Wafer Operator Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Forming Our Future together
FormFactor, Inc. (NASDAQ: FORM), is a leading provider of essential test and measurement technologies along the full semiconductor product life cycle - from characterization, modeling, reliability, and design de-bug, to qualification and production test. Semiconductor companies rely upon FormFactor's products and services to accelerate profitability by optimizing device performance and advancing yield knowledge. The company serves customers through its network of facilities in Asia, Europe, and North America.
Rooted in our core values - Focus on the Customer, Ownership & Accountability, Respectfully & Effectively Communicate, and Motivate & Develop People - we foster an environment where diverse perspectives are not only welcomed but celebrated. Everyone can make an impact here. Whether it's improving products, supporting customers, or positively influencing peers and the community, the contributions of our people matter.
Shift:
The regular hours for this position are day shift.
Job Description:
The Senior Production Planner- Wafer is the wafer fab planning subject matter expert responsible for translating demand, capacity, material readiness, and manufacturing priorities into an integrated and executable fab plan. This role independently manages complex, re-entrant production flows across multiple process modules and planning horizons, establishes planning standards, and leads cross-functional resolution of constraints that affect wafer starts, cycle time, WIP, output, and on-time delivery.
Operating with limited direction, this role develops scenarios and recommendations for leaders, aligns fab execution to the approved plan, and improves planning systems, data, and operating rhythms. The position influences Manufacturing, Process and Equipment Engineering, Supply Chain, Quality, Facilities, NPI, and business planning partners without direct authority.
Key Responsibilities:
Wafer Fab Production Planning & Scheduling

• Own the short-, mid-, and long-range wafer fab production plan, including wafer starts, lot release timing, module loading, completion projections, and recovery priorities.
• Translate demand, backlog, forecasts, product mix, and customer priorities into finite, time-phased schedules across re-entrant wafer fabrication flows.
• Balance cycle time, WIP, throughput, yield, capacity, material availability, and inventory objectives to create feasible plans and protect customer commitments.
• Establish freeze windows, dispatch priorities, and planning parameters; manage pull-ins, pushouts, expedites, hot lots, engineering lots, and changes to the plan of record.

Constraint, Capacity & Scenario Management

• Identify and quantify constraints by process step, tool group, labor skill, mask layer, material, qualification status, and facility dependency.
• Develop advanced scenarios for demand changes, product-mix shifts, tool downtime, yield loss, staffing gaps, qualification delays, and NPI ramps; present trade-offs and recommended actions.
• Partner with Operations and Engineering to define recovery plans, alternate routings, load balancing, overtime or shift options, planned WIP banks, maintenance windows, and capital timing.
• Escalate risks early with clear business impacts, assumptions, decision points, and options.

Fab Execution & Operating Rhythm

• Lead daily and weekly planning reviews that connect the master plan to shop-floor execution, including starts, moves, completions, bottlenecks, WIP aging, and schedule adherence.
• Monitor actual performance against plan and rapidly adjust schedules when output, cycle time, equipment availability, material readiness, or priorities change.
• Coordinate with production control and manufacturing leaders on lot sequencing, dispatch rules, holds, release priorities, and recovery actions.
• Maintain one aligned plan of record across ERP, MES, APS, dashboards, and stakeholder communications.

NPI, Technology Transfer & Ramp Planning

• Integrate engineering lots, qualification builds, process-of-record changes, learning curves, and release gates into the fab plan without losing visibility to production commitments.
• Create ramp plans for new products, process modules, tools, and transferred technologies, including capacity reservations and readiness dependencies.
• Partner with NPI, Process Engineering, Equipment Engineering, Quality, and Supply Chain to assess readiness and resolve planning gaps before release.
• Define planning assumptions for early-stage products and update them as yield, cycle time, routing, and throughput mature.

Planning Data, Analytics & Governance

• Own and govern planning-critical master data, including routings, cycle times, yields, lot sizes, queue times, calendars, tool groups, planning lead times, and planned downtime assumptions.
• Develop decision-grade dashboards and analyses for wafer starts, WIP by operation and age, cycle time, move rates, schedule adherence, capacity versus load, recovery, and delivery risk.
• Reconcile model assumptions to actual factory performance, identify root causes of variance, and improve planning accuracy.
• Standardize planning methods, metrics, review cadences, and documentation across wafer fab planning activities.

Continuous Improvement & Functional Leadership

• Lead cross-functional improvements that reduce queue time, excess WIP, variability, and planning noise while improving flow, predictability, and throughput.
• Apply fab physics, constraint management, Lean, and industrial engineering concepts to improve release strategies and schedule quality.
• Coach planners and production control partners on complex planning methods, systems, and decision practices; provide technical guidance without formal people management responsibility.
• Lead complex planning projects and represent wafer fab planning in site, SIOP, S&OE, NPI, and operational readiness forums.

Preferred Qualifications & Experiences:

• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Industrial Engineering, Operations Management, Engineering, Business, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of progressive experience in production planning, scheduling, factory planning, industrial engineering, or manufacturing operations, including significant experience supporting semiconductor wafer fabrication or a similarly complex, capital-intensive manufacturing environment.
• Demonstrated expertise planning re-entrant manufacturing flows and integrating demand, capacity, WIP, yield, cycle time, materials, and equipment constraints into executable schedules.
• Advanced experience with ERP, MES, APS, or fab scheduling systems and strong analytical capability using Excel and business intelligence tools.
• Proven ability to lead complex, cross-functional planning decisions, influence senior stakeholders, and communicate risks and trade-offs with clarity.
• Ability to work onsite and support priority fab issues or planning changes outside regular hours when business needs require.
• Experience with thin-film, photolithography, deposition, etch, plating, cleaning, metrology, or other semiconductor wafer fab process flows.
• Experience with factory ramps, technology transfers, NPI, capacity expansions, and qualification planning.
• Working knowledge of dispatching logic, constraint-based scheduling, cycle-time modeling, OEE, throughput, and statistical process or performance analysis.
• Experience with Oracle, SAP, Kinaxis, OMP, or comparable planning platforms; MES experience in a semiconductor environment.
• Lean, Six Sigma, APICS/ASCM, or related planning and continuous improvement credentials.

Skills:
Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS), Capacity Planning, Constraints Management, Continuous Improvement, Cross-Functional Leadership, Data Analytics, Data Visualization Tools, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems, Facility Scheduling, Factory Planning, Finite Capacity Scheduling, Inventory Optimization, Lean Manufacturing, Manufacturing Resource Planning, Microsoft Excel, Production Planning, Production Scheduling, Risk Assessments, Scenario Modeling, Semiconductor Manufacturing, Supply And Demand, Wafer Fabrication
Education & Experience:
Minimum of 8 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 6 years and a Master's degree; or a PhD with 3 years experience; or equivalent experience | Required
Pay Range:
$104,600.00 - $137,235.00
Pay Range Explained:
This role in Livermore, California pays between $104,600.00 and $137,235.00 per year, depending on your experience, skills, and background. Pay may vary in other locations. We offer a full benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, life insurance, disability coverage, a 401(k) with company match, employee stock purchase plan (ESPP), and paid time off. You'll also be eligible for quarterly profit-sharing bonuses and flexible spending or savings accounts.
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
FormFactor is an equal opportunity employer. FormFactor complies with all national, state, and local laws that seek to promote equal opportunities for any applicant or employee without regard to age, race, color, gender, gender identity/expression, national origin, sexual orientation, religion, disability, marital status, pregnancy or related condition, military service, or any other legally protected characteristics. These protections apply to all aspects of employment, including but not limited to, recruitment, hiring, training, promotions, and compensation.
For roles that are designated as remote-eligible, employees cannot be located in: AL, AK, AR, DE, GA, HI, IL, IA, KY, LA, ME, MD, MS, MO, NE, NV, NJ, NM, ND, OK, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, WV, WI, WY. This list is continuously evolving and being updated, please check back with us if the state you live in is on the exclusion list. A role is remote-eligible only when it is listed as "Remote" in the job location.