Quality Engineering Manager (Wafer)

Socket.dev; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 195,000 - 215,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental &amp

Retirement Plan (401k, IRA)

Paid Time Off (Vacation, Sick & PH

Life Insurance (Basic, Voluntary &

Family Leave (Maternity, Paternity)

Free Food & Snacks

Stock Option Plan

Annual Bonus Plan eligible

Short Term & Long Term Disability

Job summary

Halo Industries seeks a Quality Engineering Manager to lead the quality roadmap for high-volume wafer production, ensuring automotive, power electronics, and industrial standards are met. You will bridge material physics with strict compliance and build a scalable quality team.

You will drive audits, PCN/PCI workflows, RMA lifecycle, and data-driven improvements using Arena QMS and core quality tools to support diverse customer qualifications.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a technical field (Materials Science, Solid State Physics, Chemical/Mechanical/Elect Electrical/Industrial Eng).
• 8+ years of quality engineering experience in semiconductor/wafer manufacturing or advanced electronics.
• 3+ years of formal management experience supervising quality engineering teams and customer interfaces.
• Deep working knowledge of ISO frameworks and audit readiness.

Responsibilities

• Voice of the Customer: translate feedback into internal CI initiatives.
• Audits & compliance: manage customer audits with emphasis on automotive deep-dives and CSRs.
• Change management: guide PCNs/PCIs and accelerate workflows to customer approval.
• RMA lifecycle: own root-cause investigations and rapid resolution.

Skills

Leadership

Customer facing

ISO compliance

Quality engineering

Education

Bachelor’s degree in materials science / related field

Tools

Arena PLM

Arena QMS

JMP

Minitab

MES

Job description

Halo Industries has developed breakthrough technology to revolutionize a decades-old semiconductor material slicing process. Our laser-based solution minimizes waste, enhances material cost efficiency, and drives innovations across high-growth markets, including automotive, telecommunications, and power electronics. Founded in 2014 at Stanford University, Halo received significant funding in 2024, paving the way for rapid expansion, strategic customer engagement, and the launch of volume manufacturing.

The Opportunity

As the Quality Engineering Manager, you will execute and champion Halo’s production quality roadmap while refining our customer quality strategy. This role bridges advanced material physics, high-volume production, and rigorous compliance. You will serve as the authoritative technical interface between Halo Industries and our diverse market partners, ensuring our manufacturing processes meet the tolerances required by our automotive, power, and industrial electronics customers. You will play a foundational, transformative role in building and leading the quality engineering team, scaling the quality of our advanced wafering lines while seamlessly supporting customer qualification cycles.

Primary Responsibilities

Customer Quality Strategy & Execution

• Voice of the Customer: Serve as quality liaison to our customers, translating diverse feedback from both production and qualification materials into internal continuous improvement initiatives.
• Audits & Compliance: Schedule, host, and manage comprehensive customer audits—with a strong emphasis on automotive deep-dives. Maintain absolute integrity over Certificates of Analysis (COA) and ensure continuous compliance with Customer Specific Requirements (CSRs).
• Change Management Integration: Champion and provide technical guidance for Product Change Notifications (PCNs) and Product Change Information Notes (PCIs), navigating and accelerating complex change workflows through to formal customer approval.
• End-to-End RMA Lifecycle: Own the strategic technical execution of the customer RMA process, driving complex root-cause investigations, documenting failure analysis, and initiating rapid resolution.

QMS, Compliance, & High-Volume Scalability

• Multi-Market Quality Systems: Optimize, harden, and scale our Arena QMS platform to build a versatile Quality Management System capable of sustaining IATF 16949 compliance for automotive clients while maintaining agile, efficient pathways for non-automotive sectors.
• Manufacturing Readiness Maturity: Enforce and mature frameworks to assess and elevate manufacturing readiness, managing internal and external Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) deliverables leveraging Arena PLM.
• Quality Control: Sustain data-driven control points for our advanced manufacturing systems, owning the baseline for critical wafer geometry metrics.
• Core Tools & Problem Solving: Advance and mature the deployment of AIAG Core Tools (APQP, FMEA, MSA, SPC). Drive the continuous improvement (CI) roadmap by spearheading cross-functional 8D corrective actions, Kaizen events, and DMAIC projects to address anomalies and optimize process capabilities.
• Team Development & Leadership: Recruit, mentor, and manage a high-performing team of quality engineers. Establish key performance indicators (KPIs), foster professional growth, and balance resource allocation across scaling production lines.

Requirements

Basic Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science, Solid State Physics, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or other related technical discipline.
• Experience: 8+ years of quality engineering experience in semiconductor, wafer manufacturing, or advanced electronics space.
• Leadership & Customer Facing: 3+ years of formal management experience directly supervising quality engineering teams, combined with a proven track record of managing tier-1 customer quality interfaces.
• Compliance Competency: Deep working knowledge of ISO frameworks with a track record of driving audit readiness.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on experience configuring, optimizing, or administering Arena PLM and Arena QMS modules to support rigorous configuration control.
• Proven experience managing multiple compliance pipelines (e.g., standard industrial electronics alongside rigid automotive client requirements).
• Advanced proficiency in data-driven yield optimization tools (such as JMP or Minitab) and factory software systems (MES).
• Technical expertise in wide-bandgap semiconductor materials and wafering processes.

Benefits

• Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision)
• Retirement Plan (401k, IRA)
• Paid Time Off (Vacation, Sick & Public Holidays)
• Life Insurance (Basic, Voluntary & AD&D)
• Family Leave (Maternity, Paternity)
• Free Food & Snacks
• Stock Option Plan
• Annual Bonus Plan eligible
• Short Term & Long Term Disability
• Base Salary: $195,000 - $215,000

We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all team members feel valued and supported. We welcome applicants from diverse backgrounds, including those from underrepresented communities in STEM.