Failure Analysis Engineer
GoogleMinimum qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in Materials Science, Mechanical/Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, or equivalent practical experience with a focus on experimental work and polymer chemistry.
- 4 years of experience with medical devices, consumer goods/products/electronics, aerospace/defense, adhesive/resin selection, solar, materials analysis.
- Experience with leading failure analysis on novel issues.
- Experience with running polymer analytical tools (e.g., Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA).
Preferred qualifications:
- MS or PhD in Materials Science, Mechanical/Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, or equivalent practical experience with a focus on experimental work and polymer chemistry.
- Experience in experimental automation, instrument control, data analysis tools, numerical simulations, or statistical analyses.
- Experience programming in two or more of the following languages: MATLAB, Python, R, JavaScript, C/C++ or GenAI.
- Ability to travel up to 10% of the time, including international travel.
About the job
As a Reliability Engineer, you will play a key role in creating new consumer electronic products that meet a high bar for reliability and performance. You will work closely with the product management and design engineering teams to define standards, specify tests, and then supervise test execution and failure analysis. A broad engineering background and command of statistical methods will help to inform design of new products. Your strong interpersonal and communication skills will be key to ensuring adoption of your technical recommendations.
The Team is responsible for investigating failures across all hardware products made by Google. In this role, you will work with a team of engineers of all types (mechanical, electrical, optical, materials science, chemical) to solve multi-disciplinary problems relating to hardware failures during product development and from the field. You will develop test methods, collaborate with cross-functional partners, and support products from early prototypes through field failures.
Responsibilities
- Lead and participate in the investigation of component failures, including polymer degradation, coating and adhesive issues, and contamination investigations.
- Apply scientific principles and techniques to identify the fundamental causes of material failures.
- Conduct investigative tests on failed components and reference materials, utilizing techniques such as spectroscopy (FTIR), UV-Vis), chromatography (GC-MS), thermal analysis (DSC), (TGA), Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA), microscopy, and wet chemistry.
- Develop clear failure analysis documentation that can be read by both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Develop and optimize new investigative methods and laboratory procedures to address emerging material issues and improve failure analysis capabilities.