Senior Staff Engineer, Foundry

Murata Electronics; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 185,785 - 241,533; Full time

Job summary

Murata Electronics is looking for a Senior Staff Engineer in San Diego, CA to lead technical aspects of the foundry interface with partners. The role requires strong experience in semiconductor manufacturing and managing quality excursions at the foundry.

The ideal candidate will have at least 10 years of hands-on experience, demonstrating leadership in complex projects and the ability to mentor junior engineers. The position offers an opportunity to impact next-generation product development with significant responsibilities.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in semiconductor manufacturing or foundry technical interface.
• Leadership of cross-functional foundry programs with measurable outcomes.
• Hands-on knowledge of tapeout readiness and DRC/DFM methodology.

Responsibilities

• Drive technical aspects of foundry interface with partners.
• Lead yield and quality excursions at the foundry.
• Mentor engineers on device physics.

Skills

Semiconductor manufacturing

Process development

Deep sub-micron fab processes

Stakeholder management

Technical escalations

Education

BS degree with 10-12 years experience

MS degree with 7-10 years experience

Ph.D. with 5-7 years experience

Job description

Senior Staff Engineer, Foundry

Location: San Diego, CA, US

Job Summary

This position is responsible for the technical aspects of the foundry interface with external SOS, Off the Shelf, and SOI foundry partners. The Senior Staff Foundry Engineer will drive and lead projects related to sustaining fab processes.

Roles & Responsibilities

• Maintain and sustain custom and off‑the‑shelf technologies for pSemi and muRata at our foundry partners. Serve as the technical owner for governance of DRC and manufacturability inquiries, issue triage, escalation, and closure across design, CAD, and manufacturing stakeholders.
• Lead yield and quality excursions at the foundry (containment, root cause, corrective and preventive action), partnering with Product Engineering and Customer Quality; drive executive‑ready technical narratives for customer‑impacting events (including RMAs).
• Establish KPIs and reviews for excursion response time, recurring defect prevention, and yield learning transfer across products and technologies.
• Provide foundry and device‑engineering technical leadership for technology development and sustaining, translating process and device learnings into design rules, sign‑off guidance, and reliability and yield guardbands.
• Own the technical change‑control workflow with foundry partners (process changes, PCNs, mask and reticle changes, and wafer‑fab flows), including risk assessment, qualification strategy, and internal release recommendations.
• Mentor engineers to understand device physics and its relationship to product performance.
• Act as the front‑line communication channel for customers and company on any processing, quality, reliability, tapeout, NPI, B2B data and DRC issues related to custom wafer fab processes and off‑the‑shelf wafer fab processes.
• Provide customer engineering support as technical lead on wafer fab‑related issues.
• Engage with CFTs to ensure manufacturing, DRC violations and assembly requirements are met.
• Interact with business units, supply chain, technology development teams, design, NPI and assembly experts to drive next‑generation products with appropriate reticle layout, tapeout requirements, cycle time, fab processing, and capacity.
• Review tapeout floorplan and frame structures to ensure foundry‑related test, assembly and customer requirements are met.
• Manage and drive major fundamental changes to frame and reticle tapeout structures and procedures to accommodate changing assembly and customer product performance needs.
• Lead end‑to‑end foundry transfer programs (qualification strategy, comparability plans, risk mitigation, and readiness reviews), ensuring continuity of yield, reliability, and cycle time for customer commitments.
• Design and implement scalable foundry‑engineering operating processes (intake, prioritization, documentation, and post‑mortems) to improve cycle time, predictability, and cross‑site execution.
• Leverage past expertise with fab processes to ensure new designs and processes capture and utilize lessons learned from past processing, tapeout, technical investigations, and system issues.
• Travel up to 25% (Singapore and Japan).

Minimum Qualifications (Experience and Skills)

• 10+ years of experience in semiconductor manufacturing, process development, or foundry technical interface.
• Experience working with deep sub‑micron fab processes and wafer fab organizations based in Asia.
• Key experience interacting with product, technology, design, CAD, NPI, assembly, and supply chain.
• Demonstrated leadership of cross‑functional foundry programs with measurable outcomes (yield, excursion response, cycle time, reliability, or cost).
• Experience driving foundry change‑control and PCNs and qualification decisions using structured risk and data analysis.
• Strong external stakeholder management: leading technical escalations and negotiating technical trade‑offs with foundry counterparts.
• Hands‑on understanding of tapeout readiness: DRC and DFM methodology, mask and reticle considerations, and manufacturing constraints.

Education Requirements

• BS & 10‑12 years experience.
• MS & 7‑10 years experience.
• Ph.D. & 5‑7 years experience.

Work Environment

This job operates in a professional office environment. The role routinely uses standard office equipment.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. The employee is required to talk or hear, stand, walk, use hands to finger, handle or feel, and reach with hands and arms. Specific vision abilities include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus. The position requires occasionally lifting office products and supplies up to 20 pounds.

USD 185,785.06 - 241,533.96

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

pSemi Corporation supports a diverse workforce and is committed to a policy of equal employment opportunity for applicants and employees. pSemi does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion (including religious dress and grooming practices), sex/gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions or breastfeeding), gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, national origin (including language use restrictions and possession of a driver's license issued under Vehicle Code section 12801.9), ancestry, physical or mental disability, legally‑protected medical condition, military or veteran status (including "protected veterans" under applicable affirmative action laws), marital status, sexual orientation, or any other basis protected by local, state or federal laws applicable to the Company. pSemi also prohibits discrimination based on the perception that an employee or applicant has any of those characteristics, or is associated with a person who has or is perceived as having any of those characteristics.