Principal / Staff Engineer - Manufacturing Automation

First Principle is representing an early-stage venture, aiming to deliver a first-of-its-kind automation platform addressing major bottlenecks of manual labor used in highly specialized semiconductor packaging operations. Historically automation in this niche sector has been lacking, and the end customer has paid the price.

Our client has raised significant investment to revolutionize production costs in this industry, one of the first major milestones to their success will be developing an automation strategy to scale gallium arsenide-based packaging, transforming manual processes into efficient, high-throughput production lines that will unlock productivity across multiple highly specialized markets.

We're seeking a hands-on Principal or Staff-level Engineer with deep domain expertise to lead process development, supplier partnerships, and the scaling of these processes.

Success Criteria

• Hands-on experience with packaging across GaAs-based platforms, QCW, die attach, thermal management, and back-end processes to own process development and define the path from manual assembly to automated, high-throughput production.
• Deep fluency in high-volume manufacturing environments (e.g., consumer electronics, semiconductor back-end), to evaluate competing suppliers and drive meaningful improvements in yield, efficiency, and cost.
• Ability to challenge and validate supplier processes while managing complex multi-stakeholder relationships, to guide automation strategy, stress testing, and integration of diode systems for reliability at scale.
• A track record of driving process improvement and scale-up in a production environment, to lead vendor evaluation, process documentation, and path selection for high-value manufacturing programs.
• A background from commercial OEMs, consumer hardware, defense, or advanced semiconductor environments is required in order to collaborate closely with engineering, materials science, and external partners and innovate new processes.

This is a high-impact individual contributor role reporting to an executive leader, working alongside a renowned group of scientists and engineers with deep institutional backing. You will have the opportunity to shape an emerging industry rather than optimize within an existing one.

Our client has the drive, capital, and institutional knowledge to make a defining impact on this niche corner of science that underpins devices and systems used across defense, electronics, and consumer technology. Besides the rewarding work, we're offering highly competitive pay and an equity component for the right candidate.