Failure Analysis Engineer
Job Purpose
To apply specific field of Electrical Engineering knowledge in the failure analysis of Dot Hill Systems products.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Support Failure Analysis for Level-3 customer escalations. This includes but is not limited to:
- Provide high-level failure analysis of hardware components that are shipped to DHS, because of a critical field issue or a repeated behavior seen in the field, in multiple customer environments.
- Problem reproduction, analysis of the issue and accurate failure reporting for scenarios where root-cause of the problem cannot be determined in the field, by reviewing problem description and logs.
- Collaborate with Level-3 support engineers on the resolution of field issues, providing prompt failure analysis results on critical cases and offering a reproduction platform that can be used to escalate the issue to development engineering.
- Accurate prioritization of the components to perform failure analysis on to assure an immediate response and a possible recovery plan to the most urgent issues and critical customer situations.
- Collaborate with Support Management to offer timely updates on the analysis of components for the most critical issues in the field. Participation to management meetings with the customer to offer technical overviews of the failure analysis that has been performed.
- Analyze possible systemic issues in the field and collaborate with quality and reliability engineers to identify the failing components and hardware/software changes that could be the root cause of the problem.
- Perform component-level failure analysis to determine the component/s in the circuitry, which is/are causing the failure. Collaborate with the manufacturer of the unit, supporting the effort to identify corrective changes in the hardware to address a systemic issue in the field.
- Collaborate with hardware engineering, providing input and technical assistance to support possible re-design of hardware components to correct field issues.
- Provide software engineering with problem reproduction steps and logs analysis to demonstrate that a field issue is software related and not hardware dependent.
- Work with the administrator of the support lab to maintain efficient infrastructures to perform failure analysis and updated equipment for problem reproduction.
- Properly log failure analysis reports in the CRM system and in the failure analysis database to maintain up-to-date information for the technical support services organization and the customer base.
- Maintain quality charts to describe failure trends and volume of components to be analyzed as a result of field failures. Integrate the reporting with the overall customer support metrics and weekly dashboards.
Competency
To perform the job successfully, an individual should demonstrate the following competencies:
- Demonstrates attention to detail.
- Technical Skills - Strives to continuously build knowledge and skills.
- Oral Communication - Speaks clearly and persuasively in positive or negative situations.
- Written Communication - Writes clearly and informatively.
- Teamwork - Contributes to building a positive team spirit.
Qualifications
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Education and/or Experience
- BS in Electrical Engineering or equivalent.
- 5+ years experience in Electrical Engineering design and/or sustaining Electrical Engineering.
- Experience with High Speed Signal design and PCB layout.
- Experience with SCSI, Fibre Channel and/or Ethernet protocol technology.
- Experience with system level storage management and operation highly desirable.
- Experience in comprehending software and firmware
Language Skills
- Ability to read, analyze, and interpret general business periodicals, professional journals, technical procedures, or governmental regulations.
- Ability to write reports, business correspondence, and procedure manuals.
- Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from groups of managers, clients, customers, and the general public.
Mathematical Skills
- Ability to work with mathematical concepts such as probability and statistical inference, and fundamentals of plane and solid geometry and trigonometry.
- Ability to apply concepts such as fractions, percentages, ratios, and proportions to practical situations.
Reasoning Ability
- Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists.
- Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form.
Computer and/or Instrumentation Skills
- Experience with sophisticated test instrumentation such as Storage Oscilloscopes, Digital Logic Analyzers.
- Experience with SCSI, Fibre Channel, and/or Ethernet Analyzers
- Experience with Processor Emulators and software/firmware debuggers.