Sr Staff Product Engineer at Renesas Electronics — Morrisville, NC
Full job description
Applicants for this position must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Renesas is unable to sponsor applicants for work visas for this position now or in the future.
Hybrid - Morrisville, NC
Renesas is a global leader in semiconductor solutions, enabling innovations across industrial, IoT, edge computing, and intelligent power applications. Our teams drive the development of next-generation products, including devices supporting Edge AI capabilities, by collaborating across design, product engineering, and manufacturing to deliver high-quality, scalable solutions worldwide.
Key Responsibilities
Product Leadership & NPI Execution
- Lead end-to-end product lifecycle execution across multiple programs—from concept definition through characterization, qualification, customer release, and ramp to high-volume manufacturing (HVM).
- Define and drive product validation, characterization, and qualification strategies aligned with product requirements, reliability expectations, and customer use cases.
- Demonstrate a proven track record of successfully releasing multiple IC products into production and sustaining performance through volume ramp.
Data Analysis, Characterization & Yield Strategy
- Apply advanced statistical analysis and data science techniques to characterize device electrical performance and parametric behavior.
- Develop robust methodologies for analyzing distributions, corner performance, and guard band optimization.
- Lead deep-dive investigations of yield excursions, parametric shifts, and failure mechanisms using structured statistical approaches and large-scale data analysis.
- Identify correlations across design, silicon, and test datasets to uncover root causes and improve product robustness.
- Establish scalable analytics frameworks, dashboards, and visualization tools to enable data-driven decision making across product lifecycle phases.
Qualification, Reliability, ESD & Latch-Up Expertise
- Define and execute comprehensive product qualification strategies aligned to JEDEC and industry standards (e.g., JESD47, JESD22 series).
- Drive reliability stress planning and interpretation, including HTOL, HAST/uHAST, TC, ELFR, and associated qualification methodologies.
- Lead ESD and latch-up qualification strategy, data analysis, and failure resolution in alignment with product requirements.
- Analyze reliability data to assess failure mechanisms, lifetime projections, and margin to specification limits.
- Ensure qualification coverage, sample sizes, and stress conditions support defensible product release decisions.
- Partner with reliability and quality teams to resolve qualification risks and define mitigation strategies.
Failure Analysis & Root Cause Investigation
- Lead complex failure analysis activities across electrical, parametric, ESD, latch-up, and reliability-related failures.
- Utilize data-driven approaches to correlate failure signatures with design, process, or test-related mechanisms.
- Drive cross-functional root cause investigations and ensure corrective actions are implemented and verified.
- Develop systematic approaches to failure classification, screening effectiveness, and defect pareto analysis.
AI-Driven Engineering Efficiency
- Identify and drive opportunities to improve engineering efficiency through application of AI, machine learning, and advanced analytics in areas such as:
- Characterization data reduction and automation
- Anomaly detection and outlier classification
- Predictive yield and reliability modeling
- Develop or leverage intelligent workflows to accelerate insight generation and reduce manual analysis effort.
- Promote adoption of data-centric and AI-assisted methodologies to improve engineering productivity and decision quality.
Technical Leadership & Cross-Functional Influence
- Serve as a recognized subject matter expert in product engineering, statistical analysis, reliability, and failure analysis.
- Lead cross-functional efforts across design, applications, reliability, and test teams to resolve highly complex technical challenges.
- Provide leadership in defining characterization plans, qualification strategies, and analysis methodologies.
- Mentor engineers in advanced statistical techniques, reliability interpretation, and structured problem solving.
Strategic Problem Solving & Innovation
- Work on complex, ambiguous problems requiring evaluation of incomplete or conflicting data, applying conceptual and statistical thinking to determine optimal solutions.
- Anticipate technical risks in product performance, qualification adequacy, and reliability margins, and proactively drive improvements.
- Contribute to development of best practices in qualification methodology, data analysis, and engineering decision frameworks.
Stakeholder Engagement & Organizational Impact
- Build and lead networks across global teams to align characterization strategy, qualification coverage, and product readiness.
- Communicate complex analytical findings, qualification results, and failure analysis conclusions to diverse stakeholders, including senior leadership.
- Influence product release decisions through data-driven insight, technical expertise, and sound engineering judgment.
- Act as a key authority on product readiness, with accountability for decisions impacting product quality and business outcomes.
Technical Qualifications
- Min Education: Bachelor’s of Science in Electrical or Microelectronics Engineering
- Experience:
- 10+ years of experience with a Bachelor’s degree
- 8+ years with a Master’s degree
- 5+ years with a PhD
Required Experience & Expertise
- Proven success in releasing multiple semiconductor products from concept through qualification and into HVM.
- Deep expertise in statistical analysis, including distribution analysis, correlation analysis, and limit optimization.
- Strong background in product characterization and electrical performance evaluation.
- Extensive experience in reliability qualification, ESD, and latch-up methodologies.
- Demonstrated expertise in failure analysis and root cause investigation across multiple failure modes.
- Proven leadership in solving highly complex technical problems using data-driven approaches.
- Experience influencing engineering decisions and leading cross-functional technical initiatives.
Preferred Qualifications
- Strong working knowledge of JEDEC standards (e.g., JESD47, JESD22 series) and industry qualification practices.
- Hands-on experience with ESD qualification (HBM, CDM) and latch-up testing/analysis.
- Experience with reliability stress planning and interpretation (HTOL, HAST, TC, ELFR, etc.).
- Experience with Edge AI-enabled products or data-centric semiconductor applications.
- Familiarity with applying machine learning or AI techniques to engineering data analysis workflows.
- Proficiency with JMP, Python, or other advanced data analysis and visualization tools.
- Demonstrated success driving efficiency improvements in characterization, qualification, and yield analysis workflows.