Engineering Director

About the role

SkyWater is seeking a Director of Engineering to provide executive-level leadership for all process engineering, process development, and yield optimization across the SkyWater Austin, TX facility. This role is responsible for strategic oversight of the fab's core process technologies and node development, and for leading a multidisciplinary team of engineers. The Director ensures long-term factory competitiveness by driving technology scaling, stabilizing process capabilities, and accelerating yield learning cycles to align with corporate financial and production goals. Will foster a culture of rigorous scientific excellence and serve as the primary technical bridge between fab operations and executive leadership.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Leadership & Roadmap Execution
  • Define the engineering vision and multi-year technology roadmaps aligned with corporate growth, yield scaling, and profitability goals.
  • Lead and mentor a multi-disciplinary team of engineering managers and individual contributors.
• Fab Operations & Continuous Improvement
  • Own the balanced scorecard metrics across all critical fab modules (e.g., Lithography, Etch, CVD/PVD Thin Films, Diffusion, Ion Implantation, CMP, and Metrology).
  • Maximize overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) by optimizing and ensuring process robustness.
  • Enforce Statistical Process Control (SPC), Lean Manufacturing, and Six Sigma methodologies to aggressively minimize process variability and accelerate defect reduction.
• Execute NPI Roadmaps & Technology Transfer
  • Collaborate directly with the Technology Development (TD) team to seamlessly transfer new process nodes into the fab, accelerating yield-learning ramps while maintaining baseline stability for existing high-volume manufacturing (HVM) products.
  • Process Window Qualification & Design Rules: Own the engineering qualification of new process windows, ensuring all structural design rules, metrology requirements, and process-capability indices (Cp/Cpk) are met before releasing new layers to production.
  • Manage capital expenditure (CapEx) budgets and operational budgets (OpEx) for tool capacity expansions and strategic engineering projects.
  • Direct relationships with major semiconductor OEM equipment vendors (e.g., ASML, Applied Materials, Lam Research, KLA) and manage service contract negotiations.
• Safety, Quality, & Regulatory Compliance
  • Maintain zero-compromise adherence to Environmental, Health, Safety, and Security (EH&S) policies, cleanroom GxP protocols, and industrial safety standards.
  • Ensure data integrity and strict full-material traceability at the individual wafer and lot levels using advanced Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES).

Requirements

• Education
  • Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Materials Science, Mechanical Engineering, Solid State Physics, or a closely related technical field.
  • Master’s degree or Ph.D. is highly preferred.
• Experience
  • Minimum of 12–15+ years of direct engineering experience within a high-volume semiconductor manufacturing cleanroom environment.
  • Minimum of 5–7+ years in a senior engineering management role, with a proven track record of scaling teams and driving complex, multi-million dollar engineering projects.
  • Extensive hands-on historical technical expertise in at least two core fab modules (e.g., Lithography, Dry Etch, CVD/PVD, or Defect Metrology).

Skills

• Technical Skills & Competencies
  • Expert knowledge of semiconductor physics, device architecture, and end-to-end wafer processing workflows.
  • Deep familiarity with factory automation frameworks, MES software systems (e.g., Siemens Opcenter/Camstar, SiView, PROMIS), and equipment communication protocols like SECS/GEM.
  • Strong command of data-driven analytics platforms (e.g., JMP, Spotfire, or SQL) used for advanced yield learning and root-cause analysis.
• Soft Skills & Leadership Qualities
  • Exceptional cross-functional collaboration capabilities to effectively act as a bridge between Fab Operations, IT, Finance, Supply Chain, and Quality Assurance.
  • Crisis-management adaptability, capable of steering technical teams through high-stakes, 24/7 production downtime anomalies or volatile supply chain bottlenecks.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and opportunity to participate in incentive plans.
• Employee financial benefits including 401k match, life insurance, and opportunities to purchase SkyWater stock at a discounted rate.
• Comprehensive benefits package promoting a healthy life, including:
  • Benefit eligibility from day one.
  • Medical, dental, mental health benefits, and vision.
  • Legal planning, short- and long-term disability.
  • Paid time off and paid holidays.
  • On-site cafeteria, fitness facility, and self-serve market.

SkyWater complies with federal and state disability laws and makes reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities unless doing so would cause undue hardship.