Lead Supplier Industrialization Engineer for Hardware Ramp

Mind Robotics; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Mind Robotics in Palo Alto seeks an experienced supplier industrialization leader to build and own the SI function from the ground up. You will define playbooks, qualification processes, and PPAPs for scale, and oversee PCBAs, electronic assemblies, and tactile sensing from supplier selection through ramp.

You’ll collaborate with electrical, mechanical, and firmware teams during design reviews, lead supplier audits, and drive DFM/DFT, quality systems, and capacity planning.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in supplier industrialization, supplier quality, NPI, or hardware manufacturing engineering.

Responsibilities

• Build the supplier industrialization function from ground up: define the SI playbook, stage-gate requirements, supplier readiness criteria, and the PPAP/qualification process for a company moving from prototype to volume production.
• Own industrialization end-to-end for PCBAs, electronic assemblies, and tactile sensing components, from supplier selection through process development, qualification, launch, and ramp.
• Engage with electrical, mechanical, and firmware engineering from the design phase: drive DFM/DFA/DFT reviews, influence component selection, stack-ups, panelization, and test strategy early enough to actually change the design.
• Identify, assess, and select suppliers: lead technical audits of manufacturing capability, quality systems, process maturity, and capacity; decide who can scale with us.
• Travel to supplier sites (CMs/CEMs, PCB fabs, sensor manufacturers) to develop processes, validate lines, resolve issues, and verify manufacturing readiness firsthand.
• Lead new product introduction at supplier sites: process development and validation, SMT line bring-up, test correlation, yield improvement, and launch readiness for EVT/DVT/PVT to production.
• Develop and execute the supply chain readiness plan to scale electronics from tens of prototype units to hundreds and thousands of production units, including tooling, test fixtures, and capacity planning.
• Establish supplier quality management: incoming quality criteria, SPC deployment, root-cause/corrective action (8D/RCCA) on process and field failures, and ongoing supplier performance reviews.
• Work hand-in-hand with our sourcing/GSM function on supplier strategy, should-cost input, make-vs-buy decisions, and risk mitigation (dual-sourcing, alternate qualification).
• Set the foundation for the SI team: define hiring needs by commodity as we grow, and build the systems and documentation that let the function scale beyond one person

Skills

Supplier industrialization

NPI

Manufacturing engineering

Six Sigma / Lean

Auditing suppliers

PCB assembly

DFM/DFT/DFP

Education

Engineering degree (Electrical/Mechanical)

Tools

IPC standards knowledge

Job description

Mind Robotics in Palo Alto seeks an experienced supplier industrialization leader to build and own the SI function from the ground up. You will define playbooks, qualification processes, and PPAPs for scale, and oversee PCBAs, electronic assemblies, and tactile sensing from supplier selection through ramp.

You’ll collaborate with electrical, mechanical, and firmware teams during design reviews, lead supplier audits, and drive DFM/DFT, quality systems, and capacity planning.