Hardware Operations Program Manager

Who you are

We are seeking a Hardware Operation Program Manager with extensive experience in hardware product development and high-volume manufacturing. Strong interpersonal skills to collaborate across internal and external cross functional teams are essential. In-depth understanding of program management, manufacturing process and contract manufacturer management is critical.

This role will be based in Hong Kong, China, or Taiwan. A significant amount of this person’s time will be spent on-site at partner contract manufacturing facilities. 

Key responsibilities of this role include:

• Lead the engineering and manufacturing teams and the CM to ensure material-in-house before the NPI builds (EVT, DVT) start. Conduct  line and fixture validation through the build, and complete the build report review after the build. 
• Ensure line readiness and complete line and fixture validation for PVT and mass-production. Ensure that the CM has a plan in place to bridge process yield and UPH from development levels to sustained production targets.
• Own the schedule of each manufacturing build both for sub-assemblies and FATP. Communicate clearly the dependency to other functional teams such as gerber, CAD/Dwg and FW/SW release.
• Own the ramp plan, immediate post ramp production plan and line equipment list at CM. Perform regular factory audits with other functional teams.
• Own the Capex budget for copy tools or fixtures in the PVT and Mass Production phase.
• Lead CM team during sustained production, test, and pack-out.  Ensure clear reporting by CM of actual production numbers against the plan.
• Communicate regular forecast updates to CM and validate that the production plan can support the forecast. 
• Engage in forward planning with CM to ensure needed capacity is in place to meet future forecasts including line space, repeat fixture/test-station, and labor availability.  
• Ensure that contract manufacture is adhering to established and agreed upon IQC requirements and processes for components and sub-assemblies.
• Facilitate seamless integration between contact manufacturer and freight forwarder for outbound shipments.
• Establish a process to return defective units to contract manufacturers for failure analysis and corrective action. Directly program-manage failure analysis activities for high priority issues.

Qualifications of a Strong Candidate

• 5+ years experience in high volume hardware product development with a focus on manufacturing. 
• Possessing the interpersonal skills and experience needed to work with internal cross functional and external CM teams and management in a collaborative way to meet development schedules and mass-production deliveries.
• Experience working with and possessing knowledge of final assembly and test, pack-out, and SMT production processes. 
• Commitment to a disciplined cadence in communicating factory production and quality data.
• Fluency in English and Chinese.
• Experience working in consumer electronics.
• Experience with POS hardware development and manufacturing including knowledge of tamper-proofing systems, and components for POS devices. 
• Familiarity with payments hardware related technologies e.g. ICC, MSR, tampering zebra strips etc.