Senior Specialist, Electrical Engineering - Microelectronics Failure Analysis Engineer

Job Title: Senior Specialist, Electrical Engineering - Microelectronics Failure Analysis Engineer

Job Code: 47053
Job Location: Palm Bay, Florida
Job Schedule: 9/80 – Employees work 80 hours over nine days in each two-week period, with every other Friday off.

Job Description

L3Harris is seeking a Senior Specialist, Microelectronics Failure Analysis Engineer to investigate component failures and provide actionable insights that improve product quality and reliability. This role will lead investigations involving microelectronic components or circuit level assemblies that fail during manufacturing, qualification, testing, or field operation.

The engineer will develop investigative plans, perform hands-on electrical and physical analysis, and interpret evidence to identify failure mechanisms and establish root cause. Core techniques include optical microscopy, X-ray inspection, cross-sectioning, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), photoemission microscopy, electrical testing, decapsulation, and delayering.

This position requires strong technical judgment, laboratory proficiency, and the ability to communicate complex findings clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences. The successful candidate will collaborate with design, manufacturing, quality, reliability, and supplier teams to recommend corrective actions and verify their effectiveness.

Essential Functions

• Lead microelectronic failure investigations from initial assessment and test planning through root cause determination, reporting, and corrective action verification.
• Establish analysis strategies based on device construction, failure symptoms, operating history, and available evidence, sequencing techniques to preserve critical information.
• Use optical microscopy and X-ray inspection to evaluate component condition, package integrity, internal structures, and potential assembly defects.
• Perform electrical testing and characterization to reproduce reported failures, identify abnormal device behavior, and isolate suspect circuits or connections.
• Apply photoemission microscopy and liquid crystal hotspot detection to isolate leakage related phenomena on integrated circuits. 
• Prepare samples through decapsulation, cross-sectioning, and controlled delayering to expose internal features while minimizing preparation-induced damage.
• Examine exposed structures using SEM to characterize defects in semiconductor devices, metallization, bond wires, interfaces, and package interconnects.
• Correlate electrical measurements, imaging results, physical observations, and manufacturing or field history to distinguish failure symptoms from underlying causes.
• Evaluate potential mechanisms such as electrical overstress, electrostatic discharge, corrosion, contamination, delamination, metallization damage, and interconnect fatigue.
• Partner with engineering, manufacturing, quality, reliability, and suppliers to translate investigation findings into practical design, material, or process improvements.
• Assess follow-up test results and analysis data to determine whether corrective actions address the identified failure mechanism.
• Produce clear technical reports that document methods, supporting evidence, conclusions, limitations, and recommended next steps.
• Present detailed findings to technical teams and provide concise, accessible summaries for program leadership, customers, and non-technical stakeholders.
• Manage concurrent investigations, communicate priorities and progress, and escalate technical risks or resource constraints.
• Develop and improve laboratory procedures, sample preparation methods, and analysis workflows.
• Provide technical guidance and mentoring to engineers and laboratory personnel.
• Maintain traceable investigation records and follow applicable laboratory safety, chemical handling, ESD control, and equipment procedures.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, Microelectronics, or a related technical discipline and a minimum of six years of relevant experience; graduate degree and a minimum of four years of relevant experience; or, in lieu of a degree, a minimum of ten years of relevant experience.

Preferred Additional Skills

• Experience analyzing analog, digital, mixed-signal, RF, power, or discrete semiconductor components.
• Hands-on experience investigating failures in semiconductor devices, integrated circuits, or microelectronic packages.
• Demonstrated proficiency in electrical testing and physical failure analysis, including optical microscopy, X-ray inspection, cross-sectioning, SEM, photoemission microscopy, decapsulation, and delayering.
• Working knowledge of semiconductor device operation, fabrication processes, packaging technologies, and common failure mechanisms.
• Experience integrating results from multiple analytical techniques to develop evidence-based root cause conclusions.
• Demonstrated ability to write technical reports and communicate investigation results to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to work independently and collaborate across multidisciplinary teams.
• Familiarity with advanced packaging, including flip-chip devices, ball grid arrays, stacked die, and multichip modules.
• Experience with complementary techniques such as energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), scanning acoustic microscopy, or thermal imaging.
• Knowledge of physics-of-failure principles and methods for distinguishing component defects from assembly, application, or environmental causes.
• Experience supporting aerospace, defense, or other high-reliability electronics programs.
• Proficiency with data analysis and automation tools such as Python, MATLAB, or LabVIEW.
• Strong organizational skills and experience balancing multiple investigations with competing priorities.
• Active security clearance.