Director, Reliability Engineering

Lumotive•Redmond, WA

1d•$160,000 - $190,000

About The Position

Lumotive is pioneering the era of programmable optics—where light is controlled as intelligently and flexibly as software. At the heart of this transformation is a once-in-a-generation innovation: a flat CMOS-based “general purpose optic.” Lumotive’s Light Control Metasurface (LCM™) beam forming chips can be programmed to function as a beam steering mirror, a lens, mirror, a beam splitter—or any optical function—replacing bulky and mechanical optical components with a fully digital, reconfigurable semiconductor. This breakthrough lays the foundation for a massive shift in multiple technologies—from 3D sensing and imaging to optical networking, free space optical communication, and beyond. Like the shift from analog to digital in electronics, programmable optics will reshape industries from robotics, self-driving cars, AI, defense, and healthcare. Lumotive’s first commercial application is in LiDAR, where its software-defined beam steering chips are already enabling compact, high-performance, solid-state sensors. These sensors are being deployed today in smart infrastructure, robotics, and mobility systems through leading module makers and solution integrators. With more than 200 patents and growing commercial traction, Lumotive is delivering the world’s first digital platform for light—and redefining what’s possible in the optical age. We are looking for a Director of Reliability Engineering to own reliability end to end — from the physics of how an LCM degrades to the qualification data package delivered for customer sign-off. The LCM is a new class of semiconductor device: a CMOS backplane, novel thin-film material stacks, and liquid crystal. It ships into products whose mission profiles range from climate-controlled indoor robotics to outdoor infrastructure and automotive-grade exposure. The standard qualification playbooks were not written for this device, and the acceleration models often have to be built from data we generate ourselves. You will set the reliability and qualification strategy for the LCM and the reference designs in which they are LCMs are deployed, collect customer mission profiles and translate them into stress conditions and lifetime requirements, run the studies that determine whether we meet them, and drive the findings back into process, materials, design, and system architecture. You will also present our reliability data directly to customers and their quality teams. We want someone who runs qualification surgically: studies that are carefully designed, well controlled, and executed as planned, so the result holds up when a customer challenges it. Someone with the depth to work unfamiliar failure modes from first principles, the judgment to know which risks matter at the system level, and the instinct to hunt for the failure modes we have not characterized yet — before a customer finds them.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, physics, materials science, or related fields
15+ years in semiconductor or optoelectronic reliability, failure analysis, or quality engineering, including leading a reliability function, team, or major qualification program
A proven track record taking a new technology from prototype through qualification into volume production — at least one program you can walk through end to end
Deep hands-on foundation: you have designed accelerated stress tests, done failure analysis, and built lifetime models, and can still work the data directly
Statistical fluency: time-to-failure distributions (Weibull, lognormal), acceleration modeling (Arrhenius, Peck), sample size and confidence planning, lifetime projection to use conditions
Rigor in experimental design and execution: controls, sample structure, stress levels, readpoints, and the discipline to hold a study to its plan
Experience with novel device technologies or material sets with undocumented failure modes — worked from first principles rather than an established qual flow
Experience translating customer mission profiles into qualification plans and lifetime requirements
Experience owning qualification at both component and module/system level
Working knowledge of JEDEC, AEC-Q100/Q102, and ISO, and the judgment to adapt them to devices they were not written for
Experience presenting qualification data directly to external customers and their quality organizations
Outstanding written and verbal communication; disciplined about documenting work
Intellectual curiosity and ownership: you think about what can fail constantly, and you dig until you understand why

Nice To Haves

Master’s or PhD in electrical engineering, physics, materials science, or related fields is preferred.
Background in liquid crystal devices (LCoS, displays), MEMS, image sensors, or photonics is preferred.
Automotive or industrial qualification experience where your data was audited by a customer is preferred.
Experience building a reliability function from a small team, defining process where none existed is preferred.
Experience running split-lot DOEs with wafer fabs or materials vendors to improve intrinsic reliability is preferred.
Experience defining burn-in and production screening for early-failure elimination is preferred.
Experience with lidar, 3D sensing, or optical modules and their system-level tradeoffs is preferred.

Responsibilities

Own the reliability pipeline end to end — from fundamental LCM failure-mechanism studies through component, module, and system qualification, to the data package delivered for customer sign-off. You are accountable for our lifetime claims and the evidence behind them.
Own customer mission profiles. Work with sales, applications, and systems engineering to collect use conditions across a widening set of products — thermal and humidity profiles, duty cycles, optical exposure, power cycling, lifetime expectations — and convert them into qualification plans.
Run qualification surgically. Design each study to isolate the mechanism in question — controls, sample structure, stress levels, readpoints — and hold execution to that plan.
Unearth the failure modes we have not seen yet. Maintain a living map of known, suspected, and unexamined mechanisms across chip, package, and module, and design the experiments that close the gaps before a customer finds them.
Build lifetime models — time-to-failure distributions, acceleration factors, activation energies, sample size and confidence bounds — and defend the assumptions under customer scrutiny.
Close the loop into design and process. Drive Design for Reliability and Design for Test reviews so our products are stress-able and testable, and correlate reliability outcomes to fab process splits, materials, and assembly variables through split-lot DOEs with process and packaging partners.
Define screening strategy — pass/fail criteria, burn-in, production screens, and ongoing reliability monitoring — to keep early failures out of customer deliveries.
Represent reliability to customers. Present data, negotiate qualification scope, and answer customer quality teams directly.
Work across teams. Reliability touches LCM process and device, ASIC, hardware, systems, manufacturing, and program management; make sure a finding in one team turns into a decision in the others.
Build and lead the reliability team. Hire, mentor, and set the technical and documentation standard: every study written up with conclusions and next steps.