{"id":892685,"url":"https://alion.io/job/first-solar-development-engineering-supervisor-30","title":"Development Engineering Supervisor","company":{"id":47033,"name":"First Solar","domain":"firstsolar.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/first-solar","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Oracle","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":83,"open_postings":101,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.861,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":3,"computed_at":"2026-09-29T05:45:00Z"}},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"senior","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Santa Clara, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":89440,"max":127400,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":127400},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Supervision","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-10T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-10","last_verified_at":"2026-09-30T02:39:50Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":20,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":[],"days_open":20},"description":"First Solar reserves the right to offer you a role most applicable to your experience and skillset.\nBasic Job Functions:\nLead Process Development laboratory operations supporting technology development, pilot process evaluation, and advanced solar cell research activities. Direct and develop a team of technicians responsible for executing experimental work, operating development equipment, maintaining laboratory readiness, and supporting rapid technology learning cycles.\nServe as the operational leader between Process Development engineers, equipment engineering, metrology, EHS, and laboratory technicians to ensure safe, repeatable, and efficient experimental execution. Drive operational systems that improve experimental quality, accelerate learning cycles, maximize equipment availability, and increase the effectiveness of technology development programs.\nTranslate engineering objectives into robust technician-executable procedures, develop technician technical capability, and establish execution discipline required to support evolving technologies, changing priorities, and complex development activities.\nEducation/Experience:\nAssociate’s degree in an engineering discipline or similar technical discipline and 15 years of relevant technical experience or 2 years of experience as a Development Engineer I at First Solar.\nBachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline or similar technical discipline and 5 years of relevant technical experience or 2 years of experience as a Development Engineer I at First Solar.\nMinimum 5 years of experience supporting semiconductor, photovoltaic, thin-film, advanced manufacturing, or technology development laboratories.\nDemonstrated experience supporting research, process development, pilot-line, or advanced engineering environments where operating procedures, technologies, and priorities change frequently.\nExperience leading technicians supporting experimental fabrication, metrology, characterization, or development process equipment.\nRequired Skills/Competencies:\nCritical Communication: Ability to effectively communicate technical priorities, operational risks, and experimental execution concerns across technicians, engineering, management, and support organizations.\nExperimental Execution Excellence: Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain execution discipline required for repeatable and reproducible experimental results. Strong understanding of procedural compliance, operational variation reduction, and technician-driven process consistency.\nTechnology Development Support: Ability to work effectively within a research and development environment where priorities and process flows evolve rapidly based on technology needs. Capable of translating engineering intent into practical operational execution plans and technician work instructions.\nTechnical Leadership: Working knowledge of semiconductor, thin-film, solar cell, vacuum process, wet chemistry, thermal processing, laser processing, metrology, or advanced laboratory systems. Capable of evaluating operational challenges associated with development equipment and partnering with engineering teams to improve performance, reliability, and experimental throughput.\nPractical Common Sense: Strong situational judgment to make fast, safe, and logical decisions in a high-hazard, fast-paced environment.\nFirst-Line Troubleshooting and Drive Equipment Uptime: experienced guiding operation crew members through first level tool diagnose and quick repair. Capable driving experienced equipment maintenance/support crew on advanced troubleshooting and major repair.\nEssential Responsibilities:\nDaily Supervision: Lead daily execution of technology development activities by aligning technician resources, laboratory capacity, equipment availability, and operational priorities with Process Development objectives.\nWorkflow Optimization: Continuously improve laboratory execution systems to accelerate technology learning cycles while maintaining experimental quality, safety, and data integrity.\nSOP Development and Execution Discipline: Partner with Process Development engineers to convert development processes into detailed operational procedures suitable for technician execution. Establish, maintain, and continuously improve operational standards that ensure repeatable and reproducible experimental results.\nExperimental Quality Ownership: Own technician execution quality for development activities by monitoring procedure adherence, identifying sources of operational variation, and implementing corrective actions that improve experimental repeatability.\nTechnology Transfer Support: Support introduction of new technologies, equipment, materials, and experimental processes into laboratory operations by developing training plans, operational controls, and technician qualification requirements.\nEquipment Reliability: Drive equipment readiness and operational reliability for development laboratories. Lead first-level troubleshooting efforts, coordinate advanced problem-solving activities, and partner with equipment engineering teams to minimize development downtime.\nEngineering Partnership: Act as the primary operational partner to Process Development engineers by providing feedback regarding technician observations, process execution challenges, equipment limitations, and opportunities to improve experimental throughput and execution quality.\nLaboratory Capability Development: Develop long-term laboratory capabilities by building technician technical expertise, improving training systems, establishing qualification standards, and implementing operational best practices that support future technology roadmaps.\n Success Metrics: Success in this role is measured through:Experimental execution quality and repeatability\nTechnology development cycle time\nEquipment availability and laboratory readiness\nTechnician technical capability development\nSuccessful deployment of new technologies and processes\nSafety performance\nCross-functional engineering satisfaction\nOperational support of Process Development objectives\n\nOther duties as assigned.\nJob description subject to change at any time.\nReporting Relationships:\nReports to Sr Manage of Process Development\n\nMay have direct reports.\nTravel:\nUp to 10% domestic and international\n\nEstimated Salary Range:\n89,440 USD per year- 127,400 USD per year\n\nUS Physical Requirements:\nHybrid Physical Requirements:\nWill sit, stand or walk short distances for up to the entire duration of a shift.\nWill climb stairs on an occasional basis.\nWill lift up to 27 pounds on an occasional basis, according to work instruction.\nWill push or pull up to 27 pounds of force on an occasional basis.\nWill push or pull up to 10 pounds of force on a frequent basis.\nRequired to use hands to grasp, lift, handle, carry or feel objects repetitively on a frequent basis.\n20/40 vision in each eye (with or without correction) and the ability to distinguish between red, yellow, and green is required.\nMay reach above shoulder heights and below the waist on a frequent basis.\nMay stoop, kneel, or bend, on an occasional basis.\nMust be able to comply with all safety standards and procedures.\nAbility to wear personal protective equipment is required (including, but not limited to; steel toed shoes, cut resistant gloves, jackets, aprons &/or arm guards, safety glasses, hearing protection).\nAll associates working on the production floor may be required to wear a respirator at any given time and thus, the ability to wear a respirator is a condition of employment and continued employment (requires little or no facial hair).\nPotential candidates will meet the education and experience requirements provided on the above job description and excel in completing the listed responsibilities for this role. All candidates receiving an offer of employment must successfully complete a background check and any other tests that may be required.","description_format":"text","description_chars":7926,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"associate","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":[],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-14T08:02:28Z"},{"event":"close","at":"2026-09-14T08:02:28Z"},{"event":"reopen","at":"2026-09-14T10:54:51Z"}],"liveness":{"score":9,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.257,"p_room":0.35,"age_days":19,"expected_fill_days":3,"reasons":["conf:3","stale_co","velocity","win:tail","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-09-29T05:45:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":127400,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/first-solar-development-engineering-supervisor-30","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/first-solar-development-engineering-supervisor-30.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-09-30T05:30:48Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","usage":{"tier":"crawler","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":3869,"day_limit":5000,"remaining_today":1131,"minute_limit":60,"resets_at":"2026-10-01T00:00:00Z"}}}