Sub-Platform Quality Manager - Semiconductor

3M•Austin, TX

19d•$164,612 - $201,193•Onsite

About The Position

The Sub-Platform Quality Manager provides strategic leadership and organizational direction for quality across semiconductor product development, manufacturing, suppliers, and customers. The role owns the enterprise quality strategy and ensures that quality, reliability, and customer requirements are embedded throughout the product lifecycle, from new product introduction and design qualification through high-volume manufacturing, field performance, and end-of-life. The position establishes and deploys a scalable Quality Management System (QMS) across multiple manufacturing sites and functions, driving measurable improvements in customer satisfaction, product reliability, manufacturing yield, supplier performance, and cost of poor quality. It partners with Operations, Engineering, Product Development, Supply Chain, Procurement, Sales, and Executive Leadership, combining technical depth in semiconductor quality with the ability to influence across organizational boundaries and translate quality performance into business results. The role is based on-site at least four days per week at the 3M center in Maplewood, Minnesota, or Austin, Texas. Travel may include up to 25% domestic and/or international travel; relocation may be authorized. Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the country of employment without employment visa sponsorship. The position may involve direct or indirect access to information, systems, or technologies subject to U.S. export-control laws, and candidates will be assessed for U.S. person status.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Quality, Materials Science, Manufacturing, or a related technical field.
At least five years of progressive quality, engineering, manufacturing, or reliability experience in a private, public, government, or military environment.
At least two years of experience in semiconductor, microelectronics, electronics, or advanced manufacturing in a private, public, government, or military environment.
At least one year of experience in a Quality Leadership or Management role; multi-site or global responsibility is preferred.
Legally authorized to work in the country of employment without employment visa sponsorship.
Provide information to assess U.S. person status for compliance with U.S. export-control laws.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree in Engineering, Quality, Business, or a related discipline.
Additional experience in a Quality Leadership or Management role, preferably with multi-site or global responsibility.
ASQ CQE, CMQ/OE, or equivalent professional certification.
Demonstrated experience leading NPI or product-quality programs.
Strong experience with supplier quality and/or customer quality management.
Strong understanding of semiconductor manufacturing, assembly, packaging, testing, or related processes.
Demonstrated experience with reliability engineering and product qualification.
Strong knowledge of Quality Management Systems, audits, corrective action, risk management, and continuous improvement.
Demonstrated ability to lead complex cross-functional and multi-site initiatives.
Strong analytical, financial, communication, and executive presentation skills.
Six Sigma Black Belt or equivalent.
Experience with ISO 9001, IATF 16949, AS9100, or other relevant quality systems.
Knowledge of applicable semiconductor standards such as JEDEC and AEC-Q100/AEC-Q200, where relevant to the business.
Experience with wafer foundries, semiconductor packaging, test operations, or complex electronics supply chains.
Experience leading global quality organizations.
Experience implementing enterprise quality-management systems or digital quality transformation.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute the global quality strategy in alignment with business objectives, technology roadmaps, and customer expectations.
Establish quality objectives, policies, standards, performance targets, and a consistent quality operating model across product centers and manufacturing locations.
Provide executive visibility into quality risks, performance, trends, and improvement priorities; serve as the senior quality voice in strategic business, product, manufacturing, and customer decisions.
Drive a culture of quality ownership, prevention, accountability, and continuous improvement, and partner with executive leadership to identify and mitigate business-impacting quality risks.
Establish quality strategy and requirements from product concept through commercialization and production ramp; lead quality activities for new product introduction, including design reviews, risk assessments, qualification, validation, and production readiness.
Implement APQP or equivalent product-quality planning where applicable, and establish requirements for DFMEA, PFMEA, Control Plans, MSA, SPC, capability analysis, and other preventive methodologies.
Ensure product and process risks are identified, quantified, mitigated, and formally accepted before production release; establish quality gates and launch criteria, and provide escalation and decision support for significant launch-quality risks.
Partner with R&D and Product Engineering on reliability and qualification strategies, and ensure lessons learned are incorporated into future product and process development.
Provide strategic quality leadership across manufacturing facilities, internal operations, and outsourced manufacturing partners; establish common standards, metrics, processes, and governance.
Drive manufacturing quality consistency in process capability, yield, inspection, testing, and defect management; establish site-level objectives and hold leadership teams accountable.
Monitor manufacturing quality trends, lead cross-site initiatives to improve yield and reduce variation, recurring defects, and cost of poor quality, and promote replication of successful practices.
Establish escalation mechanisms for critical manufacturing and product-quality issues.
Establish the strategic supplier quality program for critical semiconductor materials, components, wafers, assembly, packaging, testing, and other external processes.
Define risk-based supplier qualification, development, monitoring, escalation, audit, and surveillance strategies; establish supplier KPIs and performance expectations.
Lead executive engagement with strategic suppliers on significant quality or reliability issues, and ensure effective containment, corrective action, root-cause analysis, and prevention.
Partner with Procurement and Supply Chain to incorporate quality, reliability, and risk into supplier selection and sourcing decisions; identify systemic supplier risks and drive long-term supplier capability improvement.
Serve as senior quality escalation point for key customers and strategic accounts; establish customer-quality strategies aligned with customer requirements and business priorities.
Lead resolution of major customer complaints, quality incidents, product returns, and field issues, ensuring timely and technically rigorous 8D, root-cause, containment, corrective-action, and effectiveness-verification processes.
Establish executive communication protocols for significant customer quality events; support customer audits, quality reviews, product qualifications, and supplier assessments.
Partner with Sales and Account Management to understand customer expectations and emerging risks; monitor customer quality trends and convert feedback into systemic improvements.
Establish the semiconductor product reliability strategy with Engineering and Product Development, including qualification requirements, methodologies, and acceptance criteria.
Oversee reliability qualification, life testing, accelerated testing, failure analysis, and field-performance monitoring; incorporate reliability modeling and risk assessment into product development.
Establish processes for reliability excursions and field failures; work with Design, Process, Packaging, Test, and Failure Analysis teams to identify and eliminate reliability risks.
Monitor field-return and reliability data, incorporate failure lessons into product design and manufacturing controls, and maintain awareness of applicable industry and customer-specific reliability requirements.
Own the strategic direction and effectiveness of the global QMS and establish governance across manufacturing sites and organizational functions.
Ensure compliance with applicable quality standards, customer requirements, regulatory requirements, and industry expectations; lead management reviews and provide executive visibility into QMS performance.
Establish a risk-based internal audit strategy and oversee corrective and preventive action systems, focusing on systemic effectiveness.
Standardize quality processes, documentation, records, and controls across sites; simplify and strengthen the QMS while maintaining appropriate control and supporting business growth, new technologies, acquisitions, and expansion.
Establish an enterprise-wide framework to identify, assess, mitigate, and monitor product and process quality risks; incorporate quality risks into business continuity, product development, supplier management, and manufacturing decisions.
Set escalation criteria and lead cross-functional risk reviews for critical products, processes, suppliers, and sites; provide executives with assessments of risk, business impact, and mitigation status, ensuring high-risk issues receive resources and attention.
Establish a company-wide quality improvement roadmap focused on defect prevention and business impact; drive Six Sigma, Lean, statistical process control, and structured problem-solving methods.
Identify opportunities for automation, data analytics, predictive quality, and advanced process monitoring; ensure improvement projects have measurable financial and quality outcomes and replicate successful programs across sites.
Establish a global quality-data strategy, standardized dashboards, and executive KPIs; integrate customer, supplier, manufacturing, reliability, and field-quality data to identify systemic trends.
Promote advanced statistical analysis and predictive quality, leverage digital quality systems and automated reporting, analytics, and data visualization, and establish data governance and consistent enterprise quality-metric definitions.
Comply with corporate policies, procedures, and security standards while performing assigned duties; contribute to 3M's Environmental Health and Safety culture by following safety policies, identifying hazards, and engaging in continuous improvement.