Director, Roadmapping & Advanced Mfg

Summary

The Director of Technology Roadmapping & Supplier Development is a high-impact, executive leadership role responsible for defining and driving the long-term manufacturing technology strategy for next-generation of products. This position requires a visionary leader who can synthesize market technology trends, evolving customer roadmaps, and internal operational realities to identify technical gaps and build a world-class supplier ecosystem. Operating at the intersection of future-state product architecture and global factory capabilities, the Director will maintain tight, matrixed alignment with key internal operational leaders—specifically the Front-End Senior Manager, Back-End Senior Manager, and Test Senior Manager—to systematically transform strategic multi-year technology roadmaps into flawless execution. (#LI-LZ1)

Detailed Description

 1. Strategic Technology Roadmapping & Market Intelligence

• Trend & Ecosystem Analysis: Actively monitor global semiconductor, electronic manufacturing, packaging, and infrastructure trends to anticipate shifting paradigms (e.g., silicon photonics, advanced thermal management, high-density interconnections).

• Customer Roadmap Alignment: Engage early with tier-1 silicon architects and hyperscaler customers to capture their 3-to-5-year hardware roadmaps, translating future system performance criteria into manufacturing process requirements.

• Capability Gap Identification: Benchmark current internal manufacturing boundaries against future requirements to isolate technical gaps, yield risks, and capability shortfalls in the upcoming execution horizon.

2. Strategic Supplier Development & Sourcing

• Ecosystem Engineering: In collaboration with Supply Chain teams Scout, evaluate, and develop global supplier networks capable of providing the cutting-edge tooling, automated solutions, materials, and processes required for upcoming product generations.

• Supplier Technology Interventions: Collaborate with suppliers to co-develop or upgrade their internal capabilities, ensuring they hit critical-to-quality (CTQ) thresholds and scale capacities ahead of NPI timelines.

3. Cross-Functional Engineering Collaboration

• Front-End Interfacing: Partner with the Front-End Senior Manager to align supplier capabilities with advanced SMT requirements, focusing on complex substrates, large-form-factor BGA warpage management, fine-pitch placement, and optimized thermal reflow profiling.

• Back-End Interfacing: Partner with the Back-End Senior Manager to qualify automated box build tooling, mechanical subsystem fixtures, liquid cooling integration setups, cable managment and full-rack integration capabilities within the supplier network.

• Test Engineering Interfacing: Partner with the Test Senior Manager to identify gaps in structural, functional, and system-level high-speed testing capabilities, co-developing automated test equipment and diagnostic capabilities.

4. Executive Leadership & Governance

• Steering Committees: Chair internal technology steering committees to prioritize capital expenditure (CapEx) and engineering R&D investments based on the validated multi-year roadmap.

• Phase-Gate Leadership: Lead comprehensive technology phase-exit reviews for raw materials, advanced components, and equipment platforms before passing ownership to standard NPI and manufacturing teams.

• Mentorship & Culture: Build a rigorous, data-driven culture of technology scouting and value engineering, mentoring technical staff across the enterprise.

Knowledge/Skills/Competencies

• Technical Breadth: Deep foundational understanding of the entire hardware stack, stretching from front-end advanced microelectronic packaging and SMT down to back-end mechanical enclosure assembly, robotic automation, fluid dynamics/cooling, rack-level power systems, and high-frequency functional testing methodologies.

• Ecosystem Network: A robust, pre-existing professional network containing tier-1 hardware designers (e.g., Nvidia, Broadcom, Marvell), system integrators, and critical manufacturing equipment/tooling vendors worldwide.

• Executive Presence: Proven track record of presenting complex multi-year capital/technology strategies to C-level executives and external customer stakeholders with exceptional clarity, commercial acumen, and persuasion.

Typical Experience

 12+ years of experience in high-tech hardware environments (e.g., Hyperscale infrastructure, Advanced Semiconductors, tier-1 EMS, or Datacenter systems), with at least 5 years in a dedicated strategic roadmapping, supplier development, or technology architecture leadership role.

Typical Education

 Master’s or Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical/Electronic Engineering, Materials Science, or a business-technical hybrid degree (e.g., Management of Technology) is highly preferred.

Notes

This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties and responsibilities of the position. Employees are held accountable for all duties of the job. Job duties and the % of time identified for any function are subject to change at any time.