Principal Research Engineer, Equipment Engineering (FAB), IME

A*STAR RESEARCH ENTITIES; Singapore; On-site; SGD 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading research organization in Singapore is seeking a seasoned professional for a leadership role in equipment performance and engineering. The position requires 10+ years of experience in semiconductor equipment engineering, managing teams and driving advanced data analytics alongside AI solutions. Candidates should have a robust technical background in semiconductor processes and effective leadership skills. This role offers the opportunity to shape the future of equipment reliability and operational excellence within a dynamic R&D environment.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in semiconductor equipment engineering and team management.
• Deep technical knowledge of semiconductor fabrication processes.
• Experience with robotics implementation and advanced data analytics.

Responsibilities

• Lead equipment safety and Total Preventive Management (TPM).
• Develop strategic roadmap for equipment capability and technology upgrades.
• Provide leadership and mentorship for Equipment Engineers and Technicians.
• Manage departmental budgets for CapEx and OpEx.
• Drive advanced data analytics and AI/ML solutions for equipment performance.

Skills

Leadership

Technical knowledge

Interpersonal skills

Data analytics

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related field

Tools

SPC

FMEA

Lean Manufacturing tools

Job description

Responsible for the overall health, performance, and continuous improvement of tools. You will provide strategic direction, technical leadership, managerial oversight to ensure equipment uptime, reliability, and performance to meet the standards of a R&D environment. Your leadership will be instrumental in driving key metrics such as Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), Mean Time To Repair (MTTR), cost reduction via alternate parts/materials qualification and enabling AI capability for predictive maintenance (PdM).

Key Responsibilities

• Lead equipment safety as priority and practice Total preventive management (TPM) with the equipment and process teams.
• Develop and drive a strategic roadmap for equipment capability, obsolescence management, technology upgrades across critical tools and robotics implementation for productivity efficiency.
• Provide direct leadership, mentorship, and career development for a team of Equipment Engineers and Technicians.
• Manage departmental budgets, including capital expenditure (CapEx) for new tools and operational expenditure (OpEx) for spare parts and maintenance.
• Operational Excellence & Equipment Performance: ownership for key performance indicators (KPIs) such as Uptime, Availability time, OEE, MTBF, and MTTR.
• Drive and implement advanced data analytics, preventive maintenance (PM) and AI/ML solutions to transform equipment performance and fault prediction. Lead root cause analysis (RCA) and failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) for chronic and major tool issues, implementing effective corrective and preventive actions (CAPA).
• Develop and implement long-term sustainability roadmap for fab tools, adopting green technology and reduction in carbon footprint, utilities consumption, gas emission.
• Partner and collaborate with Process Engineering, Operations, and Facilities to enhance tool reliability, increase throughput, reduce cost-of-ownership, and improve particle performance.
• Work with cross-Functional team to play a key role in the evaluation space, facility infrastructure readiness, and installation of new tools. To ensure new tools are setting up and qualified on schedule, meeting all performance and reliability specifications.
• Knowledge in driving paths towards AI implementation, creation of agentic AI in areas of cost, equipment performance and operational excellence.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Physics, or a related field
• Preferable 10+ years of experience in the semiconductor equipment engineering, with proven track record of managing equipment engineering team and a leadership/management role
• Deep, hands-on technical knowledge of semiconductor fabrication processes in different modules, with one or more key semiconductor process tools (e.g., Etch, CVD, PVD, Lithography, Implantation, CMP).
• Experience in robotics implementation
• Strong leadership, presentation, and interpersonal skills, with the proven ability to influence and align technical and executive stakeholders.
• Extensive experience with SPC, FMEA, RCA, and Lean Manufacturing principles.
• Preferable experience in a greenfab or brownfab expansion/ramp environment.