Equipment Maintenance Engineer

#Eng-IT-01
Equipment Maintenance Engineer
Location: San Jose, CA
Status: Direct hire
Compensation: $90,000 to $105,000
Experience level: 3+ years of experience in PCBA or electronic manufacturing

SUMMARY:
The Equipment Maintenance Engineer is responsible for maintaining, troubleshooting, and optimizing SMT and PCBA manufacturing equipment to support PCBA production. This role ensures maximum equipment uptime, reliability, and process stability through preventive maintenance, rapid troubleshooting, and continuous improvement initiatives.
Working closely with Engineering, Production, and Quality teams, this position plays a critical role in sustaining manufacturing operations, supporting new equipment introduction, and improving overall efficiency.

Responsibilities

• Perform preventive, corrective, and predictive maintenance on SMT and PCBA production equipment, including pick-and-place machines, screen printers, reflow ovens, and AOI/SPI systems

• Troubleshoot mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, and control system issues to restore equipment functionality and minimize downtime

• Diagnose equipment failures, perform root cause analysis (RCA), and implement corrective and preventive actions to improve long-term reliability

• Monitor and analyze equipment performance metrics such as downtime, MTBF, MTTR, and OEE to drive continuous improvement

• Perform calibration, validation, and re-qualification of equipment to ensure accuracy and compliance with quality standards

• Support installation, setup, commissioning, and qualification of new equipment and SMT production lines

• Develop and maintain preventive maintenance (PM) schedules, SOPs, and equipment documentation

• Maintain accurate equipment logs, including downtime tracking, maintenance history, and repair records

• Collaborate with Process Engineering and Production teams to resolve manufacturing issues and improve throughput and yield

• Support continuous improvement initiatives to enhance equipment capability, reliability, and production efficiency

• Provide technical training and guidance to technicians and operators on equipment operation and maintenance best practices

• Coordinate with equipment vendors and suppliers for troubleshooting, spare parts management, and technical support

• Associate degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Automation, or a related field, or equivalent technical training

• 3–7+ years of experience in equipment maintenance within SMT, PCBA, or electronics manufacturing environments

• Strong experience with SMT equipment, including:

• Pick-and-place systems

• Screen printers

• AOI / SPI inspection systems

• Reflow ovens and conveyor systems

• Ability to troubleshoot across:

• Mechanical systems (motors, conveyors, fixtures)

• Electrical systems (circuits, sensors, control systems)

• Pneumatic and automated systems

• Familiarity with PLC systems, machine control software, and automation troubleshooting

• Experience using diagnostic tools such as multimeters and oscilloscopes

• Strong knowledge of preventive maintenance programs and equipment lifecycle management

• Experience with root cause analysis methodologies (5 Whys, 8D, Fishbone, RCA)

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office and maintenance tracking systems (CMMS preferred)

• Hands-on experience supporting SMT production line equipment is strongly preferred

• Experience in high-volume PCBA or SMT manufacturing environments
• Familiarity with MES/SFC systems and equipment integration
• Experience supporting New Product Introduction (NPI), line setup, and equipment qualification
• Experience driving reliability improvement and equipment performance optimization initiatives