Director of Product Applications Engineer-Semiconductor

Critical Fit Recruiting; Rolla (MO); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Critical Fit Recruiting seeks a seasoned Director of Product Applications Engineer for semiconductor in Rolla, MO. This senior leader will guide the product applications organization as the global center for characterization, readiness, and technical collateral, enabling FAEs and commercial teams to accelerate customer design-in and profitable growth.

The role requires building a scalable team, defining ownership models, and delivering technically credible data packages, qualification

Qualifications

• 12+ years in semiconductor materials, process engineering, applications engineering, or advanced packaging.
• Strong understanding of customer qualification flows and semiconductor process integration.
• Proven success leading through complexity and organizational change.

Responsibilities

• Define team structure, responsibilities, priorities, and interfaces.
• Recruit, coach, and develop strong technical talent and establish performance expectations and operating cadence.
• Build a culture of ownership, urgency, rigor, and customer relevance and create a scalable organization capable of supporting portfolio growth.
• Implement a Product Application Owner model with one named technical owner per product or platform.
• Ensure accountability for BKMs, Application Notes, process recommendations, and data packages.
• Partner with Product Management to align technical collateral with market positioning and launch priorities.
• Provide FAEs and commercial teams with technical tools required to win opportunities, including data packages and troubleshooting support.
• Support strategic customer design-in opportunities for released products and translate customer learning into product requirements.

Skills

Leadership

Customer qualification flows

Semiconductor processes

Change management

Education

BS/MS/PhD in Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Chemistry, Physics, or related field

Job description

Director of Product Applications Engineer - Semiconductor - Rolla, MO

DESCRIPTION:

The Director, Product Applications is a senior technical leader responsible for leading the product applications organization as the global center of product characterization, application readiness, technical collateral, and commercial technical enablement. The Director plays a critical role in enabling the Field Applications Engineering (FAE) organization and commercial teams with the technical tools, data, expertise, and support required to accelerate customer design-in, qualification success, and profitable growth.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Define team structure, responsibilities, priorities, and interfaces.
• Recruit, coach, and develop strong technical talent and establish performance expectations and operating cadence.
• Build a culture of ownership, urgency, rigor, and customer relevance and create a scalable organization capable of supporting portfolio growth.
• Implement a Product Application Owner model with one named technical owner per product or platform.
• Ensure accountability for Best Known Methods (BKMs), Application Notes, process recommendations, application limits / process windows, and technical data packages.
• Maintain technical consistency across products, customers, and regions.
• Partner with R&D from concept through commercialization to define critical technical questions for each product.
• Build characterization strategies that determine performance requirements, failure modes, process sensitivities, customer-use conditions, and manufacturing readiness.
• Define and implement application methods, screening methods, qualification test plans, correlation studies, and acceptance criteria.
• Ensure test methods are relevant, repeatable, efficient, and credible for customer adoption.
• Translate development data into process guidance, product claims support, and release readiness decisions.
• Own development and maintenance of technical collateral supporting internal and external adoption.
• Build and maintain BKMs, Application Notes, integration guides, datasheet technical content, qualification support packages, troubleshooting guides, competitive technical summaries, and product training materials.
• Ensure collateral is accurate, current, differentiated, version-controlled, and globally accessible.
• Partner with Product Management to align technical collateral with market positioning and launch priorities.
• Provide FAEs and commercial teams with technical tools required to win commercial opportunities including data packages, process guidance, benchmark data, competitive positioning support, and troubleshooting support.
• Support strategic customer design-in opportunities for released products when deeper technical engagement is required.
• Prioritize technical resources against high-value commercial opportunities.
• Support strategic customer engagement for development materials where customer feedback can shape product direction.
• Participate directly in selected next-generation customer opportunities with R&D and FAEs.
• Translate customer learning into product requirements, test priorities, readiness gaps, and commercialization plans.
• Partner with R&D to improve product transfer and readiness.
• Partner with Product Management to align technical capabilities with market needs.
• Partner with Quality / Metrology to ensure relevant measurement methods and data integrity.
• Partner with Operations to support manufacturability and scale-up.
• Establish intake, prioritization, resource planning, and review cadence.
• Define KPIs tied to commercialization outcomes including time-to-first-data, time-to-qualification, product readiness cycle time, technical response time, evaluation-to-win conversion support, and collateral readiness at launch.
• Lead structured problem solving for critical product or customer issues.
• Build closed-loop voice-of-customer systems that continuously improve products and application guidance.

BACKGROUND PROFILE:

• BS/MS/PhD in Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Chemistry, Physics, or related field
• 12+ years in semiconductor materials, process engineering, applications engineering, or advanced packaging
• 5+ years leading technical teams
• Strong understanding of customer qualification flows and semiconductor process integration
• Proven success leading through complexity and organizational change

Preferred:

• Experience in lithography materials, packaging materials, temporary bonding/debonding, or process chemicals
• Experience leading product commercialization / NPI processes
• Global experience supporting customers across Asia, US, and Europe
• Experience with quality systems, FMEA, CAPA, or structured problem solving