Job Description

Job Summary

HCLTech Semiconductor Business Unit is seeking a highly accomplished Site Engineering Leader to establish and scale our semiconductor engineering presence in Penang, Malaysia. This leader will be responsible for building a high-performance engineering organization, developing strong relationships across the Malaysian semiconductor ecosystem, driving customer engagement, and creating a talent acquisition engine capable of supporting rapid business growth across Southeast Asia.

This role requires a unique blend of semiconductor domain expertise, organizational leadership, market connectivity, customer-facing experience, and entrepreneurial mindset. The individual will serve as the face of HCLTech Semiconductor in Malaysia and play a critical role in establishing our Penang center as a strategic engineering hub for ASEAN.

Key Responsibilities

Site Leadership & Organization Building

• Establish and scale HCLTech's semiconductor engineering delivery center in Penang.
• Build and lead multidisciplinary engineering teams across:
• Create an engaging engineering culture that attracts and retains top talent.
• Develop leadership succession plans and build a strong second line of managers.

Ecosystem Development & Enable Talent Acquisition

• Leverage industry network to attract senior engineering leaders and critical niche talent.
• Build relationships with semiconductor companies, industry associations, universities, and government agencies.
• Develop strategic partnerships with talent pipelines across Penang, Kulim, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore.
• Act as a semiconductor ambassador for HCLTech within the Malaysian ecosystem.

Customer Engagement & Business Growth

• Support sales and business development initiatives across ASEAN.
• Build trusted advisor relationships with semiconductor customers.
• Participate in executive customer meetings, capability presentations, and solution workshops.
• Help identify and convert opportunities into scalable engineering engagements.

Delivery & Operational Excellence

• Manage multiple customer programs simultaneously.
• Drive engineering execution, quality, delivery predictability, and customer satisfaction.
• Balance resource utilization, growth objectives, and customer commitments.

Skill Requirements

Experience

• 15 to 20+ years of semiconductor industry experience.
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electronics, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related discipline.
• Proven experience in one or more semiconductor domains:

Leadership Experience

• Managed engineering organizations of 50+ professionals.
• Demonstrated success building and scaling teams.
• Experience leading managers and senior technical leaders.
• Strong track record of talent development and organizational growth.

Other Requirements

Critical Success Factors

The ideal candidate should possess:

Deep Malaysian Market Knowledge

• Strong understanding of the Penang and Kulim semiconductor ecosystem.
• Familiarity with local hiring dynamics and talent availability.
• Awareness of compensation trends and competitive talent landscape.

Established Industry Network

• Well-connected with engineering leaders across Malaysian semiconductor companies.
• Ability to attract senior talent through personal credibility and relationships.
• Strong professional network built over multiple years within the regional ecosystem.

Customer Orientation

• Experience working directly with external customers.
• Comfortable engaging with engineering directors, VPs, and site leaders.
• Ability to translate customer challenges into engineering solutions.

Global Operating Model Experience

• Experience working within a geographically distributed organization.
• Ability to collaborate across Asia, Europe, and North America.
• Strong stakeholder management and matrix leadership skills.

Entrepreneurial Mindset

• Demonstrated ability to build something from the ground up.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity.
• Strong ownership, accountability, and execution focus.

Preferred Attributes

• Malaysian national preferred.
• Existing residence in Penang/Kulim region or willingness to relocate.
• Experience supporting semiconductor services organizations or engineering services providers.
• Active participation in semiconductor industry bodies, university advisory boards, or talent development initiatives.
• Established relationships with universities such as USM and other semiconductor talent sources in Malaysia.
• Strategic Leadership
• Develop multi-year growth strategies for Malaysia operations by identifying emerging semiconductor trends and capability investment opportunities.
• Support creation of local labs, validation infrastructure, and customer-centric engineering offerings.
• Act as a key stakeholder in HCLTech's ASEAN semiconductor expansion strategy and represent HCLTech at industry forums, conferences, semiconductor consortiums