Principal Reliability Engineer

Job Title

Principal Reliability Engineer

Role Summary

Lead reliability engineering activities for semiconductor test and production equipment. The role focuses on analyzing equipment and wafer-yield data, identifying root causes of tool-to-tool variation, and recommending product and process improvements to improve field performance and production yield.

Experience Level

Senior — typically 5+ years of related experience in semiconductor equipment, manufacturing, or reliability engineering.

Responsibilities

Core responsibilities include monitoring and improving equipment reliability, performing data-driven analysis, and supporting new tool introduction and production ramp.

• Analyze equipment performance, reliability metrics, and manufacturing yield data to identify failure modes and trends.
• Monitor field performance and implement reliability engineering practices for production tools.
• Correlate tool parameters, environmental conditions, maintenance events, alarms, and equipment states with wafer-level performance.
• Lead root-cause investigations using structured methods (8D, fault-tree, fishbone, Pareto, DOE).
• Apply statistical methods and SPC techniques to quantify variation and support corrective actions.
• Develop automated dashboards and analytical tools to visualize performance and drive decisions.
• Support new tool introduction, installation, qualification, and production ramp activities.
• Provide data-driven recommendations for product improvements and next-generation tool designs.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of test methods, integration processes, and customer experience.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and domain experience for immediate contribution.

• Minimum 5+ years of relevant experience in semiconductor equipment, equipment reliability, systems engineering, or semiconductor manufacturing (direct fab experience required).
• Strong understanding of semiconductor manufacturing equipment and production processes.
• Demonstrated experience with data analysis, statistical methods, and structured problem-solving.
• Knowledge and practical use of SPC, GR&R, DOE, FMEA, Weibull analysis, and statistical process control.
• Experience developing automated dashboards or analytical tools using Python, MATLAB, SQL, Power BI, or similar tools.
• Experience with equipment interfaces, equipment logs, alarms, sensors, and trace data.
• Experience with yield management and correlating equipment parameters to wafer-level performance.
• Proven ability to lead root-cause investigations and to communicate technical findings to cross-functional teams.

Nice-to-have: prior work on next-generation tool design, extensive experience with advanced statistical modeling, or additional domain certifications.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Physics, or a related technical discipline are listed as typical qualifications. The posting explicitly allows equivalent practical experience. The advertised education/experience mapping: minimum of 5 years related experience with a Bachelor’s; or 3 years with a Master’s; or a PhD may be accepted without prior experience.

About the Company

Company: FormFactor

Headquarters: Livermore, California, United States

FormFactor provides test and measurement technologies and services for the semiconductor industry across the product lifecycle — including characterization, modeling, reliability, design debug, qualification and production test. The company serves customers globally through facilities in Asia, Europe, and North America.