Director, Software Engineering

Advantest•Lake Forest, CA

6d•Onsite

About The Position

We are seeking a Director of Software Engineering to lead Hardware System Integration, Handler, Test Engineering, and Portfolio Engineering for semiconductor test platforms supporting SLT, Burn-In, HPC, and ATE. The role leads global teams responsible for equipment-control software, material handling integration, test engineering, factory interfaces, production data, and shared software capabilities. This position is expected to be highly technical and hands-on with software and hardware, with approximately 50% of time spent directly coding, debugging, and solving complex technical issues across the semiconductor test ecosystem.

Requirements

B.S in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering with a strong software background, Software Engineering, or related field; M.S. preferred.
15+ years of software engineering or related technical experience.
10+ years of technical engineering management experience.
3+ years managing a multi-tier organization, including managers or supervisors.
Significant experience with semiconductor equipment-control software, material handling systems, factory automation, or complex hardware/software systems.
Strong knowledge of GEM/SECS and related SEMI standards.
Strong understanding of semiconductor test and measurement principles.
Experience integrating software with testers, handlers, thermal systems, PLCs, firmware, drivers, and production equipment.
Strong understanding of software architecture, distributed systems, APIs, messaging, telemetry, databases, and equipment-control software.
Experience with C#/.NET, C++, Python, or similar production software environments.
Experience managing multiple products and customer programs, including schedules, resources, dependencies, and technical risks.
Strong understanding of CI/CD, automated testing, hardware-in-the-loop validation, release management, observability, and production support.
Proven ability to lead global engineering teams and drive accountability.
Strong customer, technical, executive, and cross-functional communication skills.
Must be willing to work onsite in our Lake Forest, CA office.

Nice To Haves

Experience with SLT, Burn-In, ATE, HPC, handlers, or semiconductor capital equipment.
Experience with EAP/EAC, lot processing, factory automation, equipment telemetry, availability reporting, or manufacturing data systems.
Experience with handler, thermal, PLC, and tester integration.
Familiarity with Apache Pulsar, Kafka, RabbitMQ, MQTT, or similar messaging technologies.
Experience delivering on-premises software for high-volume semiconductor manufacturing.
Experience modernizing legacy systems while maintaining compatibility with installed environments.
Experience applying AI to software development, testing, diagnostics, or documentation.
Experience leading engineering teams across the U.S. and international locations.

Responsibilities

Translate engineering strategy into engineering plans, technical milestones, resource plans, and delivery schedules.
Lead software managers, technical leads, developers, and test engineers across Thermal, System Integration, Handler, Test, and Portfolio Engineering.
Drive execution across multiple products and customer programs and ensure teams deliver committed milestones.
Align software development, integration, validation, and release schedules with SW Product Management and Hardware TPMs.
Lead software integration across testers, handlers, thermal systems, device interfaces, PLCs, firmware, and equipment-control systems.
Lead development of communication interfaces for material handling, factory automation, and factory management systems.
Lead GEM/SECS, EAC/EAP, lot processing, alarms, availability reporting, equipment telemetry, and production data capabilities.
Lead automated validation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, regression, endurance testing, system qualification, and production readiness.
Improve throughput, reliability, availability, recovery, and downtime through system performance analysis.
Drive reuse and standardization of APIs, SDKs, messaging, data models, logging, diagnostics, and common software components.
Ensure customer requirements are implemented as scalable, configurable product capabilities.
Track milestones, dependencies, risks, quality, integration readiness, and release criteria across the portfolio.
Improve software development, testing, validation, and release processes.
Coordinate execution with Product Management, Program Management, Business Development, Hardware, Firmware, QA, Production, Applications, and Product Support.
Lead adoption of AI-assisted software development, testing, diagnostics, and documentation.
Conduct architecture, design, integration, and release-readiness reviews.
Present technical and program-readiness reviews to customers and internal leadership.
Support customer technical discussions, system bring-up, escalations, and production deployments.
Conduct performance reviews, set goals, mentor leaders, and support succession planning.
All other duties as assigned.