Product Cost Engineer

Project

Work done for a product or program.

• Build and maintain bottom-up should-cost models for each SKU covering wafer cost, gross die per wafer, sort yield, bump and WLCSP or flip-chip assembly, substrate, final test time and burn-in.
• Compute gross die per wafer and yielded die cost from die dimensions, scribe width, edge exclusion and defect-density-driven Murphy or Poisson yield models for each process node.
• Run cost sensitivity and break-even analyses on die size trade-offs so architecture teams understand the dollar cost of adding SRAM, IP blocks or additional SerDes lanes.
• Provide standard cost inputs to finance for inventory valuation, gross margin forecasting and new product introduction business case approval.
• Model chiplet and advanced packaging cost structures including known-good-die test cost, CoWoS or InFO interposer cost and multi-die assembly yield stacking.
• Flag cost risks arising from yield excursions, test escape rates, package substrate shortages or foundry price increases to the product line general manager.

Function

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

• Drive the annual cost-down roadmap by sequencing die shrinks, test-time reduction, multi-site test parallelism increases, substrate layer-count reductions and package downgrades.
• Negotiate cost assumptions with the foundry, OSAT and substrate vendor interface teams and reconcile modelled cost against actual purchase price variance each quarter.
• Track and forecast wafer price curves, node maturity discounts and long-term agreement commitments into the three-year cost roadmap.
• Benchmark competitor die sizes and cost structures using teardown and reverse-costing reports to validate internal cost competitiveness.

Project

1. Produce and hand over the role's key deliverables
   • Per-SKU bottom-up cost model with wafer, sort, assembly, test and substrate line items
   • Three-year product cost-down roadmap with quantified savings per initiative and owner
   • Gross die per wafer and yielded die cost calculator maintained per process node
   • Quarterly standard cost refresh and purchase price variance reconciliation pack
   • Cost impact assessment for every architecture or packaging change request
   • Competitive cost benchmark deck derived from teardown and reverse-cost analysis
2. Define the productGeneral
   • Gather customer and market requirements
   • Write the business case
   • Agree the requirements with engineering
3. Take it to marketGeneral
   • Plan the launch
   • Set pricing
   • Support key customers

Function

1. Manage the portfolioGeneral
   • Keep the roadmap current
   • Review product performance
2. Understand the marketGeneral
   • Follow competitors and trends
   • Maintain forecasts