Principal Quality Assurance Engineer

Renesaselectronics; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 225,000; Full time

Job summary

Renesas Electronics seeks a Principal Quality Engineer to lead customer quality engagements for strategic customers in advanced semiconductor technologies. You will own quality performance analysis, drive rapid containment and corrective actions, and communicate with executives using data-driven updates.

The role requires coordinating cross-functional teams, managing high-visibility issues, and delivering measurable quality improvements while traveling as needed for customer meetings.

Qualifications

• Experience supporting demanding strategic or executive-level customers in a customer-facing technical quality role.
• Ability to manage high-visibility customer escalations with urgency, clarity, ownership, and follow-through.
• Expertise in structured problem solving, root cause analysis, containment, corrective action, and follow-up.

Responsibilities

• Act as the technical quality interface for highly demanding strategic customers and lead escalations.
• Own customer quality performance analysis, including PPM, RMA, and audits, driving improvement plans.
• Prepare concise, data-backed quality updates for escalation meetings and leadership reviews.
• Translate customer requirements into actionable internal priorities with owners and deadlines.

Skills

Customer engagement

Root cause analysis

Structured problem solving

Executive communication

Education

BSEE

MSEE

Tools

Failure analysis methods

Semiconductor processes

Job description

Renesas Electronics is looking for a Principal Quality Engineer to support highly demanding strategic customers by driving disciplined technical quality execution across advanced semiconductor technologies. This role serves as a trusted customer-facing quality expert, leading complex escalations, translating customer expectations into internal execution plans, and strengthening customer confidence through clear communication, data-driven analysis, and measurable quality improvement.

The Principal Quality Engineer will operate at both technical and customer-engagement levels, partnering with internal stakeholders and customer teams to manage high-visibility quality concerns, anticipate customer risk, drive rapid containment and corrective action, and ensure consistent executive-level communication without direct people-management responsibility.

Responsibilities

Customer Quality Technical Leadership

• Act as the technical quality interface for highly demanding strategic customers, leading quality engagements, technical reviews, executive updates, and complex escalations.
• Own customer quality performance analysis, including PPM, RMA, Failure Analysis Requests, audits, scorecards, recurring quality trends, and customer-specific improvement plans.
• Prepare and present concise, data-backed technical quality updates for escalation meetings and internal leadership reviews.
• Translate customer requirements, concerns, and quality expectations into actionable internal priorities with clear owners, timing, risks, and closure criteria.

Cross-Functional Influence & Mentorship

• Provide technical leadership, coaching, and guidance to cross-functional partners on customer quality expectations and structured problem solving.
• Coordinate priorities across customers, products, and escalations to ensure timely and effective quality execution.
• Develop and promote best practices for customer engagement, issue resolution, communication consistency, and quality documentation.

Issue Resolution & Risk Management

• Drive end-to-end resolution of complex customer quality issues, from immediate containment through root cause, corrective action, effectiveness verification, and customer closure.
• Lead urgency-driven cross-functional investigations across fab, assembly/test, R&D, product engineering, supply chain, and supplier quality using structured problem-solving methodologies.
• Manage sensitive customer escalations with disciplined communication cadence, fact-based status reporting, risk assessment, and executive-ready summaries.

Strategic Improvement & Influence

• Partner with internal leadership to influence design-for-quality, process robustness, reliability strategies, and customer-specific quality improvement roadmaps.
• Use customer feedback, field data, failure analysis learnings, and quality metrics to identify systemic gaps, reduce recurrence, and improve customer perception of Renesas quality execution.
• Drive proactive risk reviews for critical customer applications, including readiness for audits, quality reviews, reliability concerns, and product change communications.

Qualifications

• Experience supporting demanding strategic or executive-level customers in a customer-facing technical quality role.
• Demonstrated ability to manage high-visibility customer escalations with urgency, clarity, ownership, and disciplined follow-through.
• Expertise in structured problem solving, root cause analysis, containment, corrective action, effectiveness verification, and customer communication.
• Strong knowledge of semiconductor manufacturing processes, including wafer fab, assembly, test, reliability, failure analysis, and supplier quality interactions.
• Excellent executive communication skills with the ability to present concise technical conclusions, risks, options, and recommended actions.
• Ability to influence cross-functional teams without direct authority and align global stakeholders around customer-critical deliverables.
• Available to support domestic and international business travel for customer meetings, audits, quality reviews, and escalation support.

Education

• 10+ years of relevant experience with BSEE, or 8+ years of relevant experience with MSEE, or equivalent technical experience.
• Customer Quality, Product Engineering, Reliability Engineering, Failure Analysis, or related semiconductor quality experience supporting strategic customers, business units, and cross-functional escalation teams.

The expected annual pay range for this position is $180K-225K.

• This position is also eligible for bonus opportunities.

Please note that final offer amount will be dependent on geographic location, applicable experience, and skillset of the candidate.

we put in the additional information

Renesas is an embedded semiconductor solution provider driven by its Purpose, To Make Our Lives Easier . With a global team of over 21,000 engineers and problem solvers in more than 30 countries, we offer the opportunity to work on world‑leading technology for Aut