DEPARTMENT MANAGER (DESIGN)

About the job

The Senior Manager of Sustaining Product Engineering leads product engineers responsible for the health of released wafer/foundry-based products and power modules in high-volume production. The role covers the full flow: wafer fab, module assembly, and production test. It drives stable manufacturing and continuous yield, quality, and cost improvement. It reports to the Director of Product and Test Sustaining Engineering and partners with Test Engineering, Operations, Quality, Reliability, and foundry and OSAT/assembly partners.

A defining expectation of this role is using data to detect problems early, identify root causes, and drive timely action. The leader builds a data-driven culture in which product health is monitored continuously across wafer, assembly, and test rather than reviewed after the fact.

Job Description

Product Health & Issue Resolution

• Lead sustaining product engineers in resolving production issues across wafer, module assembly, and test, including yield excursions, test escapes, and reliability concerns.
• Drive root cause analysis and closed-loop corrective actions (8D, 5-Why).
• Partner with Quality and Operations on customer returns and field reliability issues.
• Monitor product KPIs (yield, DPPM, test cost, cycle time) and drive corrective actions.

Data-Driven Monitoring & Action

• Establish and own product health dashboards and KPIs (yield, DPPM, test cost, cycle time, scrap, return rates) across wafer, assembly, and test, with clear thresholds and owners.
• Use SPC, parametric trends, and cross-process correlation (wafer sort to module final test to returns) to detect excursions and drift before they affect customers or supply.
• Turn data into decisions: prioritize the highest-impact issues by quantified yield, cost, and risk, and drive each to owned, time-bound corrective actions.
• Run regular data-driven reviews with Operations, Quality, Test, and partners, enforcing action tracking and closure.
• Challenge conclusions with data, including partner-reported data, and require evidence of root cause and effectiveness of corrective actions.
• Drive automation of data collection and analysis, and use modern analytics tools to scale across product lines.
• Coach engineers to apply analytics and to communicate data-based findings clearly to leadership.

Yield Improvement & Cost Optimization

• Drive yield improvement through data analytics, SPC, parametric monitoring, and defect reduction across wafer, assembly (die attach/sinter, wire/clip bond, molding, substrate), and test.
• Use test data and correlation to separate test-related from process- or assembly-related yield loss.
• Deliver cost reduction through test time reduction, multisite optimization, and scrap reduction.

Production Test Execution

• Own product-side execution of production test for wafer sort and module final test, including test coverage, guardbands, limits, and escape prevention.
• Partner with Test Engineering on test conversions across ATE platforms, ensuring correlation, stability, and scalability in manufacturing.
• Support hardware/software transitions (testers, handlers, load boards, test programs) and test cell qualification at OSATs and internal sites.
• Drive test cost optimization with automation and SPC.

Foundry, OSAT & Assembly Partner Management

• Serve as the technical interface to foundry, assembly, and test partners for sustaining issues, process excursions, performance reviews, and corrective actions.
• Support qualification and release of additional lines, sites, and tools, ensuring readiness for high-volume production.
• Partner with Operations on demand/capacity balancing and risk mitigation.

Reliability & Change Management

• Work with Reliability on module qualification and monitoring (power cycling, thermal cycling, HTRB).
• Own PCNs, ECOs, and manufacturing transfers, including assembly material and process changes, with minimal production disruption.
• Support EOL and last-time-buy activities.

Team Leadership

• Build, mentor, and develop a high-performing sustaining product engineering team across sites and regions.
• Drive standardization, best-known methods, and lessons-learned sharing across product lines and factories.
• Support the Director on headcount, budget, and roadmap planning.

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering or related field (Master’s preferred).
• 10+ years of semiconductor experience in Product Engineering, Test Engineering, or Manufacturing, with at least 5 years leading teams in high-volume production.
• Experience managing multi-site or multi-region teams and working cross-functionally without direct authority.
• Demonstrated ability to use data analytics (SPC, yield and parametric analysis, trend and correlation analysis) to identify issues and drive measurable improvements and closure of corrective actions.
• Strong working knowledge of ATE and production test methodologies, and of yield analysis, failure analysis, and root cause methods.
• Understanding of wafer fab, assembly/packaging, and test flows.
• Experience working with OSATs, external manufacturers, and ATE/equipment suppliers.

Preferred

• Experience with power modules or power packaging (IGBT/SiC/GaN modules, power stages, PMICs).
• Hands-on knowledge of module assembly processes and failure modes.
• Experience with foundry interfaces and wafer parametric data.
• Proficiency with data analysis tools and platforms (e.g., JMP, Spotfire, Python/SQL, Power BI/Tableau) and experience building dashboards or automated monitoring.
• Experience with test conversions and ATE platform strategy.
• Experience with PCN/ECO processes, SPC and data analytics systems, and automation.
• Familiarity with automotive, industrial, or data center power reliability requirements.

Renesas is an embedded semiconductor solution provider driven by its Purpose, To Make Our Lives Easier. With a global team of over 21,000 engineers and problem solvers in more than 30 countries, we offer the opportunity to work on world‑leading technology for Automotive, Industrial, Infrastructure, and IoT, shaping a safer, healthier, greener, and smarter future.

At Renesas, TAGIE is our culture, grounded in being Transparent, Agile, Global, Innovative, and Entrepreneurial. It shapes how we work, grow and deliver on our purpose together. This collaborative spirit and mindset drive our semiconductor technology to transform industries and impact millions of lives.

We believe in rewarding our employees with a competitive benefits package alongside their salary. More information will be provided during the hiring process.

Are you ready to join our team and shape the future with us?

Renesas Electronics is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer, committed to supporting diversity and fostering a work environment free of discrimination on the basis of sex, race, religion, national origin, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, military status, veteran status, or any other basis protected by law. For more information, please read our Diversity & Inclusion Statement.