Senior Lead Process & Materials Engineer - Electronics Assembly Chemistries

Summary

The Senior Lead Engineer, Manufacturing Equipment is responsible for identifying, selecting, evaluating, and qualifying new chemistries used in electronic assembly processes. This includes solder pastes, fluxes, underfills, adhesives, encapsulants, TIMs, conformal coatings, cleaning chemistries, and any material that directly affects reliability, manufacturability, or long-term performance. The role bridges analytical chemistry, materials science, process engineering, reliability engineering, and supplier management to ensure robust introduction of new materials into production. The role includes designing, developing, deploying, executing and optimizing test plans to assess product and process quality and reliability using the new chemistries.

Detailed Description

Chemistry Selection & Evaluation

• Lead the scouting, down-selection, and technical evaluation of new chemistries for SMT, die attach, underfill, TIM application, encapsulation, and cleaning processes.
• Define material performance requirements, including rheology, cure kinetics, thermal stability, adhesion, wetting, residue behavior, and compatibility with other chemistries used in the process, substrates and finishes.
• Conduct structured DOE-based evaluations to characterize material behavior under realistic process windows.

Material Qualification & Reliability

• Own the full qualification lifecycle: initial screening → process integration → reliability testing → production release.
• Develop qualification test plans covering thermal cycling, humidity, CAF, electromigration (SIR), mechanical shock, reflow robustness, and chemical compatibility.
• Overall project management and project lead for laboratory investigations
• Analyze failure modes using microscopy, spectroscopy, mechanical testing, and cross-sectioning to determine root cause and material suitability.
• Collaborate with reliability engineering to define acceptance criteria and long-term performance expectations.

Process Integration & Manufacturing Support

• Translate material properties into robust, controlled manufacturing processes (print parameters, dispense profiles, cure profiles, reflow profiles, cleaning cycles).
• Establish process windows, control limits, and monitoring strategies for new chemistries.
• Partner with factory process engineering to validate manufacturability at scale and ensure smooth ramp-to-production.

Supplier & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work directly with material suppliers to understand formulations, stability, shelf life, and process sensitivities.
• Work with commodity management to drive supplier audits, technical reviews, and corrective actions when material performance deviates.
• Collaborate with design engineering, reliability, quality, and operations to ensure chemistry choices align with product requirements and cost targets.

Documentation & Standards

• Prepare reports identifying samples, explaining testing methods, documenting findings, and outlining conclusions of the testing and analyses.
• Create and maintain material specifications, qualification reports, PFMEAs, control plans, and process documentation.
• Ensure compliance with environmental and regulatory requirements (RoHS, REACH, halogen-free, VOC limits).
• Maintain a materials roadmap aligned with future product and technology needs.

Knowledge/Skills/Competencies

• Knowledge of electrochemistry and its application to corrosion of electronic assemblies
• Strong understanding of soldering, adhesives, polymers, surface finishes, and reliability mechanisms.
• Hands-on experience with DOE, SPC, PFMEA, and structured problem-solving (8D, DMAIC).
• Familiarity with and/or direct hands on experience with analytical tools such as DSC, TGA, DMA, rheometry, FTIR, XRF, SEM/EDS, SIR and mechanical testing.
• Experience with high-performance computing, automotive electronics, aerospace, or mission-critical reliability requirements.
• Background in solder pastes, fluxes, TIMs, underfills, or advanced polymer systems.
• Knowledge of automation, dispensing, jetting, printing, and reflow technologies.
• Ability to translate material science into practical, scalable manufacturing processes.

Typical Experience

• 5+ years of experience in electronics assembly, semiconductor packaging, or advanced materials development.

Typical Education

• Degree in Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Analytical Chemistry or related field.
• Educational Requirements may vary by Geography

Physical Demands

• Duties may require extended periods of sitting and sustained visual concentration on a computer monitor or on numbers and other detailed data.
• Repetitive manual movements (e.g., data entry, using a computer mouse, using a calculator, etc.) are frequently required.
• Occasional travel may be required.

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.