Global Director of Quality and Product Engineering

Location:The Global Director of Quality and Product Engineering position is located on site in Charlotte, NC, with domestic and international travel required. At EMD Electronics the Director of Quality and Product Engineering supports the global Silica business having responsibility for all strategic and tactical aspects of Quality (quality strategy, quality assurance, quality control, and quality system management) and Product Engineering. The Product Engineering aspect of the role has technical ownership of the business' product portfolio from "cradle to grave," working with the Silica R&D team, manufacturing teams, and commercial teams to optimize the performance and reliability of the products at the optimal cost. An additional aspect of the role is to lead the new product transition from development into scale-up and manufacturing deployment, and lead the internal technical support for the product ramp and release. The Product Engineering team also owns the investigation and root cause fix implementation for performance related product issues. The Director of Quality and Product Engineering is a hands-on working leader, and must be self-motivated, both tactical and strategic, and be comfortable with changing priorities affecting the daily work schedule. The role reports to the Silica General Manager and is a member of the Silica Leadership Team (SLT). Key Responsibilities:Create and execute a scalable global quality vision for the Silica business, strengthening our quality systems and culture to effectively deliver products to advanced node semiconductor customers with the expected quality assurance. Bring Semiconductor customer expectations into this vision from personal experience. Create meaningful and workable systems and practices so EMD's Silica business becomes the customer-recognized benchmark for quality amongst CMP slurry suppliers.Manage all aspects of quality and provide technical support (quality assurance, quality control, process changes, and quality systems) for US Silica Operations and quality systems management (including maintenance of quality documents, quality records, and auditing).Globally manage and locally provide customer support to solve quality technical problems timely and effectively. Ensure the global Quality and Product Engineering team has the tools and capabilities for meeting customer quality and technical support needs now and in the future.Be a key contact for customer quality and change management topics.Actively participate in leadership and management meetings and be a quality advocate and leader in the Silica Leadership Team. Lead quality specific meetings, as necessary.Responsible for identifying relevant quality standards and ensure global quality systems are maintained. Interface with corporate functions for ISO and other relevant quality systems and certifications.Manage the quality group's operations budget and recommend capex investments and project manage their implementation and qualification.Lead global continuous improvement efforts in systems, metrology, and practices while also leading a Global Process Change Board so all changes are managed according to semiconductor customer expectations.Ensure product specifications meet customer performance requirements. Define and manage product specification documents. Work with Merck and DuPont Quality and Product Quality Engineering (PQE) teams to collect and analyze customer feedback for defining new product specifications and requirements. Support the validation of product specifications and SPC targets, and drive optimization of product performance with customer process results.Work with Merck's R&D and Operations teams to use internally generated and customer generated process data to drive CIP programs for product and process improvement.Correlate in line SPC data, raw material specifications, and QA test results to determine manufacturing yield limiters, and correlation to customer polishing performance results from their processes.Create continuous improvement plans for specification tightening, process Cpk improvement, yield improvement, and cost reduction, among others. Own performance related customer corrective action requests to ensure the timely and thorough resolution of corrective actions. Provide timely updates to DuPont's PQE team to communicate with customers, and/or communicate the updates directly to customers.Lead process changes, including authoring the white paper with appropriate supporting documentation, for process changes involving their assigned product family. Ensure process changes and raw material and equipment qualification plans are thoroughly created and aligned internally, and with our partner, DuPont.Lead the Pilot and Qualification segment of Merck's Stagegate process for new products. Work with Merck's R&D team to develop robust processes that are successfully transferable to high volume manufacturing at an acceptable cost, and deliver the necessary product specifications to ensure the new product performs consistently for the end customers. Be the leader for problem resolution that occurs from product excursions, even in this stage of development.Participate in Stagegate development teams from the beginning of the project. Ensure that customer requirements and R&D formulations can be consistently met with Merck's manufacturing capabilities at an acceptable cost. Ensure that product specifications can meet customer performance requirements at an acceptable manufacturing yield. Who You Are:Minimum Qualifications:BS in chemistry or engineering (or related field) and 8+ years of experience in previous customer or material supplier experience in semiconductor manufacturing.ORMS in chemistry or engineering or related field and 6+ years of experience in previous customer or material supplier experience in semiconductor manufacturing.Knowledge and experience in statistical methods such as Six Sigma, probability, and continuous improvement processes.Experience leading quality organizations and managing customer and supplier relationships in the Semiconductor industry.8+ years of managing teams (including performance appraisals, pay reviews, development); operational or strategic management and leadership skills. Preferred Qualifications:Experience leading the scale-up of new product development projects.Previous customer or material supplier experience in CMP processing, or the manufacturing, testing, and application of colloidal silica for polishing slurries.Understanding of advanced statistical quality control concepts and techniques. Experience with common and advanced quality analysis methods for Semiconductor materials.Knowledge of colloidal silica, physical property characterization, and CMP processes is beneficial.Excellent problem-solving skills along with the ability to work with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited known correlations exist.Proficiency with Microsoft software applications, statistical analysis software like Minitab, and other data management and analysis software like SAP.Ability to read, analyze, and interpret general business periodicals, professional journals, technical procedures, or governmental regulations. Ability to write reports, business correspondence, and procedure manuals. Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from groups of managers, partners, and customers.Ability to maintain good working relationships with business contacts both internally and externally.