Technical Program Manager, Atmospheric & Advanced Packaging

Brooks is a leading provider of automation solutions with over 40 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, offering precision robotics, integrated automation systems, and contamination control solutions that empower chip manufacturers worldwide. Our product portfolio includes a range of automation solutions, including robots, vacuum systems, and atmospheric robots for semiconductor manufacturing (www.brooks.com).

Are you looking for a place where you can be part of a transformation? Join us at Brooks Automation and be a part of a dynamic organization that is shaping the future of technology.

Technical Program Manager, Atmospheric & Advanced Packaging

Job Description

THE MANDATE:

Own the integrated and technical truth of high-complexity atmospheric automation and advanced-packaging programs. Convert evolving customer needs, system architecture, product configurations, engineering work, global supply constraints, and field realities into credible commitments and predictable business outcomes. This is not a meeting-administration role. The Technical Program Manager must engage engineers at sufficient depth to challenge assumptions, lead technical and program reviews, control configuration and change, and drive decisions without replacing the technical authority of Engineering.

ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY:

Brooks Automation delivers semiconductor automation solutions that include EFEMs, wafer and panel handling robots, load ports, aligners, vision and mapping technologies, controls and software, and customer-specific system integration. Advanced-packaging applications introduce difficult substrate conditions, including large formats, thickness variation, warpage, weight, fragile materials, complex carriers, and demanding throughput and yield requirements. This role will lead new-platform, product-extension, and customer-customization programs while helping Brooks scale a stronger enterprise Program Management operating system.

WHAT YOU WILL OWN:

• Lead assigned atmospheric and advanced-packaging programs across the full lifecycle: opportunity and requirements definition, feasibility, program initiation, detailed planning, phase-gate readiness, design release, prototype and alpha/beta builds, DVT and SQA readiness, production transfer, customer shipment, installation, qualification, ramp, field stabilization, and closure.
• Establish and control the integrated program baseline, including customer and system requirements, measurable acceptance criteria, product configuration, interfaces, milestones, critical path, named resource assumptions, BOM maturity, cost targets, quality objectives, customer commitments, and decision rights.
• Build and maintain an integrated master schedule across Product Management, Applications, Systems Engineering, mechanical/electrical/software/controls Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, Quality, Service, regional teams, suppliers, OEM partners, and the customer. Distinguish requested dates, target dates, and approved commitments.
• Turn ROM estimates and functional inputs into executable plans by probing task logic, identifying named resources and allocations, leveling constrained capacity, validating material and test lead times, and obtaining explicit functional commitment.
• Own the program risk, issue, assumption, dependency, decision, action, and change-control system. Convert red status into technical and business consequences, recovery options, a recommendation, a decision owner, and a required decision date.
• Lead phase-gate readiness as an evidence-based decision. Make incomplete deliverables, residual risks, waivers, deviations, temporary workarounds, open defects, and conditional approvals explicit, owned, scheduled, and closed.
• Control post-baseline changes. Quantify impacts to system architecture, interfaces, design, verification, software, BOM, tooling, fixtures, documentation, service, spares, schedule, resources, product cost, NRE, quality, throughput, yield, revenue timing, and customer commitments before approval and re-baselining.
• Lead customer-facing program, design-readiness, build-readiness, installation, and recovery reviews. Push back constructively when requirements, acceptance criteria, dates, or trade-offs are not supportable while maintaining the customer relationship.
• Create concise executive communication showing baseline versus forecast, critical-path movement, configuration maturity, top technical and commercial risks, recovery scenarios, recommendation, and decisions required.
• Drive complete program closure, including as-built/as-shipped configuration, manufacturing and service readiness, field actions, verification closure, lessons learned, ownership transfer, and retirement of temporary workarounds.

TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP EXPECTATIONS:

• Develop sufficient system-level understanding to engage credibly with mechanical, electrical, controls, software, systems, test, manufacturing, quality, applications, and supplier engineers. Know enough to detect gaps, question unsupported conclusions, and recognize when a local answer does not close the system or customer risk.
• Lead technical program reviews that connect customer requirements, system architecture, subsystem interfaces, design maturity, build configuration, verification evidence, manufacturing readiness, field conditions, cost, schedule, and customer acceptance.
• Understand atmospheric automation architecture, including EFEMs, robots and end effectors, load ports, aligners, vision and mapping, motion/control systems, safety systems, host and equipment interfaces, configuration files, and the interaction between Brooks equipment and the customer or OEM tool.
• Understand advanced-packaging handling challenges sufficiently to question requirements and decisions involving panel or wafer size, thickness, weight, warpage or bow, materials, surface conditions, pitch, slot utilization, vacuum handling, acceleration, vibration, repeatability, positioning, mapping, contamination, throughput, and breakage or yield risk.
• Challenge design changes by asking what requirement or field problem is being solved, what measurable acceptance criterion applies, what alternatives were evaluated, which interfaces are affected, what must be reverified, and how the change affects throughput, reliability, BOM, lead time, tooling, software, documentation, service, schedule, and customer commitments.
• Understand product and configuration structures well enough to reconcile selection guides, system requirements, configuration matrices, engineering BOMs, manufacturing BOMs, as-built/as-shipped records, software and parameter versions, ECOs, deviations, substitutions, effectivity, and field-upgrade content.
• Probe engineering estimates and recovery plans using system dependencies, design and release cycles, FEA or analysis completion, prototype-learning cycles, supplier lead time, fixture and tooling readiness, software integration, tuning, test capacity, DVT/SQA sequence, defect closure, rework, logistics, and installation constraints.
• Use technical artifacts as program evidence, including MRDs and customer requirements, selection guides, architecture and interface documents, drawings and specifications, design-review outputs, FMEA, FEA, verification matrices, DVT/SQA plans and results, throughput and repeatability data, defect records, ECOs, deviations, BOMs, build documentation, and field procedures.
• Ensure field fixes, customer-specific software or parameter changes, temporary workarounds, technical debt, open defects, waivers, and undocumented tribal knowledge are captured, reproducible, risk-assessed, owned, and closed or formally accepted.
• Translate technical choices into schedule, cost, quality, throughput, yield, capacity, customer, and business consequences so leadership can make informed decisions without losing engineering reality.

HOW YOU WILL IMPROVE THE OPERATING SYSTEM:

• Improve front-end readiness by challenging incomplete selection guides, undefined substrate or interface requirements, unclear acceptance criteria, unsupported dates, immature configurations, and weak resource assumptions before the organization commits.
• Help define a practical readiness review before PCM so large cross-functional teams are not used to discover basic scope gaps. Ensure PCM receives decision-quality inputs and produces an explicit acceptance, rejection, or conditional path.
• Create disciplined configuration and change control across customer requests, product definitions, BOMs, software/configuration files, as-shipped systems, and field upgrades. Prevent customer-specific one-offs from becoming invisible product obligations.
• Use Smartsheet as the execution source and SharePoint as the governed home for program artifacts. Use enterprise data and concise program views to make decisions, not to recreate status manually across reports.
• Apply common minimum controls with governance tailored by novelty, customer exposure, technical risk, and complexity. Protect non-negotiable controls for requirements, configuration, safety, verification, manufacturing readiness, financial exposure, and customer acceptance.
• Reduce firefighting, hidden priority shifts, repeated schedule reconstruction, field rework, engineer travel, and dependence on individual heroics by fixing the mechanisms that create recurring execution failure.
• Help prepare programs for scale, including global production transfer and volume ramp, so successful prototypes do not depend on the original engineering team to build, tune, install, or sustain every system.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE:

• Customer and business commitments are based on validated requirements, measurable acceptance criteria, a controlled configuration, credible resource assumptions, and an understood business case.
• The integrated schedule reflects the real technical critical path, named resources, material and tooling lead times, software integration, verification cycles, global logistics, installation, and explicit priority decisions.
• Program and technical reviews produce decisions and closure. Risks surface early enough to create choices before shipment, field performance, revenue, or customer confidence is compromised.
• Product configurations remain traceable from customer requirement through selection guide, design, BOM, software/configuration version, build, shipment, installation, and field upgrade.
• Products move from prototype and customer-specific execution to repeatable manufacturing, installation, and support with less field recovery and less diversion of scarce engineering resources.
• Leadership receives a clear recommendation when customer scope, throughput targets, technical feasibility, capacity, or schedule conflict, rather than an unprioritized list of actions.

WHAT YOU WILL BRING:

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Software, Systems, Mechatronics, Manufacturing Engineering, or a related technical discipline. An advanced degree is valued but not required.
• At least 6 years of experience spanning technical program management, systems engineering, product development, engineering leadership, applications engineering, or operations, including at least 3 years owning complex cross-functional programs.
• Direct experience with semiconductor capital equipment, factory automation, robotics, advanced packaging, mechatronics, medical devices, aerospace, or similarly complex electromechanical hardware/software systems.
• Technical fluency in systems combining mechanisms and structures, precision motion or robotics, end effectors, electrical controls, sensors and vision, embedded or application software, safety systems, manufacturing, and field integration.
• Ability to read and interrogate requirements, configurations, BOMs, drawings and specifications, interface definitions, FMEA/FEA outputs, verification matrices, test reports and data, defect records, engineering changes, deviations, and ma