Director of Global Customer Quality Engineering

1. Customer Quality Strategy & Alignment
   • Develop and deploy a global customer‐quality strategy (covering key customers, major geographies, automotive/industrial sectors) aligned with Renesas’s business strategy and growth markets.
   • Define global customer‐quality metrics, targets and roadmap (e.g., DPPM/PPM, field failure rate, customer return/return‑rate, 8D closure time, customer audit scores).
   • Collaborate with senior leadership (Product, Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Sales) to shape quality requirements based on customer feedback and market trends.
2. Customer Interface & Escalation Management
   • Serve as primary quality contact for strategic global customers (automotive OEMs/Tier 1s, industrial OEMs, infrastructure) for escalations, quality performance reviews and audits.
   • Lead and coordinate global cross‑functional teams in root cause analysis (RCA), corrective and preventive actions (CAPA), and follow‑through to resolution.
   • Present quality status, trends, improvement plans, and risk factors to customers and internal leadership.
3. Global Quality Organization & Governance
   • Build and lead a high‑performance global customer‐quality organization: regional directors/managers (Americas, EMEA, APAC), matrixed support in manufacturing, field quality, reliability, supplier quality.
   • Define governance of customer quality across sites: NPI hand‑off, qualification, volume ramp, field support, change control, PCNs, audit readiness.
   • Own customer‐quality risk assessments and mitigation across the product lifecycle (from design to field) and across the world.
4. Embed Customer Quality into Manufacturing/Operations
   • Work with product engineering, reliability & test, manufacturing operations (front‑end/ back‑end), assembly & test, packaging, supply chain, and suppliers to ensure customer quality requirements are known, integrated and executed.
   • Support new product introduction (NPI) with robust quality gate reviews, qualification protocols, reliability validation, design for manufacturability (DFM) and design for quality (DFQ).
   • Monitor upstream and downstream quality performance and identify improvement opportunities (yield improvement, defect reduction, cost of poor quality).
5. Continuous Improvement & Metrics Management
   • Lead global initiatives leveraging quality methodologies (Lean, Six Sigma, SPC, FMEA, 8D, Fishbone/5‑Why) to drive benchmark Customer Quality performance from Customer point-of-view.
   • Regularly analyze global data (customer returns, field issues, supplier defects, NPI performance) to identify systemic issues, root causes and implement global countermeasures.
   • Drive systemic improvement in key metrics year‑over‑year and report performance at executive level.
6. Compliance, Standards & Audit
   • Ensure compliance with relevant quality/industry standards: e.g., IATF 16949 (for automotive), ISO 9001, ISO 14001, AEC‑Q for automotive grade chips and Customer Specifics Requirements (CSR)
   • Lead customer and internal audits of manufacturing/test sites, suppliers and quality systems and ensure robust corrective action follow‑through.
   • Maintain up‑to‑date knowledge of evolving customer and industry quality expectations (for semiconductor, automotive‑grade, industrial) and integrate into internal processes.
7. Business Linkage & Customer Satisfaction
   • Translate quality performance into business impact: e.g., customer satisfaction, cost of quality, risk avoidance in field, impact of quality metrics on contracts and customer satisfaction.
   • Represent quality in senior customer business reviews, build trust with customers and partner to identify future quality expectations or new product challenges.
   • Travel globally (frequently) to customer sites, manufacturing/test sites, and lead workshops, audits, quality reviews.

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Materials Science, Semiconductor Engineering, or equivalent. MBA or other advanced business qualification is a plus.
• Minimum 20 years of progressive quality, customer‐quality or operations leadership experience in the semiconductor industry. At least 10 years in a global, customer‐facing, senior leadership role.
• Deep knowledge of semiconductor manufacturing processes (front‑end wafer, back‑end assembly & test, packaging, test engineering, reliability and failure mechanisms).
• Proven experience dealing with major global customers (automotive OEMs/Tier 1s, industrial OEMs) and handling complex global quality escalations and resolutions.
• Strong command of quality methods/tools (8D, 5Why, FMEA, SPC, Lean/Six Sigma) with demonstrated track record of process improvement and defect reduction.
• Solid leadership capability: building global teams, operating across geographies (Americas, EMEA, APAC), leading matrix organizations, influencing without direct authority.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills: comfortable interfacing with technical experts, senior executives, global customers and suppliers.
• Willingness and ability to travel globally at short notice
• Experience with automotive/industrial markets and associated quality/regulatory standards (e.g., IATF 16949, AEC‑Q) is strongly preferred.
• Fluency in English; additional language skills (e.g., Japanese, German, Mandarin) are beneficial in a global context.

Renesas is a global embedded semiconductor company focused on automotive, industrial, infrastructure and IoT markets, serving customers with MCUs, MPUs, analog, power & connectivity solutions.
In this environment, the Global Head of Customer Quality must ensure that Renesas not only meets internal quality metrics but also aligns with the expectations of strategic global customers in demanding markets such as automotive, industrial automation and infrastructure, including AI data centers.

Purpose of the Role

To be the global anchor for Renesas’s customer‑quality interface — ensuring that our products consistently meet or exceed customer quality expectations, building trust and satisfaction, managing escalations, embedding customer quality requirements across all operations (from NPI through volume manufacturing and field), and driving global continuous improvement in customer quality performance. The role acts as the “Voice of the Customer” within Renesas and links customer quality performance to business outcomes.

The expected annual base pay range for this position is $200,000K-$250,000K. This position is also eligible for bonus opportunities. Please note that final offer amount will be dependent on geographic location, applicable experience, and skillset of the candidate.

Renesas offers a full range of elective benefits including medical, health savings account (with applicable medical plan), dental, vision, health and/or dependent care flexible spending accounts, pre-tax commuter benefits, life insurance, AD&D, and pet insurance. In addition to elective benefit options, benefited employees receive company-paid life insurance and AD&D, LTD, short term medical benefits as well as paid sick time, paid holidays, and accrued paid vacation. New employees will attend a detailed benefit orientation to learn more about our many benefits and resources

Renesas is an embedded semiconductor solution provider driven by its Purpose ‘To Make Our Lives Easier.’ As the industry’s leading expert in embedded processing with unmatched quality and system-level know-how, we have evolved to provide scalable and comprehensive semiconductor solutions for automotive, industrial, infrastructure, and IoT industries based on the broadest product portfolio, including High Performance Computing, Embedded Processing, Analog & Connectivity, and Power.
 
With a diverse team of over 22,000 professionals in more than 30 countries, we continue to expand our boundaries to offer enhanced user experiences through digitalization and usher into a new era of innovation. We design and develop sustainable, power-efficient solutions today that help people and communities thrive tomorrow, ‘To Make Our Lives Easier.’     
 
At Renesas, you can: 

• Launch and advance your career in technical and business roles across four Product Groups and various corporate functions. You will have the opportunities to explore our hardware and software capabilities and try new things.  

• Make a real impact by developing innovative products and solutions to meet our global customers' evolving needs and help make people’s lives easier, safe and secure. 

• Maximize your performance and wellbeing in our flexible and inclusive work environment. Our people-first culture and global support system, including the remote work option and Employee Resource Groups, will help you excel from the first day.    

Are you ready to own your success and make your mark?  

Join Renesas. Shape Your Future with Us.  

Renesas Electronics is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer, committed to celebrating diversity and fostering a work environment free of discrimination on the basis of sex, race, religion, national origin, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, military status, veteran status, or any other basis protected by federal, state or local law. For more information, please read our Diversity & Inclusion Statement.

Renesas Electronics deals with dual-use technology that is subject to U.S. export controls regulations. Under these regulations it may be necessary for Renesas to obtain U.S. government export license prior to release of technology to certain persons. The decision whether or not to file or pursue an export license application is at the sole discretion of Renesas.

We have adopted a hybrid model that gives employees the ability to work remotely two days a week while ensuring that we come together as a team in the office the rest of the time. The designated in-office days are Tuesday through Thursday for innovation, collaboration and continuous learning.