Founding Semiconductor Engineering Lead

Touchdown Labs; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 190,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Benefits

Job summary

Touchdown Labs is seeking a Founding Semiconductor Engineering Lead to bridge chip, packaging, test, and manufacturing decisions with customer needs in mind. This role is based around a strong technical leadership posture and cross-functional influence across global teams in the semiconductor space.

You will own technical strategy across test, qualification, packaging, and process engineering, manage partner relationships, set engineering standards, and drive commitments to customers while

Qualifications

• 12+ years in semiconductor test, packaging, process, or product engineering.
• Delivered qualification or NPI programs customers accepted.
• Fluent English; Mandarin strongly preferred for Taiwan teams.

Responsibilities

• Technical strategy across test, qualification, packaging, and process work.
• Partner and vendor relationships.
• Hiring and engineering standards.
• Technical commitments to customers.

Skills

Semiconductor test

Semiconductor packaging

Semiconductor process

Technical leadership

Job description

Open role

Founding Semiconductor Engineering Lead

Our mission

AI is becoming fundamental to how the world works. When it is, the ability to compute, and to manufacture the hardware that computes, should not be concentrated in a few places. Touchdown's mission is to make compute accessible to the whole world and to reindustrialize advanced semiconductor manufacturing in the United States. We co-design everything for next-generation compute: the AI systems people use, the software that serves them, the architectures and chips underneath, and the packaging, test, and manufacturing that make them real. Co-design brings down the complexity and cost of building compute. That is what makes manufacturing in America competitive again, and what puts compute within reach of people and companies everywhere. We build alongside the world's best manufacturing ecosystems, including Taiwan's, and every role here makes one layer better and carries what it learns to the rest.

Why this role matters

Co-designing compute from software to silicon needs one technical leader who can connect chip, package, test, and manufacturing decisions to what systems and customers actually need.

Technical scope

Technical direction across test, qualification, packaging, and process engineering; engineering standards and review; build-versus-partner decisions; customer and partner technical commitments; hiring and developing senior engineers in Hsinchu and Santa Clara; safety and quality culture.

First 90 days

• Set technical priorities with the founders.
• Hire senior engineers across test, process, and quality.
• Establish engineering, safety, and quality standards.

What you will own

• Technical strategy across test, qualification, packaging, and process work.
• Partner and vendor relationships.
• Hiring and engineering standards.
• Technical commitments to customers.

What you bring

• 12+ years in semiconductor test, packaging, process, or product engineering, including leading teams.
• Delivered qualification or NPI programs customers accepted.
• Fluent English; Mandarin strongly preferred.

Helpful experience

• Building a team from zero

How we work

• AI-native by default. You use coding agents, AI-assisted analysis, and automation every day, and you check their output against measurements before anyone relies on it.
• We work alongside foundries, test houses, OSATs, and research labs, and we build with partners rather than against them.
• Touchdown does not operate a production fab today.
• Do not bring, send, or use confidential information or trade secrets from a current or former employer. We hire for skill and judgment, not for anyone else's process recipes.

How the role works

• Full-time.
• Location: Hsinchu, Taiwan
• Santa Clara, CA.
• Openings: 1.
• Taiwan roles are employed through a local employer of record. Mandarin is a strong plus for Taiwan roles; English is required for written work.
• Pay: $190,000–$250,000 base (Santa Clara, CA).
• Ranges are base pay for U.S. roles and depend on location, experience, and level. Full-time roles also include equity and benefits. Taiwan pay is set to the local market and discussed in the first call.
• Start date and employment details are discussed during the process.

Applications are reviewed against the work described here. We do not use a degree, title, or keyword list as a substitute for evidence.