Roles / Supplier Quality Engineer

Supplier Quality Engineer

QSS-008v1

Quality, Reliability, Functional Safety & Product SecurityQualityIC2–IC6Individual contributor

Also known as: SQE; Subcontractor Quality Engineer; Foundry and OSAT Quality Engineer

Summary

Makes external foundries, OSATs, substrate, lead-frame and material suppliers perform to the same quality standard as internal operations, since a fabless or fab-lite company's DPPM is largely its suppliers' DPPM.

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.

Audit supplier processes against IATF 16949, VDA 6.3 and customer-specific requirements, and track findings to closure.
Evaluate and approve supplier process change notifications, assessing requalification scope and customer notification duty.
Monitor supplier scorecards covering DPPM, on-time delivery, excursion count and responsiveness, and run quarterly business reviews.
Qualify alternative materials such as bond wire, mould compound, substrates and die attach when supply or compliance forces a change.
Lead containment and sorting activity at supplier sites during excursions, including material traceability reconstruction.
Support dual-sourcing and geographic resilience programmes with qualification data and risk assessments.

Function

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

Qualify new foundries, OSATs and material suppliers through on-site audits, capability assessments and pilot builds.
Review and approve supplier control plans, process FMEAs, SPC charts and Cpk data for critical parameters.
Drive supplier corrective action requests and 8D reports for incoming quality issues and line stoppages.
Deploy incoming inspection and skip-lot strategies based on demonstrated supplier capability.

Major tasks

Project

Produce and hand over the role's key deliverables

Supplier audit reports and approved supplier list entries
Approved supplier control plans and PPAP submissions
Supplier scorecards and quarterly business review packs
Supplier corrective action request and 8D closure records
Requalification plans for supplier process changes

Qualify the productGeneral

Write the qualification plan
Run stress tests and analyse the results
Approve the qualification report

Handle quality issuesGeneral

Analyse failures
Drive corrective and preventive action
Respond to customers

Function

Run the quality systemGeneral
- Maintain procedures and records
- Prepare for and run audits
Report and improveGeneral
- Track quality metrics
- Lead improvement projects

Works with

Foundry and OSAT quality and process teams
material vendors
product quality engineers
procurement
planning
failure analysis
customer quality

Typical backgrounds

BS in electrical, mechanical, materials or chemical engineering; 3–12 years in packaging, fab process or quality with heavy travel tolerance.

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

Low

Semis core vs. portable

Semis-primary, transfers

Geographic hotspots

Hsinchu, Kaohsiung, Singapore, Penang, Suzhou, Shanghai, Philippines (Laguna), Korea (Icheon), Munich, Phoenix

Certifications / standards training

VDA 6.3 qualified auditor; IATF 16949 internal auditor; ASQ CQE or CQA; Six Sigma Green Belt

Transfers to (industries)

Automotive component supply chains, aerospace supplier management, medical device contract manufacturing, consumer electronics EMS, battery and PCB supply

Risk if vacant

Supplier process changes and excursions go unchallenged, so defects arrive as finished product and containment happens at the customer instead of the supplier.

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