Fab Engineering Director - Lithography | MRL Consulting
9281
Posted: 17/03/2026
- Competitive
- United States
- Semiconductor
- Permanent
Director, Lithography Operations
Overview
A confidential semiconductor manufacturer is looking for a senior leader to oversee lithography within a high-output wafer fabrication environment. This role carries broad responsibility for technical leadership, manufacturing performance, equipment readiness, and organizational effectiveness across the lithography function.
The person in post will be expected to strengthen day-to-day factory execution while also supporting future process capability, manufacturing scale-up, and cross-functional integration. The position suits someone who combines deep fab experience with strong people leadership and a practical, data-led approach to operational improvement.
Key Areas of Responsibility
The ideal candidate is a visible and credible leader who can operate comfortably in a fast-moving manufacturing environment. They should be capable of balancing technical detail with broader operational priorities, while building strong teams and driving meaningful performance gains over time.
Opportunity
This is a senior manufacturing leadership position for someone who wants to shape lithography performance, strengthen organizational capability, and make a measurable impact in advanced semiconductor production.
Overview
A confidential semiconductor manufacturer is looking for a senior leader to oversee lithography within a high-output wafer fabrication environment. This role carries broad responsibility for technical leadership, manufacturing performance, equipment readiness, and organizational effectiveness across the lithography function.
The person in post will be expected to strengthen day-to-day factory execution while also supporting future process capability, manufacturing scale-up, and cross-functional integration. The position suits someone who combines deep fab experience with strong people leadership and a practical, data-led approach to operational improvement.
Key Areas of Responsibility
- Provide leadership across lithography engineering, equipment support, and related manufacturing teams.
- Set direction for performance improvement in output, process consistency, defect reduction, asset utilization, and cost control.
- Drive stable operations through disciplined process monitoring, rapid issue response, and robust maintenance planning.
- Partner with development, integration, and product-facing teams to introduce new process flows into production and support manufacturing ramps.
- Lead investigation and resolution of recurring technical and operational issues affecting yield, downtime, or process variation.
- Build a strong culture of accountability, technical rigor, and continuous improvement across the organization.
- Oversee capital equipment activity including evaluation, justification, installation, qualification, and operational handoff.
- Ensure the area operates to required safety, quality, environmental, and compliance standards.
- Maintain a high state of operational readiness for audits, internal reviews, and customer-facing assessments where applicable.
- Communicate priorities, risks, and performance trends clearly to senior leadership and partner functions.
- Sustained improvement in process output and product quality.
- Better predictability and faster movement of work through the fab.
- Stronger reliability and uptime across critical lithography tools.
- Measurable reductions in avoidable cost, loss, or inefficiency.
- High standards of safety, compliance, and execution across the manufacturing area.
- Effective collaboration with adjacent engineering and operations groups during process changes and production ramps.
- Degree-qualified in an engineering discipline such as electrical, mechanical, chemical, materials, or a related field.
- Extensive experience within semiconductor manufacturing, including significant leadership responsibility in a wafer fab setting.
- Strong technical understanding of lithography operations, equipment behavior, and manufacturing performance drivers.
- Proven ability to lead large technical teams and improve results in a complex production environment.
- Experience supporting manufacturing transitions such as process transfers, scale-up activity, or new technology introduction.
- Strong analytical capability, sound judgement, and the ability to communicate effectively at both factory-floor and executive levels.
The ideal candidate is a visible and credible leader who can operate comfortably in a fast-moving manufacturing environment. They should be capable of balancing technical detail with broader operational priorities, while building strong teams and driving meaningful performance gains over time.
Opportunity
This is a senior manufacturing leadership position for someone who wants to shape lithography performance, strengthen organizational capability, and make a measurable impact in advanced semiconductor production.
Harley Lorence
Managing Director, Northern Europe