Roles / Market Research Analyst — Semiconductor Forecasting

Market Research Analyst — Semiconductor Forecasting

STD-008v1

Standards, Consortia, Analysts & Industry EcosystemBusinessIC2–IC6Individual contributor

Also known as: Semiconductor Market Forecaster; Demand Analyst (Semis); Market Intelligence Analyst; TAM/SAM Analyst

Summary

Builds and maintains the quantitative demand models — units, ASP, wafer starts, TAM and SAM by segment and geography — that vendors, fabs and equipment makers use to commit capacity and product plans.

A day in the life

Work in progressNo day-in-the-life description has been written for this role yet. If you do this work, we would welcome yours. Suggest a source or a correction

Responsibilities

Project

Work done for a product or program.

Build and maintain bottom-up forecast models by end application, converting device unit forecasts into die, wafer and content-per-box demand.
Track and normalise ASP and pricing series across memory, logic, analog and discretes, including contract versus spot behaviour.
Reconcile top-down macro indicators such as WSTS billings, SEMI equipment bookings and IMF or PMI series with bottom-up device demand.
Instrument and monitor leading indicators including lead times, book-to-bill, fab utilisation, distributor inventory weeks and foundry prepayments.
Design and field primary survey and interview programmes with OEM, ODM and distributor respondents and correct for sample bias.
Produce recurring deliverables including quarterly trackers, five-year forecasts and custom sizing studies for clients.
Post-mortem forecast error every cycle and feed the findings back into model structure and assumption discipline.

Function

Work that keeps the discipline running: methods, tools, suppliers and people.

Maintain the vendor market share database each quarter from reported financials, customs data and channel estimates.
Run scenario and sensitivity analysis on inventory correction, capacity additions, export controls and end-market elasticity.
Document methodology, data lineage and revision history so forecast changes are auditable and defensible to clients.

Major tasks

Project

Produce and hand over the role's key deliverables
- Quarterly market tracker with unit, ASP and revenue actuals by vendor and segment
- Five-year bottom-up demand forecast model with documented assumptions
- TAM / SAM / SOM sizing studies for specific device categories
- Scenario and sensitivity analysis packs
- Methodology and data-lineage documentation
- Forecast accuracy post-mortem report
Define the productGeneral
- Gather customer and market requirements
- Write the business case
- Agree the requirements with engineering
Take it to marketGeneral
- Plan the launch
- Set pricing
- Support key customers

Function

Manage the portfolioGeneral
- Keep the roadmap current
- Review product performance
Understand the marketGeneral
- Follow competitors and trends
- Maintain forecasts

Works with

Industry analysts
vendor corporate planning and sales operations
fab capacity planners
procurement and supply chain teams
investor clients
teardown and cost engineers

Typical backgrounds

BS/MS in economics, engineering, statistics or business; 3–12 years in market intelligence, corporate planning or sell-side research; strong modelling discipline plus enough device literacy to avoid nonsense assumptions.

Demand signal

0 open listings right now
0 Talent Wafer employer inquiries

Counts live listings tagged to this role, and employer interest in candidates from Talent Wafer runs for this role (all runs to date). Hub activity only, not the wider market.

Comp tier (within semis)

2 / 5

Remote feasibility

High

Semis core vs. portable

Highly portable

Geographic hotspots

Silicon Valley, Austin, New York, Taipei, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, Bangalore, London, Munich

Certifications / standards training

— ; CFA Level I–II common, Google Data Analytics or equivalent analytics certificates for early-career entrants

Transfers to (industries)

Consumer electronics and appliance forecasting, automotive volume planning, energy and commodity demand analysis, cloud infrastructure capacity planning, retail and industrial demand planning

Risk if vacant

Capacity and product commitments get made on stale or anecdotal demand data, producing either missed upside or expensive inventory write-downs.

Market Research Analyst — Semiconductor Forecasting

Summary

A day in the life

Responsibilities

Project

Function

Major tasks

Project

Function

Works with

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