Are you passionate about the development, characterization, and failure analysis of innovative materials? Do you ever wonder what goes into creating amazing Apple product user experiences? The engineers in Apple's Materials Reliability Group assess material-level reliability risks and have an influential role in guiding materials and finishes toward reliable designs for new product development. Through deep investigation and collaboration, we strive to create a customer experience of enduring product quality.
We are looking for an experienced individual who is passionate about: understanding how materials fail, driving test development to characterize failure risk, diving into failure root cause analysis, and advocating for material reliability improvements. Come join our team!
As a Materials Reliability Engineer, you will assess material-level reliability risks of new product designs; and work with materials engineering and process teams to perform failure analysis, and to push for design and process mitigations and controls. Identify high risk material failure modes early in the design cycle, utilizing tools like Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA)
Develop new test stress conditions based on material Physics of Failures, expected user behaviors, expected field stresses
Assess product-facing reliability through stress test data and material understanding
Support failure analysis and provide design direction based on evaluation of test data and failure root cause understanding
Collaborate with design and process engineering teams to improve material reliability performance
Identify and implement necessary equipment and specifications that are critical to validating material performance and product reliability
Support vendor testing by collaborating with global teams and traveling internationally to implement reliability test solutions
Manage multiple projects simultaneously while maintaining high reliability standards and fast-paced testing timelines
Bachelor's Degree in technical field (Engineering, Physics, Materials Science, etc) with 7+ years of industry experience
Understanding of how material properties, processing, and structure impact product performance. Our team works on a range of materials. An expertise in a particular material area is not required, as long as you are able to dive deep into learning about a new material space quickly
Experience working in, or collaborating with, a lab environment with a focus on understanding root cause of material failures
Experience using statistical data analysis, and the ability to communicate results from analyses clearly
Ability to identify failure root cause and potential corrective actions, utilizing results from multiple data sources
Ability to travel internationally without restriction as needed (less than 20% of the year)
M.S. or PhD in Materials Science, Materials Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering
Familiarity with failure characterizations techniques (Optical Microscopy, X-ray/CT, Scanning Electron Microscopy/Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy, etc.), and the ability to use failure analysis methodology to derive failure root cause
Experience with Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA) and reliability prediction modeling
Experience with statistical tools such as Weibull, JMP, or familiarity with accelerated test models
Familiarity with one of the following material types: anodized aluminum, titanium, precision glass, PVD coatings, optical materials
Interest in developing new tests and methodologies for replicating and validating complex failure modes
Collaborative approach to working with other teams
We’re a diverse collection of thinkers and doers, continually reimagining what’s possible to help us all do what we love in new ways. The people who work here have reinvented entire industries with the Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, as well as with services, including iTunes, the App Store, Apple Music, and Apple Pay. And the same passion for innovation that goes into our products also applies to our practices — strengthening our commitment to leave the world better than we found it.
There’s a place here for every kind of brilliant. Everyone here is an innovator, or an innovator-to-be, no matter what your team or your role. So bring your passion, courage, and original thinking and get ready to share it, because every new product, service, or feature we invent is the result of people working together to make each others’ ideas stronger. Innovation at this level depends on people who represent the variety of the human experience and inspire us with their own fresh perspectives. Together, we’ll do amazing work that can make a difference in people’s lives. Including your own. Learn more about working at Apple.