Director of Reliability Engineering — Programmable Optics

Lever, Inc.

Redmond (WA)

Hybrid

USD 160,000 - 190,000

Full time

10 days ago

Application generator

A complete application in a minute — tailored resume and cover letter, ready to send.

Get past ATS filters

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental and vision

FSA, HSA

PTO plus 14 paid company holidays

401K with 3% contribution

Stock Options

Life insurance and disability

Job summary

Lumotive is seeking a Director of Reliability Engineering to own reliability end-to-end for its LCM technology, ranging from physics-based degradation studies to the customer sign-off data package. You will define qualification strategy, translate mission profiles into stress conditions, and drive life-time modeling and design-for-reliability improvements.

Ideal candidates have 15+ years in semiconductor or optoelectronic reliability, hands-on failure analysis, and proven leadership in bringing

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, physics, materials science, or related fields.
Master’s or PhD in electrical engineering, physics, materials science, or related fields is preferred.
15+ years in semiconductor or optoelectronic reliability, failure analysis, or quality engineering, including leading a reliability function, team, or major qualification program
Proven track record taking a new technology from prototype through qualification into volume production — at least one program you can walk through end to end
Deep hands-on foundation: you have designed accelerated stress tests, done failure analysis, and built lifetime models, and can still work the data directly
Statistical fluency: time-to-failure distributions (Weibull, lognormal), acceleration modeling (Arrhenius, Peck), sample size and confidence planning, lifetime projection to use conditions
Rigor in experimental design and execution: controls, sample structure, stress levels, readpoints, and the discipline to hold a study to its plan
Experience with novel device technologies or material sets with undocumented failure modes — worked from first principles rather than an established qual flow
Experience translating customer mission profiles into qualification plans and lifetime requirements
Experience owning qualification at both component and module/system level
Working knowledge of JEDEC, AEC-Q100/Q102, and ISO, and the judgment to adapt them to devices they were not written for
Experience presenting qualification data directly to external customers and their quality organizations
Outstanding written and verbal communication; disciplined about documenting work
Intellectual curiosity and ownership: you think about what can fail constantly, and you dig until you understand why
Background in liquid crystal devices (LCoS, displays), MEMS, image sensors, or photonics is preferred.
Automotive or industrial qualification experience where your data was audited by a customer is preferred.
Experience building a reliability function from a small team, defining process where none existed is preferred.
Experience running split-lot DOEs with wafer fabs or materials vendors to improve intrinsic reliability is preferred.
Experience defining burn-in and production screening for early-failure elimination is preferred.
Experience with lidar, 3D sensing, or optical modules and their system-level tradeoffs is preferred.

Responsibilities

Own the reliability pipeline end to end — from fundamental LCM failure-mechanism studies through component, module, and system qualification, to the data package delivered for customer sign-off. You are accountable for our lifetime claims and the evidence behind them.
Own customer mission profiles. Work with sales, applications, and systems engineering to collect use conditions across a widening set of products — thermal and humidity profiles, duty cycles, optical exposure, power cycling, lifetime expectations — and convert them into qualification plans.
Run qualification surgically. Design each study to isolate the mechanism in question — controls, sample structure, stress levels, readpoints — and hold execution to that plan.
Un earth the failure modes we have not seen yet. Maintain a living map of known, suspected, and unexamined mechanisms across chip, package, and module, and design the experiments that close the gaps before a customer finds them.
Build lifetime models — time-to-failure distributions, acceleration factors, activation energies, sample size and confidence bounds — and defend the assumptions under customer scrutiny.
Close the loop into design and process. Drive Design for Reliability and Design for Test reviews so our products are stress-able and testable, and correlate reliability outcomes to fab process splits, materials, and assembly variables through split-lot DOEs with process and packaging partners.
Define screening strategy — pass/fail criteria, burn-in, production screens, and ongoing reliability monitoring — to keep early failures out of customer deliveries.
Represent reliability to customers. Present data, negotiate qualification scope, and answer customer quality teams directly.
Work across teams. Reliability touches LCM process and device, ASIC, hardware, systems, manufacturing, and program management; make sure a finding in one team turns into a decision in the others.
Build and lead the reliability team. Hire, mentor, and set the technical and documentation standard: every study written up with conclusions and next steps.