Wafer Manufacturing Manager

We're Hiring: Wafer Manufacturing Manager

Location: United Arab Emirates (Remote)

Employment Type: Full-Time

Experience Level: Mid-Level to Senior

Work Arrangement: Fully Remote

About Us

We are a globally focused organization committed to advancing semiconductor wafer manufacturing, process excellence, yield performance, equipment reliability, and technology-driven production.

Our teams collaborate across wafer fabrication, process engineering, equipment engineering, yield, quality, facilities, automation, supply chain, EHS, and product development to deliver stable, high-yield, and scalable semiconductor manufacturing operations.

The Role

We are seeking an experienced Wafer Manufacturing Manager to lead wafer manufacturing operations, production performance, process execution, yield improvement, equipment utilization, quality, and continuous improvement across semiconductor wafer fabrication environments.

The ideal candidate will provide operational and technical leadership across wafer manufacturing activities, ensuring production targets are achieved while maintaining process stability, product quality, equipment availability, safety, and cost efficiency.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and implement wafer manufacturing strategies aligned with production, technology, quality, and business objectives.
• Manage daily wafer manufacturing operations across assigned fabrication areas and process modules.
• Lead production teams, supervisors, engineers, and operators across shift-based manufacturing environments.
• Establish production plans, priorities, capacity requirements, and operational targets.
• Coordinate wafer starts, lot movement, production schedules, cycle times, and manufacturing priorities.
• Monitor wafer flow through critical process steps and identify bottlenecks affecting production.
• Manage manufacturing activities across lithography, deposition, etch, clean, diffusion, implantation, CMP, metrology, inspection, and other applicable processes.
• Ensure manufacturing processes are executed according to approved specifications, recipes, procedures, and control plans.
• Monitor process stability, equipment performance, yield, throughput, cycle time, and manufacturing efficiency.
• Lead investigations into process excursions, equipment-related interruptions, contamination events, defects, and production abnormalities.
• Coordinate rapid containment and recovery actions for significant manufacturing disruptions.
• Work closely with yield and process engineering teams to identify and eliminate major sources of yield loss.
• Monitor wafer-level defects, process variation, parametric performance, and product quality.
• Support defect reduction, process capability improvement, and manufacturing robustness programs.
• Coordinate with equipment engineering to improve equipment availability, reliability, utilization, and performance.
• Ensure preventive and predictive maintenance activities are coordinated with production requirements.
• Support equipment installation, qualification, process matching, upgrades, and technology transitions.
• Work with process engineering on process qualification, recipe optimization, process windows, and engineering experiments.
• Support new-product introduction, technology transfer, production ramp, and manufacturing readiness activities.
• Establish manufacturing readiness requirements for new processes, products, equipment, and technologies.
• Coordinate engineering lots, pilot runs, qualification lots, and production releases.
• Monitor wafer cycle time and identify opportunities to reduce waiting time, queue time, rework, and manufacturing delays.
• Optimize lot dispatching, work-in-process levels, equipment loading, and production sequencing.
• Maintain effective work-in-process control and ensure accurate lot tracking throughout manufacturing.
• Coordinate with planning and supply chain teams to align wafer production with customer and business requirements.
• Monitor raw materials, wafers, chemicals, gases, consumables, and other production inputs.
• Work closely with facilities teams to ensure stable supplies of power, water, gases, chemicals, vacuum, exhaust, cooling, and cleanroom services.
• Ensure cleanroom discipline, contamination-control standards, and material-handling requirements are maintained.
• Establish and maintain manufacturing SOPs, work instructions, control plans, escalation procedures, and operational standards.
• Ensure production records, lot histories, process data, and manufacturing documentation are accurate and complete.
• Monitor manufacturing system transactions and ensure accurate integration with MES and factory-control systems.
• Use manufacturing data, SPC, FDC, MES, equipment monitoring, and analytics tools to identify operational improvement opportunities.
• Develop dashboards and reports covering production output, yield, cycle time, equipment utilization, quality, and operational performance.
• Lead root-cause analysis and corrective-action programs for recurring manufacturing issues.
• Track corrective actions through closure and verify the sustainability of improvements.
• Coordinate manufacturing response to process alarms, equipment failures, quality holds, and material issues.
• Establish contingency and recovery plans for equipment failures, utility interruptions, system outages, and other production disruptions.
• Support process safety, chemical safety, environmental compliance, emergency response, and cleanroom safety programs.
• Participate in risk assessments, MOC, incident investigations, audits, and compliance activities.
• Manage manufacturing labor, operating costs, overtime, consumables, and departmental budgets.
• Identify opportunities to reduce manufacturing costs, scrap, rework, energy consumption, and production losses.
• Support capital planning for manufacturing equipment, automation, facilities, and capacity expansion.
• Evaluate opportunities for automation, advanced process control, robotics, digital manufacturing, AI, and predictive analytics.
• Promote Lean, Six Sigma, TPM, statistical process control, and structured continuous-improvement methodologies.
• Train, coach, and develop manufacturing supervisors, engineers, technicians, and operators.
• Establish competency standards, qualification programs, cross-training, and technical development plans.
• Manage manufacturing staffing, shift coverage, succession planning, and workforce capability.
• Maintain strong communication between shifts and ensure effective operational handovers.
• Work with quality teams to manage nonconforming material, quality holds, deviations, and customer-related manufacturing issues.
• Monitor supplier and contractor performance where manufacturing activities involve external partners.
• Benchmark manufacturing performance against internal targets, historical results, and industry practices.
• Provide senior management with regular reports covering production, yield, cycle time, quality, capacity, costs, risks, and improvement initiatives.

Key Performance Indicators

• Wafer production volume
• Wafer starts per day or week
• Production plan attainment
• Wafer throughput
• Overall equipment effectiveness
• Equipment utilization
• Wafer cycle time
• Queue time
• Work-in-process levels
• Lot movement accuracy
• Manufacturing lead time
• Wafer yield
• First-pass yield
• Defect density
• Scrap rate
• Rework rate
• Process excursion frequency
• Process capability
• Equipment-related production loss
• Unplanned downtime
• Equipment availability
• Preventive maintenance compliance
• Production schedule adherence
• Bottleneck utilization
• Capacity utilization
• Engineering lot turnaround time
• New-product ramp performance
• Technology transfer performance
• Manufacturing readiness
• Process qualification completion
• Quality hold rate
• Nonconformance rate
• Manufacturing cost per wafer
• Material consumption per wafer
• Chemical and gas consumption
• Energy consumption per wafer
• Labor productivity
• Corrective-action closure
• Safety incidents
• Cleanroom compliance
• Contamination events
• MES transaction accuracy
• Manufacturing data accuracy
• Continuous-improvement savings
• Capital project delivery
• Manufacturing project ROI

Ideal Candidate

The successful candidate should have strong experience in semiconductor wafer manufacturing, wafer fabrication, semiconductor operations, process integration, manufacturing engineering, or advanced electronics production, preferably within a high-volume semiconductor manufacturing environment.

The candidate should demonstrate:

• Proven experience managing semiconductor wafer manufacturing or fabrication operations.
• Strong understanding of semiconductor manufacturing processes and production flow.
• Knowledge of lithography, deposition, etch, clean, diffusion, implantation, CMP, metrology, inspection, or related wafer-fabrication processes.
• Experience managing high-volume manufacturing teams and shift-based production environments.
• Strong understanding of wafer flow, lot control, WIP management, dispatching, cycle time, and production scheduling.
• Experience with yield improvement, defect reduction, process excursions, and manufacturing quality.
• Strong knowledge of semiconductor equipment performance, maintenance, utilization, and production capacity.
• Familiarity with MES, SPC, FDC, equipment monitoring, manufacturing analytics, and factory automation systems.
• Experience supporting equipment qualification, process qualification, technology transfer, and production ramp-up.
• Strong root-cause analysis and structured problem-solving capabilities.
• Understanding of cleanroom operations, contamination control, chemical handling, and semiconductor EHS requirements.
• Experience with Lean, Six Sigma, TPM, or continuous-improvement methodologies.
• Strong analytical and data-driven decision-making skills.
• Experience managing manufacturing budgets, labor resources, operating costs, and capital projects.
• Strong project-management and cross-functional leadership capabilities.
• Excellent communication, reporting, and stakeholder-management skills.