Sr. Director, Machine Development Engineering - Optics

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Job Title: Sr. Director, Machine Development Engineering - Optics

Posting Start Date: 10/28/26

At TE, you will unleash your potential working with people from diverse backgrounds and industries to create a safer, sustainable and more connected world.

Job Description:

Job Overview

The Opportunity

Join TE Connectivity's fast-growing Optics organization and lead the team that designs and delivers precision manufacturing equipment for next-generation optical connectivity. This position will lead a unique disruptive manufacturing equipment that is solving the core performance and scalability challenges of CPO. Reporting to the VP and General Manager of Optics, you will lead the engineering organization that builds TE's proprietary precision assembly stations, with teams across machine architecture, precision mechanics and optomechanics, motion, robotics, controls, software, vision, sensing, metrology, tooling, integration, and commissioning.

Own the full lifecycle of TE's internal precision stations - from architecture through design, build, validation, release, global replication, ramp, and continuous improvement. Your organization works as an internal station supplier to the manufacturing process team that industrializes the full cable assembly line. Product, process, equipment, test, quality, and operations teams co-develop from the earliest experiments through high-volume production.

Why This Role Matters

TE is scaling fiber-array assemblies, micro-optics, fiber-to-chip interfaces, optical connectors, and other advanced optical-packaging products. Growth depends on equipment that holds micron-level performance at production rates, balances flow, recovers from faults, captures the right data, and runs reliably in 24/7 factories.

This role owns machine architecture, the process inside the machine, independent machine measurement and problem solving, machine industrialization, automation, software and controls, release, and replication. It works in tight iteration with manufacturing process development (line process and station requirements), Test & Metrology (reference methods and uncertainty), and Operations (daily performance) to create a scalable production system.

WHO THIS ROLE IS FOR

A precision-equipment leader who has shipped high-volume machines, learned from difficult launches, and can turn one successful machine into a controlled, repeatable platform.

What You'll Build and Lead

Station Strategy and Organization

• Own station strategy and make-or-buy input: Translate the station requirements set by the manufacturing process team into station architecture, automation level, cycle time, capacity, footprint, and capital plans, and recommend which stations TE should build in-house because they differentiate the product.
• Set platform strategy and standards: Define reusable architectures and standards for precision mechanics, optomechanics, motion, robotics, controls, safety, vision, sensing, software, data, machine metrology, tooling, documentation, and configuration management.
• Build the organization around scarce capabilities: Lead four teams organized by capability: advanced machine and process technology; systems and metrology, including a vision and sensing center of excellence; machine industrialization; and a dedicated software and controls team. Run the work through station core teams so specialists act as one team for each station.

Job Requirements

Precision Machine Development

• Lead the full machine lifecycle: Own requirements, concept selection, detailed design, design reviews, procurement and build, integration, debug, FAT/SAT, validation, release, and replication.
• Own the process inside the machine: Lead the technology groups that develop feed, weld and alignment, and laser processes; define their process windows and recipes; and stabilize them through design of experiments, so each station delivers the requirements the manufacturing process team sets.
• Engineer the physical system: Develop tooling, fixtures, precision structures, fiber and small-part handling, stripping, cleaving and welding, active alignment, robotics, laser processing, dispensing and cure, sensors, cameras, and in-process measurement hardware.

Software, Controls, Measurement, and Safety

• Direct machine software and controls: Set requirements and priorities for a dedicated software and controls team that delivers control and software architecture, automation sequence, motion and safety logic, algorithms, the recipe system, user interface, versioning, data interfaces, diagnostics, fault recovery, and deployment standards.
• Keep measurement independent: Build a systems and metrology team, including a vision and sensing center of excellence, that owns calibration, machine-to-machine matching, inspection decisions, and root-cause problem solving through industrialization and ramp, in partnership with Test & Metrology and independent of the teams whose work it judges.
• Design for machine safety and compliance: Establish risk assessment, guarding, safety controls, validation, ergonomics, and global compliance requirements from concept through release.

Production Readiness and Global Replication

• Deliver high-volume production capability: Meet precision, safety, repeatability, process-capability, cycle-time, yield, reliability, availability, serviceability, maintainability, and operator-usability targets.
• Release, replicate, and continuously improve: Through the machine industrialization team, issue controlled designs, BOMs, software, build records, acceptance tests, calibration and service plans, training, and site-commissioning packages; use factory data to drive the next release.

Partners, Organization, and Execution

• Lead the machine-builder ecosystem: Develop and govern external builders and technology partners while TE retains architecture, interfaces, configuration, validation, and acceptance authority for differentiated equipment.
• Build the organization and own execution: Develop machine-system talent and technical leaders; manage capital, resources, schedule, cost, supplier performance, and technical risk; and represent equipment strategy with customers and senior leadership.
• Lead strong technical leaders: Channel a leadership team of deep experts with strong points of view; drive technical debate to clear, timely decisions; and set the tempo by defining what "good enough" looks like at each stage and by when.
• Scale through people: Grow the organization as if the market already exists, in hiring waves paced by training capacity, with a goal of two qualified people for every critical skill.

What your background should look like

A BROADER TALENT POOL BY DESIGN

Optics experience is valuable, but not required. Strong candidates may come from custom machine builders, semiconductor equipment, robotics and precision automation, medical or life-science automation, photonics equipment, industrial laser systems, automated inspection and metrology, or other high-complexity capital-equipment environments.

Required Leadership and Machine-Building Experience

• 15+ years leading custom automation, capital-equipment, machine-development, or advanced-equipment organizations and building high-performing multidisciplinary teams, including leaders of leaders and senior technical experts.
• Demonstrated ownership of multi-million-dollar equipment programs for large, complex manufacturers, including demanding enterprise or Fortune 500 customers and stakeholders.
• Track record delivering precision machines into high-volume, 24/7 production - not only prototype or laboratory automation.
• Proven ability to take complete production equipment from requirements and architecture through detailed design, build, integration, debug, FAT/SAT, validation, release, factory ramp, and lifecycle improvement.
• Experience defining station architecture, then turning a successful machine into a controlled platform deployed across products, lines, sites, cultures, or countries; includes learning from difficult factory launches and real operating data.

Technical and Operational Breadth

• Technical breadth across precision mechanics, optomechanics, motion, robotics, machine vision, sensing, controls, software and algorithms, automated inspection, machine metrology, laser processing, small-part handling, tooling, and machine safety.
• Enough process-physics fluency to translate process windows into equipment architecture and controls, with relevant exposure to fiber stripping, cleaving and welding, active alignment, dispensing, curing, or other precision assembly processes.
• Deep understanding of 24/7 factory requirements including serviceability, diagnostics, fault recovery, changeover, calibration, traceability, operator interaction, spare parts, preventive maintenance, OEE, flow, and capacity.
• Experience with systems engineering, requirements decomposition, tolerance and error budgets, design reviews, configuration and release management, machine safety, validation, structured root cause, and equipment acceptance.
• Experience selecting and governing machine builders and technology partners, combined with the business acumen to connect equipment decisions to product performance, launch timing, cost, capacity, quality, customer commitments, and growth.

Education, Mobility, and Preferred Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Optical, Industrial, Automation/Controls, Mechatronics, Software, or a related engineering field; advanced degree preferred. Ability to travel domestically and internationally 20%-35%.
• Preferred: optical packaging, fiber attach, fiber-array assemblies, micro-optics, active or passive alignment, photonic-device assembly, precision optomechanical systems, or other micron-sensitive products.
• Preferred: modular equipment platforms, global machine replication, greenfield site launches, line architecture, machine software and algorithm development, machine metrology and calibration, and configuration-controlled releases.
• Preferred: earlier hands-on experience in machine architecture, mechanical or controls design, machine build, debug, commissioning, field service, or equipment sustainment.

Long Description

Who Will Thrive Here

A BUILDER

You have shipped precision production equipment into high-volume factories, not just concepts or demonstrations.

A SYSTEM ARCHITECT

You own the whole machine and the interfaces between mechanics, controls, vision, software, process, metrology, and people.

A PRODUCTION-SYSTEM THINKER

You see the machine, line, flow, capacity, material movement, and operator as one system.

FACTORY-MINDED

You design for uptime, recovery, service, calibration, maintainability, and real operator behavior.

A RELEASE OWNER

You turn designs, BOMs, software, validation, and documentation into controlled equipment releases.

A TALENT MULTIPLIER

You build technical depth, leaders, standards, and clear engineering authority. You point strong experts at the right problems and keep them disciplined.

How Success Will Be Measured

• A clear manufacturing-equipment, platform standards, and release system aligned to the Optics product roadmap and global capacity plan.
• Precision machines meet safety, micron-level performance, repeatability, process-capability, throughput, yield, reliability, serviceability, and production-readiness targets on schedule.
• Machine software, controls, algorithms, metrology, and calibration capability enable closed-loop, data-rich automation and faster technical learning.
• Controlled designs, BOMs, software, validation evidence, and acceptance packages reduce reinvention, accelerate global replication, and allow Operations to sustain equipment with increasing independence.
• The equipment-engineering organization has the technical depth, leadership pipeline, partner ecosystem, and execution discipline required for rapid growth, with factory learning converted into the next release.
• Every critical skill has two qualified people, the systems and metrology team delivers fast, independent root cause through ramp, and the organization scales without losing pace on customer programs.

Why TE Connectivity

This role sits at the intersection of AI infrastructure, advanced optics, precision machine design, automation software, machine metrology, and global factory scale. You will define how TE builds the manufacturing systems that make next-generation optical connectivity manufacturable - and repeatable - around the world.

ABOUT TE CONNECTIVITY

TE Connectivity plc (NYSE: TEL) is a global industrial technology leader creating a safer, sustainable, productive, and connected future. As a trusted innovation partner, our broad range of connectivity and sensor solutions enable the distribution of power, signal and data to advance next-generation transportation, energy networks, automated factories, data centers enabling artificial intelligence, and more.

Our more than 90,000 employees, including 10,000 engineers, work alongside customers in approximately 130 countries. In a world that is racing ahead, TE ensures that EVERY CONNECTION COUNTS. Learn more at www.te.com and on LinkedIn, Facebook, WeChat, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter).

COMPENSATION

• Competitive base salary commensurate with experience: $237,700 - 356,500 (subject to change dependent on physical location)
• Posted salary ranges are made in good faith. TE Connectivity reserves the right to adjust ranges depending on the experience/qualification of the selected candidate as well as internal and external equity.
• Total Compensation = Base Salary + Incentive(s) + Benefits

BENEFITS

• A comprehensive benefits package including health insurance, 401(k), disability, life insurance, employee stock purchase plan, paid time off and voluntary benefits.

EOE, Including Disability/Vets

IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING RECRUITMENT FRAUD

TE Connectivity has become aware of fraudulent recruitment activities being conducted by individuals or organizations falsely claiming to represent TE Connectivity. Please be advised that TE Connectivity never requests payment or fees from job applicants at any stage of the recruitment process. All legitimate job openings are posted exclusively on our official careers website at te.com/careers, and all email communications from our recruitment team will come only from actual email addresses ending in @te.com. If you receive any suspicious communications, we strongly advise you not to engage or provide any personal information, and to report the incident to your local authorities.

Job Locations:

#remote, Pennsylvania _

United States

Posting City: Rochester

Job Country: United States

Travel Required: 25% to 50%

Requisition ID: 161677

Workplace Type: Remote

External Careers Page: Engineering & Technology

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