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Lead Engineer, RF Switch Design
IA - Cedar Rapids
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Opportunity Snapshot

This position offers you the opportunity not only to broaden your technical expertise, but also to enhance and showcase your leadership abilities. The cellular handset market is increasingly demanding greater integration of front end and switch modules, and you will lead designers working in that space. Here in the Cedar Rapids Design Center we're also moving toward silicon on insulator (SOI) switch development and you'll learn that right along with us. You'll play a key role in developing GSM and EDGE front end modules (FEMs) used in cell phones manufactured by Apple, Motorola, LG, Samsung, and other top companies. Your success in this role could set you up to pursue multiple career paths within Skyworks Solutions, Inc.

In this newly created role you will direct and actively participate in the development of RF switches for FEM products, ensuring consistency and communications among internal and external contributors. To be a good fit for this opportunity you will have significant RF design experience in the semiconductor industry, including switches, and familiarity with design simulation and testing tools. You also will need experience leading a team taking a product/device from design to production, preferably high volume production. The ideal candidate will have a background in cell phone handsets and strong experience designing switches integrated with power amplification in FEMs.

Skyworks Solutions, Inc. is an innovator of high performance analog and mixed signal semiconductors enabling mobile connectivity. While everyone has been impacted by the economy, Skyworks continues to post strong performance -- in Q3 of fiscal 2009 (ended June 30, 2009) our revenue was $191.2 million, up 11% over Q2 2009 and well above our target of $182.0 million.

What Else You'll Bring to the Table

While our preference is to find an individual with extensive experience, we also are open to less experienced Design Engineers with strong leadership potential and the ability to learn quickly. In addition to the qualifications detailed above, you'll need:
  • A bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline.
  • Strong ADS simulation and RF design skills, preferably in power amplification modules (PAMs) and FEMs.
  • A solid understanding of critical RF switch performance parameters such as linearity, harmonics, insertion loss, isolation, stability, leakage, and switching-speed.
  • Proficiency in performing non-linear RF simulations using tools such as ADS harmonic balance, or Cadence Spectre.
  • Demonstrated experience in design simulation tools (ADS and 2.5D/3D EM - HFSS, Momentum, Sonnet preferred), product realization process, design architecture, test parameters and test equipment, and device or product characterization.
  • Knowledge of pHEMT fabrication and how this affects the device physics, device model and circuit performance -- or the ability to learn this quickly.
  • An understanding of switch control/biasing techniques and associated performance tradeoffs.
  • A hands-on approach to design verification testing and understanding of RF test equipment.
  • Experience leading a team of at least five, including interaction with other functional groups.
  • Strong leadership skills and a willingness to demand action, feedback, accountability and results.
  • The ability to interact effectively with foundries based on knowledge of what can and cannot be done to optimize processes.
  • Inquisitiveness and eagerness to understand how performance is being driven by the design, both electrically and physically.
  • Strong communication skills, both verbal and written.
  • The ability to influence and motivate others.
  • Good organization skills and an ability to work productively both independently and in a team environment.
  • Methodical logical troubleshooting skills.
  • A high degree of spatial intelligence.
Preferred but not required:
  • An advanced degree.
  • Hands-on experience integrating RF switches with power amplifiers and antenna switch modules.
  • Experience using Momentum, Sonnet, or HFSS.
  • Design experience within GaAs pHEMT and CMOS.
  • IC layout experience including LVS/DRC.
You also will need to be willing and able to travel about once a month, primarily to our wafer fab (and corporate headquarters) in Woburn, MA, as well as to facilities in Newbury Park and Irvine, CA.

What's in It for You

Career development -- you will be working on the leading edge of our technological design (such as increased integration and SOI) and you'll also enhance your ability to lead teams to deliver results. This is a valuable combination of skills, and could set you up to pursue a management path or a role as a subject matter expert in switch design. These paths could take you anywhere in our company.

Innovative technical leadership -- you'll find our products in about 40% of the world's cell phones and our success depends upon staying on the leading edge of our industry, constantly expanding our portfolio with ever more complex products. Ongoing learning is a core competency for Skyworks employees, and you'll become part of a high caliber team.

Great work environment -- the Skyworks culture is based on minimal layers of management, ease of collaboration, open communication, and an entrepreneurial attitude of taking well-calculated risks. We are proactive about cultivating a pleasant environment, such as sponsoring employee recognition programs. These are just some of the reasons we have an extraordinarily large number of long tenured employees.

Top place to live, work and play -- Next Generation Consulting ranked Cedar Rapids number 4 on their list of best cities (pop. 100,000 to 200,000) for young professionals to live, work and play. No wonder: the cost of living (particularly housing) is low, employment and salary growth are strong, and the city offers urban amenities along with a small town feeling. Cedar Rapids has a flourishing arts and culture scene, and we're an economic hub and part of a multi-county Technology Corridor. If you have a spouse looking for new career opportunities, Cedar Rapids is home to several large businesses, including General Mills, Alliant Energy, GE Commercial Finance, Rockwell Collins, AEGON, Qwest, and more. With low crime rates and high academic achievement in area schools, it is no wonder that, once people relocate here, they tend to stay.

Excellent compensation -- we offer a competitive wage, a company-wide discretionary bonus plan, and comprehensive benefits. Over the past few years the company has consistently paid at target on the bonus, and sometimes more.

More About Your Role

If you're a good fit for this position, you already know most of what this job entails. However, to be sure we're providing a complete picture, here are some details.

You will report to the Technical Director and Manager, although most of your day-to-day activities will be project driven. Three teams are responsible for product development in PAMs and FEMs for GSM and EDGE applications and we function in a matrix structure. There are several switch designers, although they are not all on one team, and one reason for adding this position is for you to provide technical leadership to these designers across projects.

At any given time you may be actively designing on two to three projects, but you also will provide technical guidance and coordination for switch design on additional projects. In addition to providing insights and helping the other Design Engineers solve problems, you will ensure consistency and strong communication among the design team, Woburn foundry, and external foundries.

Your specific activities will include:
  • Designing using both internal and external foundry process design kits.
  • Working closely with FEM design engineers and interfacing across functional and departmental boundaries to ensure that product development goals are successfully met.
  • Developing switch architecture definition and specification.
  • Performing simulation and developing the physical layout of switch circuits.
  • Performing LVS, DRC, and parasitic extraction.
  • Developing test specification definition and documentation.

Keys to Success

To excel in this role you will have a result-oriented approach to leadership, including the ability to facilitate consensus, drive toward decisions and keep things moving forward. You'll need strong influencing skills as well as the ability to be assertive when necessary. While you will find the switch designers open to having a team lead, they have solid experience and expertise themselves; you will need to demonstrate confidence and follow it up with competence to earn their ongoing respect. In addition you will need to take a proactive approach to ensuring clear and timely communication among the members of various projects.

If this sounds like the right mix of challenge and opportunity for you, and you meet the minimum qualifications, we want to hear from you!

Who We Are

Skyworks Solutions, Inc. is an innovator of high reliability analog and mixed signal semiconductors. Leveraging core technologies, Skyworks offers diverse standard and custom linear products supporting automotive, broadband, cellular infrastructure, energy management, industrial, medical, military and mobile handset applications. The Company's portfolio includes amplifiers, attenuators, detectors, diodes, directional couplers, front-end modules, hybrids, infrastructure RF subsystems, mixers/demodulators, phase shifters, PLLs/synthesizers/VCOs, power dividers/combiners, receivers, switches and technical ceramics. Headquartered in Woburn, MA, Skyworks is worldwide with engineering, manufacturing, sales and service facilities throughout Asia, Europe and North America.
We are an equal opportunity employer. EOE M/F/D/V
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