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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Verification Testing Supervisor

💰 $ - $

EngineeringQuality AssuranceVerification & ValidationElectronics

🎯 Role Definition

The Verification Testing Supervisor oversees and executes the verification and testing strategy for products, subsystems, or semiconductor IP. This hands-on leadership role combines technical test expertise (functional, regression, system, environmental and reliability testing) with team management, process improvement, lab operations and cross-functional coordination to deliver high-quality, timely verification results. Typical responsibilities include defining test plans, coordinating test schedules, leading failure analysis, sponsoring test automation and metrics, and ensuring compliance with safety and quality standards.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Verification/Test Engineer
  • Lead Test Technician / Lead Test Engineer
  • Senior Quality/Validation Engineer

Advancement To:

  • Director of Verification & Validation
  • Head of Test Engineering / Head of Validation
  • Senior Engineering Manager (Systems or Product Engineering)

Lateral Moves:

  • Reliability Engineering Manager
  • Manufacturing Test Manager
  • Product Quality / Supplier Quality Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Define, document and own the verification and test strategy for assigned products, ASICs, firmware or systems, ensuring coverage across functional, regression, performance, environmental and reliability requirements and aligning with product milestones and release gates.
  • Lead the creation and maintenance of detailed test plans, test cases and procedures, including pass/fail criteria, test fixtures, required instrumentation and compliance to regulatory standards.
  • Supervise day-to-day test operations and a team of test engineers and technicians, including task assignment, prioritization, resource leveling, performance feedback, mentoring and career development.
  • Develop and manage test schedules and capacity plans to meet program timelines while balancing regression requirements, debug cycles and manufacturing handoff constraints.
  • Design, implement and scale test automation frameworks and scripts (e.g., Python, LabVIEW, TestStand, Tcl) to reduce manual test effort, increase repeatability and accelerate regression cycles.
  • Oversee lab and field test environments (test racks, ATE, chambers, benches, DAQ equipment), ensuring calibration, safety, availability and efficient utilization of equipment and consumables.
  • Coordinate cross-functional verification activities with Design, Firmware, Validation, Product Management and Manufacturing to resolve feature clarifications, ambiguity in requirements and emergent test issues.
  • Triage, reproduce and lead root cause analysis for failures discovered during verification or in the field, producing actionable defect reports, corrective actions and design/verifier feedback loops.
  • Implement and report key verification metrics (test coverage, defect density, pass/fail rates, MTBF, test time per unit) to stakeholders, driving data-informed decisions and continuous improvement.
  • Manage test-related change control, configuration management and documentation, ensuring traceability between requirements, test cases, results and released hardware/firmware versions.
  • Participate in design reviews, pre-silicon verification planning and DFT/scan strategy discussions to ensure tests will effectively validate interfaces, power states, timing and functional scenarios.
  • Lead reliability, environmental and compliance verification efforts (temperature, vibration, humidity, shock, ESd, EMI/EMC collaboration) to validate product robustness under specified conditions.
  • Define and enforce safety, EHS and clean-room procedures for test labs and personnel, managing hazardous materials, high-voltage test protocols and regulatory compliance where applicable.
  • Plan and manage test-related budgets, procurement of instrumentation and vendor relationships for outsourced test services or ATE support, including evaluation and qualification of external test labs.
  • Drive continuous improvement initiatives to shorten test cycles, reduce repeat failures, increase automation coverage and lower overall time-to-verify through process changes and tooling investments.
  • Establish and maintain regression strategies for nightly, sprint and release-level testing; prioritize test cases to balance breadth of coverage with execution time and criticality.
  • Coach and grow a high-performing verification/test team through recruiting, interviewing, onboarding and targeted skills development (test automation, failure analysis, measurement techniques).
  • Collaborate with software/firmware teams to validate embedded test points, instrumentation APIs and test hooks to enable more effective automated verification and production test handoff.
  • Provide technical escalation and decision-making during critical verification phases, balancing schedule risk, defect severity and product readiness for release.
  • Prepare and present concise verification summaries, risk assessments and go/no-go recommendations to program leadership, product management and executive stakeholders.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Maintain and optimize test databases and result repositories to improve queryability, reproducibility and historical trend analysis.
  • Create and maintain training materials, SOPs and knowledge bases for routine and advanced test procedures.
  • Facilitate vendor and inter-site test case harmonization for global product verification and manufacturing transfers.
  • Support customer-facing test demonstrations, acceptance testing and post-release failure investigation as needed.
  • Coordinate with supply chain and procurement to expedite critical test equipment deliveries and service contracts.
  • Evaluate new test technologies, instrumentation and software tools for long-term adoption and ROI.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Test strategy and test plan development for functional, regression, system-level and reliability verification.
  • Hands-on test automation experience using scripting languages and frameworks (Python, LabVIEW, TestStand, Tcl, Shell).
  • Familiarity with Electronic Test Equipment (digital scopes, logic analyzers, multimeters, spectrum analyzers, power supplies, ATE).
  • Knowledge of embedded systems testing, firmware validation and hardware-software integration techniques.
  • Experience with Semiconductor/ASIC/FPGA verification flow (DFT, scan, pattern development, ATE characterization) — if applicable to the role.
  • Proficiency with test data management, version control and CI/CD pipelines for test execution (Jenkins, GitLab CI, or equivalent).
  • Root-cause failure analysis skills and familiarity with debug tools, failure modes and corrective action tracking.
  • Understanding of environmental and reliability test methods (thermal cycling, HALT/HASS, vibration, humidity, shock) and standards.
  • Experience with test management and defect tracking tools (JIRA, Polarion, TestRail, Bugzilla) and generating KPI dashboards.
  • Ability to design and specify test fixtures, harnesses and PCB-level probing strategies for reliable measurements.
  • Basic electronics and circuitry understanding (signal integrity, power rails, analog/digital interfacing) to validate test results.
  • Data analysis skills using spreadsheets, SQL or scripting to extract trends and quantify verification coverage and risk.
  • Knowledge of quality systems and regulatory frameworks relevant to the product domain (ISO 9001, ISO/TS, FDA, CE) where applicable.

Soft Skills

  • Strong leadership and team development skills; ability to coach engineers and technicians to higher performance.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills to summarize technical results and influence stakeholders.
  • Project management and prioritization skills to balance competing verification demands under tight schedules.
  • Analytical and problem-solving mindset with attention to detail and process orientation.
  • Collaborative working style, able to bridge design, manufacturing and product teams and negotiate trade-offs.
  • Customer-focused mentality with the ability to represent verification status and risks externally.
  • Adaptability to evolving product requirements and fast-paced engineering environments.
  • Decision-making under uncertainty, escalating appropriately while owning accountability for verification outcomes.
  • Mentorship and recruitment skills to attract and retain technical talent for test teams.
  • Continuous improvement mindset with proven experience driving operational efficiencies and automation adoption.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science or a related technical discipline.

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s degree in Electrical/Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, or an MBA for candidates on leadership/operational tracks.
  • Certifications in quality systems, project management (PMP) or test/automation tooling courses considered a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Electrical Engineering
  • Computer Engineering
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Computer Science
  • Systems Engineering

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 5–12+ years in verification, test engineering, validation or test lab management, with at least 2–4 years in a supervisory or lead capacity.

Preferred:

  • Demonstrated experience managing verification programs for complex electronic products, embedded systems or semiconductor devices.
  • Proven track record implementing test automation, scaling test labs and delivering verification on aggressive product timelines.
  • Experience with failure analysis, manufacturing transition support, and direct interaction with cross-functional stakeholders (design, manufacturing, quality, product).
  • Prior experience working with ATE vendors, external test labs and global teams to coordinate verification and production test strategies.
  • Familiarity with industry-specific compliance testing and environmental reliability validation.
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