Role Purpose
Senior Equipment Engineer is responsible for ensuring optimal performance, reliability, and cost effectiveness of wet process equipment by leading equipment support, improvement, and lifecycle management activities. This role provides technical ownership for critical tools, drives chronic issue elimination and supports manufacturing objectives through robust maintenance strategy, equipment availability, and process stability.
Key Responsibilities
- Own the technical performance of wet equipment, including wet bench modular tanks (Akrion, DNS), batch spray (FSI Mercury), Scrubber (DNS/TEL) and drying systems, ensuring sustained availability, stability, and process compliance.
- Lead equipment optimization and continuous improvement projects to improve mean time between failures, reduce maintenance cost per wafer, minimize downtime, and enhance throughput and yield.
- Manage new equipment installation, qualification, ramp-up, and acceptance, ensuring readiness for volume production in coordination with vendors, facilities, process engineering, and production teams.
- Develop, review, and continuously improve corrective maintenance, preventive maintenance, and troubleshooting methodologies to increase equipment recovery speed and maintenance effectiveness.
- Perform detailed root cause analysis on recurring or chronic failures using structured problem-solving tools such as FMEA, 8D, 5-Why, fishbone analysis, and fault-tree logic.
- Generate and analyze equipment downtime Pareto trends, identify dominant failure modes, and implement corrective and preventive actions to eliminate repeat issues.
- Define and maintain critical spares, consumables, and obsolescence strategy to support fast recovery and minimize operational risk.
- Provide advanced technical coaching and hands-on support to Assistant Maintenance Engineers and Technicians, elevating troubleshooting capability and equipment ownership within the team.
- Translate production, engineering, and quality requirements into robust maintenance actions and technical countermeasures aligned with manufacturing targets.
- Partner with vendors and internal stakeholders to resolve design weaknesses, implement modifications, and drive long-term equipment reliability improvements.
- Support and lead cost reduction initiatives, targeting improved maintenance efficiency without compromising safety, quality, or equipment integrity.
- Ensure maintenance practices are aligned with engineering standards, safety requirements, and fab operational goals.
- Contribute to technical documentation, maintenance standards, and knowledge transfer to strengthen long-term equipment capability.
Required Skills and Experience
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a related technical discipline.
- 5-10 years of hands-on experience with wet process equipment.
- Demonstrated ability to independently diagnose complex equipment issues and drive effective containment and permanent corrective actions.
- Strong capability to read, interpret, and troubleshoot using electrical schematics, block diagrams, interlocks, and control logic.
- Solid understanding of equipment systems, including mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, fluidic, and automation interfaces.
- Strong analytical capability with a structured approach to troubleshooting, data analysis, and decision-making.
- Proficiency in statistical analysis tools, FMEA, 8D, and other structured problem-solving methodologies.
- Good working knowledge of Microsoft Office applications for reporting, analysis, and documentation.
- Experience with PLC programming / ladder logic is an advantage.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively across engineering, operations, production, and vendor interfaces.
Preferred Attributes
- Strong ownership mindset and ability to drive issues to closure.
- Experience in high-volume manufacturing or semiconductor equipment environments.
- Proven track record of improving equipment reliability, downtime, and maintenance efficiency.
- Capability to mentor junior engineers and technicians in a technical leadership role.
