IT CIM Engineer – South Portland, Maine

Diodes, Inc.

South Portland, ME


Job Outline

Diodes Incorporated is seeking a Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) Engineer be part of the IT CIM Team located at Diodes site in South Portland, Maine. 

The role of the CIM Engineer is critical in maintaining and improving the operational effectiveness of the site.

The CIM Engineer role is primarily to develop software directed at automating the manufacturing operation thus making it more productive while eliminating opportunities for yield loss. Primarily the software developed will interact with the manufacturing equipment to ensure the right lot is processed, the lot receives the right recipe, the person processing the lot is correctly certified and the manufacturing systems e.g. the MES, Maintenance, etc. are updated timeously. 

The successful candidate will report to the site IT Manager.

Expectations of the IT CIM Engineer

Key expectations of an IT CIM Engineer are

  • An understanding of manufacturing and the IT solutions to enable development of an appropriate solution to meet the needs of the business.
  • Development skills to write and reuse software and to interface effectively with other software systems. A core part of the role will be in developing automation solutions for equipment to interact with manufacturing equipment, with dispatch, with recipe management, with maintenance, with the site’s manufacturing execution system and 3rd party solutions
  • Development skills will require an understanding of the operation of equipment to capture real-time data from to facilitate processing interdiction and drive appropriate responses.
  • Drive and innovation to develop and deliver new solutions to meet an evolving manufacturing automation environment. The role is one which focusses on continually delivering incremental improvement.
  • Enhance, develop and deploy solutions across multiple systems in support of manufacturing, e.g. maintenance, non-conforming material and engineering analysis. 
  • To be able to quickly problem solve in a diverse manufacturing environment to ensure continuity of the manufacturing operation and when problems do arise to seek solutions to prevent reoccurrence.
  • An ability to listen and communicate effectively to deliver solutions meeting the needs of manufacturing, equipment engineering, process engineering and IT. 
  • An ability to work as an individual, as most activities require the software development of a station controller from concept to delivery, and as part of a team to ensure an effective solution is provided.
  • An ability to learn and develop is an essential as manufacturing needs and solutions will change over the next 5 years.
A typical manufacturing automation project

A CIM Engineer will typically develop software for controlling a manufacturing tool using a common framework to do the following:

  • To develop checks to ensure the equipment is ready to operate successfully
  • To select the correct manufacturing process to enable a production run
    • Communicating with the tool normally using GEM/SECS communication
  • To collect data on a production run to ensure quality product is produced
  • Interactions with other systems to aid the overall process, these include:
    • Selecting a manufacturing lot for processing
    • Updating the status of processing on the manufacturing execution system
    • Setting out tasks to be undertaken after interventions on the equipment
    • Capturing run time data from the equipment
Job Requirements

It is expected that the candidate will have

  • A Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science / Electrical Engineering / Controls Systems or equivalent relevant experience
  • 2+ years relevant work experience
  • Demonstrable use of a scripting type development language e.g. Python, TCL/TK
Desirable IT Skills

The candidate will desirably have

  • Familiarity with equipment communication using the SECS/GEM protocol
  • Demonstrable use of database systems such as PostgreSQL
  • Additional languages such as JavaScript, COBOL
  • A working knowledge of operating systems such as OpenVMS, Linux and Windows 10/11
  • Knowledge of business continuity approaches to ensure solutions developed are ‘always on’.