Manufacturing Automation & Data Engineer

Touchdown Labs; Tool (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Touchdown Labs seeks an experienced Manufacturing Automation & Data Engineer to build the software record that reconstructs how physical results were produced. You'll connect equipment, materials, measurements, and approvals while maintaining human release authority and audit trails.

You will model identifiers for workpieces, lots, steps, recipes, and equipment, implement controls, and ensure data integrity across MES/LIMS interfaces and SPC feeds.

Qualifications

• Experience building manufacturing data systems with traceability and audit trails.
• Knowledge of data integrity, security, and change control in regulated/semiregulated environments.
• Ability to design transactional state changes and recovery for systems connected to physical operations.

Responsibilities

• Build travelers, product genealogy, recipe/version records, alarms, access controls, and rollback.
• Model workpiece, lot, process step, recipe, equipment, operator, material, and measurement identity.
• Connect equipment data and lab results while preserving access control and rollback.
• Define failure behavior for duplicate IDs, missing tool data, late measurements, interrupted steps, and conflicting edits.
• Build views to trace a unit from receipt to final test.

Skills

Manufacturing software

Equipment interfaces

Data integrity

Security

Change control

Tools

SECS/GEM

OPC UA

MES

LIMS

SPC

Job description

Open role

Manufacturing Automation & Data Engineer

Why this work matters

Touchdown is engineering the manufacturing behind storage, memory systems, and other chips. This role helps turn a buyer's physical result into a qualified process or a defensible decision to use an existing supplier. Advanced packaging is our intended first fab class; no production fab is operating today.

Overview

You will build the software record that lets an operator, engineer, and customer reconstruct how a physical result was made. Begin with a bounded traveler and one product route, then connect equipment, materials, measurements, exceptions, and approvals. The system must preserve human release authority and make missing or conflicting records visible.

What you will own

• Build controlled travelers, product genealogy, recipe/version records, alarms, access controls, and rollback.
• Model workpiece, lot, process step, recipe, equipment, operator, material, and measurement identity.
• Implement controlled travelers, holds, deviations, approvals, and audit trails.
• Connect equipment data and lab results while preserving access control and rollback.
• Define failure behavior for duplicate IDs, missing tool data, late measurements, interrupted steps, and conflicting manual edits.
• Build views that let a qualified reviewer trace a rejected unit back to process conditions and affected sibling lots.

Technical territory

Lot and unit identifiers, event sourcing, recipe versions, equipment telemetry, MES/LIMS interfaces, SPC feeds, access control, audit logs, data validation, offline recovery, backups, and rollback.

Representative outputs

• A lot-to-measurement trace with audit trail, exception handling, and human release gates.
• A lot-to-test genealogy demonstration with versioned recipes and material provenance.
• An exception workflow showing a hold, investigation, authorized release, and audit record.
• A data contract and exception test set for a pilot route, including missing records and unauthorized release attempts.

What success looks like

• A qualified reviewer can reconstruct how any sample was made and tested.
• Software cannot silently override a physical or quality hold.
• An independent reviewer can reconstruct each sample from material receipt to final test.
• A data gap results in an explicit hold and owner, not a silent pass.

What you bring

• Manufacturing software, equipment interfaces, data integrity, security, and change control.
• Built manufacturing execution, equipment integration, or regulated process-data systems.
• Can design reliable identifiers, event histories, and exception handling.
• Understands data integrity, security, backups, and human release authority.
• Can design transactional state changes and recovery for systems connected to physical operations.
• Can define access, retention, audit, and change control around product evidence.

Helpful experience

• SECS/GEM, OPC UA, or equipment protocols
• MES, LIMS, or SPC integration
• Event-driven architecture
• Equipment telemetry and time-series data
• Statistical process control systems

How the role works

• Applications are open; the exact work location, arrangement, compensation, and start date will be discussed during hiring.
• Early work can produce engineering plans and partner comparisons. Hands-on work begins only at qualified, authorized facilities.
• You will work with process, equipment, quality, test, customer, and supplier owners as the scope requires.