Process, Equipment, Device: What Chip Engineers Actually Do, and Why Titles Mislead

Open a Korean chipmaker's job posting for the first time and the job titles are where most people stall: process technology, process design, equipment technology, manufacturing technology, device, PI. They sound alike. The work differs a lot.

Worse, the same word means different things at different companies. This piece uses only the job descriptions Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have published to separate the three core engineering roles, and then asks why the distinction matters to investors.

Three points up front

• Samsung's DS memory business lists nine job families; process design, process technology and equipment technology correspond to what are usually called device, process and equipment roles.

• The Korean word "seolbi" means equipment at Samsung but fab infrastructure (buildings, power, gases) at SK hynix. SK hynix's equipment engineers sit inside "manufacturing technology".

• The US Semiconductor Industry Association estimates 67,000 jobs could go unfilled by 2030, 41% of them engineers, and 45% of the engineer gap at master's level.

What is confirmed and what is not

Confirmed: Samsung DS memory lists nine families: circuit design, test and analysis, process design, process technology, equipment technology, package development, software, sales and marketing, and production management (Samsung DS careers site).

Confirmed: Samsung's equipment technology role covers preventive (PM) and breakdown (BM) maintenance to raise uptime, plus parts management for cost reduction.

Confirmed: SK hynix's manufacturing technology combines process engineers (recipe evaluation and optimisation) and equipment engineers (set-up, PM, fault response), with yield, quality, efficiency and process stability as goals (SK hynix Talent Hub).

Confirmed: SK hynix's "seolbi" role lists architecture, mechanical and electrical engineering as related majors, because it designs, builds and runs fab infrastructure (SK Careers Journal, March 28, 2023).

Not verified: "equipment roles always mean shift work". A 2022 press report said new equipment engineers spend years on shifts, but this varies by company, site and period, and no official rule was found.

Device and PI: deciding what to build

Samsung's process design role designs devices to meet product specifications, designs the sequence of hundreds of process steps, and sets the production baseline for volume products. At SK hynix, PI within the device family is the closest match, described as coordinating process, design and product teams to bring a product to market. A Samsung newsroom interview called the role "the owner of the product". The numbers it answers for are yield and electrical characteristics.

Process: refining how to build it

Process technology develops conditions for each core step such as lithography, etch and deposition, and standardises them when defects appear. Optimal conditions shift with tools and materials, so much of the time goes to evaluating recipes and analysing measurement data. That is also why the listed majors range across electrical, materials, chemical, mechanical and physics.

Equipment: keeping it running

Samsung's equipment technology and SK hynix's manufacturing technology (equipment) set up tools, prevent failures through scheduled maintenance, and analyse and fix breakdowns. Samsung's newsroom interview named wafer output and uptime as the core metrics. In a factory lined with expensive tools running around the clock, idle time is cost.

Where the gap is largest: a hint from US data

No public Korean breakdown by role and degree exists, so US figures serve as a reference: of 67,000 potentially unfilled US chip jobs by 2030, 27,300 are engineers (41%) and 26,400 technicians (39%). Master's-level roles make up 45% of the engineer gap. These are US projections and do not transfer directly to Korea.

What it means for investors

Role	Where the money goes	Indicator
Device and PI	R&D spending	Node transition timing
Process	Materials and parts	Growth in step count
Equipment	Tools and service	Installed tool base

Each role is attached to a stream of spending. Node transitions load device and PI teams and R&D budgets; more process steps mean more materials; more installed tools mean more maintenance, parts and service revenue for equipment makers.

Risks to this view

• Job titles and scopes change with reorganisations; this piece reflects current public descriptions.

• Workforce gap figures are US projections.

• A downturn shrinks hiring across roles and can close a "shortage" quickly.

Sources

Samsung DS careers site job descriptions; SK hynix Talent Hub manufacturing technology interview; SK Careers Journal (Feb 2, 2021; Mar 28, 2023); Samsung Semiconductor Newsroom job interviews (Sep 7, 2017; Sep 6, 2018); Hankyung (Dec 11, 2022); SIA and Oxford Economics, "Chipping Away" (Jul 25, 2023).

Disclaimer: This post is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. All investment decisions are your own responsibility.