Senior Hardware Failure Analysis Engineer

Figure is an AI Robotics company developing a general purpose humanoid. Our humanoid robot, Figure 02, is designed for commercial tasks and the home. We are based in San Jose, CA and require 5 days/week in-office collaboration. It’s time to build. 

We are looking for a Failure Analysis (FA) Engineer to be in charge of analyzing hardware failures from product development and field uses to ensure that issues are addressed to meet our product reliability targets. We are looking for someone with a strong FA background who possesses comprehensive FA skills and is able to execute end-to-end failure analysis at components (e.g. PCBAs, actuators, battery cells), modules (e.g. hand), and system (robot) levels.

Responsibilities: 

1. Mechanical Cross sectioning of PCBAs


2. Perform Optical Inspection (Keyence equipment preferred) 


3. Perform SEM/EDS and interpret the result


4. Perform CT X-ray and interpret the CT X-ray data (VGStudio experience preferred) 


5. Perform FTIR and interpret result


6. Perform Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and interpret result


7. Dissemble different DUTs and perform fault isolation


8. Setup hardware failure analysis lab


9. Triage failures and write FA SOPs


10. Work alongside cross functional teams to identify the root cause of HW failure


11. Drive HW failure analysis at the component level at vendors


12. Utilize DMM, Lock-in IR thermography, oscilloscope, probe station, function generator, IV-Tracing,  or TDR to perform PCBAs level analysis

Requirements: 

1. Minimum 5 year experience in hardware failure analysis in the automotive, consumer electronics, aerospace or robotics industry 


2. Understand the basic operations of mechanical cross sectioning, optical microscope, SEM/EDS, CT Xray, FTIR, and Confocal Scanning Acoustic Microscope (CSAM)


3. Advanced understanding of failure concepts and mechanisms, such as fatigue, ductile brittle, adhesive/cohesive, contamination, intermetallic compounds, corrosion

Bonus Qualification:

1. Experience of GCMS


2. Experience of different etching techniques


3. Experience of X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy 


4. Experience of Differential Scanning Calorimetry and TMA


5. Experience of Gel Permeation Chromatography


6. Experience of Instron and DMA


7. Experience in building a failure analysis laboratory