Director of Supplier Manufacturing Development

Join Our Team

At Cohu Malaysia, we are committed to driving innovation and excellence in the semiconductor industry. Our mission is to create a dynamic and inclusive work environment where every team member feels a sense of belonging and has the opportunity to make a meaningful impact. By joining us, you will be part of a collaborative and forward-thinking workforce dedicated to shaping the future of technology.

Unleash your Potential

We are seeking a Director, Supplier Manufacturing Development to build and lead Cohu's new supplier manufacturing organization, developing the team, operating model and global partnerships.

Impact You Will Make:

• Build and lead Cohu's new Supplier Manufacturing Development organization from the ground up — define its charter, hire and develop the team, set the operating rhythm, and establish how it works with Supply Chain, Quality and Engineering worldwide.
• Serve as Cohu's senior manufacturing authority inside the supply base: walk a supplier's factory floor and form a fast, accurate judgment of whether that factory is well run — flow, layout, equipment capability, tooling, maintenance, changeover, planning, operator skill, yield and throughput — rather than whether its documentation passes an audit.
• Raise the real manufacturing capability of the Cohu supplier base — capacity, cycle time, yield, cost and on-time delivery — through hands-on improvement work carried out at the supplier's site. Focus will be primarily in Asia.
• Lead large, critical capability and improvement projects at strategic suppliers, personally on the floor when the situation demands it.
• Build the team: define roles and structure, recruit and develop Supplier Development Engineers and managers primarily in Asia, build the budget and metrics, and create the operating processes for an organization that does not exist today.
• Personally assess supplier factories — layout and material flow, equipment condition and process capability, tooling, maintenance, changeover and setup, production planning, inventory, shop-floor management and workforce capability — and convert that assessment into a specific, negotiated improvement plan with the supplier's leadership.
• Act as the deep technical expert in at least one core manufacturing process (for example precision machining, plating and surface finishing, mechanical and electro-mechanical assembly, sheet metal, molding or weldments) and build a team whose combined expertise covers the remaining processes critical to Cohu.
• Own the supplier capability assessment methodology and ensure it measures how a factory actually performs — demonstrated process capability, yield, capacity and delivery — against Cohu's quality, delivery and cost needs.
• Drive new supplier selection through a disciplined qualification process grounded in demonstrated manufacturing capability observed on site.
• Align supplier capability to the Cohu product roadmap: identify early where the supply base cannot build what Cohu is designing and close the gap before launch.
• Lead structured problem solving and improvement projects at suppliers using Lean/TPS and Six Sigma methods, coaching supplier teams to sustain the gains rather than issuing findings and moving on.
• Direct the activities of the Supplier Development Engineers in Asia and partner with the worldwide Quality, Supply Chain and Engineering teams to engage the supplier base and drive improvements.
• Support the manufacturing of complex parts and sub-assemblies by providing technical expertise and support to suppliers.
• Review supplier manufacturing processes to ensure they will yield parts compliant to engineering drawings and specifications.
• Create and participate in PFMEA activities, work instruction improvements, and control plan effectiveness with suppliers.
• Track supplier performance indicators and use them to decide where to deploy the team's engineering effort, not simply to report status.
• Create and execute a strategic improvement plan at each key supplier and build the Supplier Development playbook that makes the approach repeatable across the team.
• Drive cross-functional engagement to remove roadblocks necessary to improve supplier performance.
• Eliminate risks that will prevent suppliers from meeting performance targets, and escalate as needed.
• Represent Cohu credibly to supplier executives — plant managers, operations leaders and owners — as a peer who has run manufacturing operations at their scale.

Note on the nature of this role: this is a manufacturing leadership position, not a supplier quality or audit position. The successful candidate has run factories and improved them and brings deep expertise in a specific manufacturing process. Candidates whose experience consists primarily of assessing suppliers against checklists and surveys will not be a fit.

Our Ideal Candidate:

• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering or equivalent.
• 15+ years in manufacturing, with direct line responsibility for running production strongly preferred — Plant Manager, Manufacturing Director, Operations Director, or Manufacturing Engineering Director of a significant factory. Careers built primarily in supplier auditing to checklists are unlikely to meet the bar for this role.
• Demonstrated ability to walk into an unfamiliar factory and judge quickly and accurately how well it is run, and to explain that judgment in terms of flow, constraints, equipment capability, changeover, maintenance and shop-floor management.
• Deep, hands-on expertise in at least one core manufacturing process — precision machining, plating and surface finishing, mechanical or electro-mechanical assembly, sheet metal fabrication, molding, or weldments — at a level that earns immediate credibility with a supplier's process engineers.
• Experience building an organization from scratch, or substantially scaling one: defining roles, hiring, developing engineers, and establishing operating processes where none existed.
• Ownership of manufacturing cost structure, capacity planning, or P&L for a factory or major production area.
• At least 5 years of managerial experience leading engineering or manufacturing teams, including teams at multiple sites, preferably in a global corporation.
• Experience in an industrial equipment, semiconductor, automotive, aerospace or medical device manufacturing environment.
• Applied experience with Lean / Toyota Production System and Six Sigma, evidenced by results delivered on a factory floor. Certification (Black Belt, TPS) is welcome but secondary to a demonstrated track record.
• Working knowledge of quality and APQP tools (PFMEA, control plan, SPC, MSA) as a means of driving manufacturing improvement.
• Able to read technical drawings and documentation (GD&T).
• Experience performing production readiness and rate readiness reviews and assessments.
• Experience working directly with suppliers in Asia, and willingness to travel internationally on a regular basis.
• Ability to interface effectively at every level, from machine operator and process engineer to supplier executive and Cohu leadership.
• Proven problem-solving skills, including the ability to interpret business performance and financial data, define actions, and implement solutions.
• Effective collaboration skills to motivate and influence others at various levels without a direct reporting relationship.
• Strong communication skills, both verbal and written.