Principal Engineer, Failure Analysis Engineering - CA, Milpitas, Tasman, United States
Originally posted 17 September 2026 by the employer — open 0 days.
About the role
This role involves supporting root cause failure investigations for semiconductor products arising from reliability testing, manufacturing, and field returns. The position focuses on performing material and defect characterization to identify failure modes in semiconductors, packages, and assemblies.
What you'll do
- Support root cause failure investigations from reliability testing, manufacturing, and field returns.
- Develop and execute detailed failure analysis plans.
- Coordinate and conduct hands-on physical and electrical failure analysis using SEM, EDS, CSAM, X-ray, and bench characterization.
- Perform material and defect characterization to identify failure modes in semiconductors, packages, and assemblies.
- Prepare clear and technically sound failure analysis reports for internal and external stakeholders.
- Execute product qualification and reliability stress testing (e.g., HTOL, TC, HAST).
What you'll need
- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, or a related STEM discipline.
- 5 years of industry experience in semiconductor reliability or failure analysis.
- Hands-on experience with FA techniques: SEM, EDS, optical profiler, oscilloscopes, curve tracers, thermal imaging, photon emission, OBIRCH, X-ray, CSAM.
- Understanding of semiconductor device physics, packaging technologies, and common failure mechanisms (physics of failure).
- Familiarity with JEDEC reliability standards and procedures.
- Strong statistical data analysis capability, including experience with JMP or Python.
Nice to have
- Master’s or Ph. D. degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, or Materials Science.
- Experience with power and/or analog/mixed-signal ICs, or power IC failure modes.
- Experience with SiP architecture Reliability/FA and packaging failure mechanisms (e.g., electromigration, delamination).
- Exposure to reliability modeling and risk assessment methods such as FMEA, DOE, and Weibull analysis.
- HTOL and HAST board layout and schematic interpretation.
This role has been open 0 days — well below the 47-day median for Failure Analysis Engineering roles.
Failure Analysis Engineering · Failure Analysis
|
Open roles in category
187
|
Median days open
47 d
|
Median salary
$116k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Analog Devices | All employers we track in this specialty (187 roles · 38 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 5 | 187 |
| Open roles in the wider Process, Fab & Equipment family | 217 | 9377 · 108 employers |
| Median days open | 34 d | 47 d (−13 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $116k |
Who's hiring in this category
- Micron Technology · 32 open roles · median 65 d
- AMD · 14 open roles · median 52 d
- Infineon Technologies · 13 open roles · median 38 d
- Lam Research · 13 open roles · median 36 d
- Intel Corporation · 11 open roles · median 33 d
- SanDisk · 9 open roles · median 23 d
How we counted: 187 open Failure Analysis Engineering (Failure Analysis) roles from 38 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 17 Sept 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Process, Fab & Equipment family row. Figures refresh nightly.