380. Top-quartile compensation starts at $264,148. The 90th percentile reaches $319,310. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($253,100 median, 57 roles); Research Engineer ($252,000 median, 419 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($251,622 median, 51 roles).
Research Engineer roles are growing as AI labs recognize that research velocity depends on engineering quality. The role is less competitive than Research Scientist (no PhD required), but the bar for engineering skill is very high. These roles are concentrated at major labs and well-funded startups.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 8,943 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (6,739), AI Product Manager (403), AI Software Engineer (402). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (175) are outnumbered by mid-level (4,132) and senior (3,268) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 1,368 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 6% of all AI roles (521 positions), with 8,351 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $213,380. Top-quartile roles start at $264,148, and the 90th percentile reaches $319,310. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $253,100 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $141,440. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (1,422 postings), Aws (808 postings), Azure (638 postings), Rag (555 postings), Gcp (457 postings), Pytorch (433 postings), Claude (341 postings), Kubernetes (337 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
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