Equipment Engineering Manager, Wet Etch/CMP

About the role

Responsible for Wet Etch Equipment Engineering area for scheduled and unscheduled maintenance activities, new equipment installations/start up, and continuous equipment performance improvement. Directly manage a team of Equipment Engineers and Equipment Technicians with 4 shift coverage (24x7) supporting production with focus on Wet tools such as DNS SU2000, DNS FC-821L, SEZ223, FSI Mercury, Naura-Akrion Gama and Rear Mount benches.

Responsibilities

• Manage resources daily, including off -hours/weekends, to optimize equipment maintenance activities with a focus on top bottleneck tools, leading problem solving for difficult equipment failures, delivering on time PMs, providing adequate manpower coverage, and ensuring parts availability to support Production.
• Identify and initiate projects to improve equipment performance (based on Pareto analysis eliminating chronic/repeat failures), reliability, product cycle time, and yield.
• Focusing on repeat down events and implement systems to ensure these types of events are addressed under a permanent corrective action maintenance activity.
• Meet set metrics goals based on business need and work on solving obstacles, escalating issues, and needed resources.
• Assign critical equipment metrics to Engineers that align with the Tower Operations business requirement (Availability, MTBF, MTTR, CoV, wafer scrap, PM compliance).
• Track and monitor engineering improvement projects, and execution scheduling to ensure set deadlines are met.
• Technical and non-technical coaching and mentoring for equipment engineering staff. Solving conflicts and promoting a teamwork environment. Use 1:1 methodology.
• Manage administration activities, goal setting and Annual Performance Reviews, and track performance. Address low performing employees and provide roadmap for improvement and disciplinary actions if needed.
• Drive quality implementation system and improvement for Wet/CMP equipment engineering in assigned area.
• Manage costs for Wet/CMP department and be the gatekeeper for budget spending to stay below planned AOP. Control spare parts inventory and reduce cost through improvement or second sourcing without compromising quality.
• Manage and optimize service contracts to achieve low cost and adequate coverage for equipment services.
• In conjunction with Human Resources, ensure skill requirements are planned for and met in the most cost-effective way while maintaining a highly productive work environment.
• Participate in Wet and CMP core teams and work in cross-functional groups: Process, Facility, Production and R&D.
• Maintain open communication and periodically communicate to the team about Wet/CMP area key metrics, equipment performance, and projects updates.

Requirements

• 10 years or more of direct hands-on Semiconductor Fab experience in the Wet Etch area with 3 to 5 years of management experience.
• Bachelor of Science degree with an emphasis on Electrical/Electronics, Opto-electronics, or Electro-mechanical Engineering, or related field experience is required.
• Candidate must possess strong leadership/management skills, including listening, communication, project management, motivational, and teamwork skills.
• Candidate must have knowledge of wafer processing with a solid understanding of Wet/CMP Equipment and troubleshooting capabilities.
• Knowledge of optical systems, electrical, and electronic circuitry is required.
• Strong knowledge of lean manufacturing and Cycle Time theories is strongly preferred.