Reliability Engineering Manager

About the Role

The Reliability Engineering Manager will establish and lead the manufacturing reliability function supporting the company's strategic optical communication and photonic product portfolio. This position is responsible for developing reliability strategies for both new product introductions (NPI) and manufacturing products, executing ongoing reliability testing (ORT), investigating failures, driving root cause analysis, and identifying opportunities to improve product and process robustness. The successful candidate will focus not only on reliability testing, but also on understanding failure mechanisms, analyzing data, identifying trends, designing experiments, and driving corrective actions across manufacturing, product engineering, quality, and reliability organizations. The role will initially build and lead a small reliability team while establishing the processes, and engineering discipline required to support both manufacturing and future business growth.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and lead the Nava manufacturing reliability team capability.
• Develop reliability strategies supporting both new product introductions and manufacturing products.
• Own ongoing reliability testing (ORT) programs and support product qualification activities.
• Develop reliability test plans, schedules, reporting systems, and escalation processes.
• Analyze reliability data to identify trends, failure mechanisms, and emerging product or process risks.
• Lead root cause investigations using statistical analysis, Design of Experiments (DOE), and structured problem-solving methodologies.
• Partner with Product Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, R&D, and Central Reliability teams to drive corrective and preventive actions.
• Identify reliability risks early in product development and drive mitigation activities before product release.
• Develop reliability strategies, qualification methodologies, and reliability requirements for new and existing product platforms.
• Recruit, develop, and mentor reliability engineers and technicians as the organization grows.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or master's degree in engineering, Physics, Materials Science, Mechanical Engineering, Electronics, or a related technical discipline.
• 8+ years of engineering experience with at least 3 years leading reliability, qualification, quality, manufacturing, or related engineering teams.
• Strong understanding of reliability methodologies accelerated testing, failure analysis, statistical analysis, and reliability data interpretation.
• Demonstrated experience conducting DOE studies and translating findings into product or manufacturing improvements.
• Experience in electronics, semiconductor, optical, storage, automotive, industrial, or other high-volume manufacturing environments.
• Strong knowledge of materials, mechanical reliability, manufacturing processes, and failure mechanisms.
• Demonstrated ability to build engineering capability, influence cross-functional teams, and mentor technical staff.

Preferred Experience

• Ownership of manufacturing reliability, product reliability, ORT, qualification, or reliability growth programs.
• Experience supporting products through development, qualification, manufacturing ramp, and volume production.
• Experience with optical communication products, semiconductor packaging, optoelectronics, photonics, datacenter hardware, storage devices, or other high-reliability electronic products.
• Experience with reliability data analysis using JMP, Minitab, Python, R, Weibull++, or equivalent tools.
• Experience working across multiple international engineering and manufacturing sites.
• Experience developing reliability laboratories, test infrastructure, measurement systems, or reliability processes.