Foundry Supply-Chain & Procurement Engineer

Why this work matters

Touchdown is engineering modular manufacturing for the chips and memory systems future computing needs. This role helps turn a buyer's physical result into a qualified process or a defensible decision to use an existing supplier. Advanced packaging is our intended first fab class; no production fab is operating today.

Overview

You will source the materials, equipment, services, and external process steps needed for a bounded customer product. For each critical input, compare qualified options on capability, delivered cost, lead time, change control, rights, and recovery. Your work helps the team choose whether to buy, partner, license, build, or stop before committing capital.

What you will own

• Compare merchant suppliers, materials, tool lead times, service, rights, and full installed cost.
• Source tool, material, substrate, assembly, test, and service options against one specification.
• Assess lead time, installed cost, rights, qualification burden, and single-source risk.
• Coordinate commercial terms without treating a quote as engineering approval.
• Build a supplier-risk map for single-source parts, long-lead tools, outsourced steps, and critical service capacity.
• Track each quote's assumptions and open engineering approvals so commercial progress cannot be mistaken for product qualification.

Technical territory

Technical RFQs, equal-spec comparisons, installed and operating cost, yield-adjusted cost, supplier capability, qualification burden, lead times, spares, service, IP and data rights, continuity, and change notification.

Representative outputs

• An equal-spec supplier comparison with lead time, cost, alternative, and failure contingency.
• An equal-spec supplier matrix with evidence, price, timing, risk, and alternatives.
• A procurement readiness packet listing approvals still needed.
• A make-buy-partner decision record with price, yield, timing, rights, failure contingency, and stop criteria.

What success looks like

• The team knows when buying or partnering is better than building.
• Critical inputs have a qualified fallback or an explicit stop condition.
• The selected path wins on accepted customer output and total cost, not purchase price alone.
• Critical inputs have a tested alternative or an explicit no-go boundary.

What you bring

• Semiconductor/packaging sourcing, vendor qualification, contracting interfaces, and risk management.
• Sourced semiconductor or packaging materials, equipment, or outsourced processes.
• Can evaluate supplier capability, change control, and continuity.
• Can build total-cost comparisons that include yield, service, and qualification.
• Can translate engineering specifications into comparable supplier requests and challenge exclusions.
• Can assess contract, supply continuity, and technical qualification together with the relevant owners.

Helpful experience

• OSAT, foundry, or equipment-vendor relationships
• Export, IP, and contractual interface awareness
• Equipment service negotiations
• Substrate and materials sourcing
• Supplier capacity planning

How the role works

• Applications are open; the exact work location, arrangement, compensation, and start date will be discussed during hiring.
• Early work can produce engineering plans and partner comparisons. Hands-on work begins only at qualified, authorized facilities.
• You will work with process, equipment, quality, test, customer, and supplier owners as the scope requires.