Executive Search Success Story: Building the Leadership Team to Stand Up a New Domestic Semiconductor Fab

How JRG Partners executed a confidential, multi-role North American executive search strategy that equipped a specialty semiconductor manufacturer with the fab operations, process engineering, facilities, supply chain, and workforce leadership required to construct, qualify, and ramp a new $2.8B domestic wafer fabrication facility on a government-incentive-backed timeline.

The Challenge

A specialty semiconductor manufacturer had committed to a $2.8B domestic 300mm fab supported by federal and state incentives tied to construction, hiring, and production milestones. The company had operated mature 200mm fabs for decades but had never built a greenfield 300mm facility, and the executives who had led its last expansion had retired. Global competition for fab leadership talent was intense, the timeline left no room for a slow start, and the company needed to hire 1,200 technicians and engineers in a region with no semiconductor workforce. Executive leadership identified several critical vulnerabilities threatening the program:

• No internal leadership with greenfield 300mm fab construction and ramp experience
• Federal and state incentives tied to milestones with limited schedule flexibility
• Tool install, process transfer, and qualification requiring leadership before the building was complete
• Long-lead equipment and materials procurement in a supply-constrained global market
• A 1,200-person technical workforce to be hired and trained in a region without semiconductor talent
• Intense global competition for the small pool of executives who have led fab ramps

Recognizing that the program required proven fab leadership before tool move-in, the CEO and board engaged JRG Partners to recruit a VP & General Manager of Fab Operations, VP of Process Engineering & Yield, VP of Facilities & Construction, VP of Supply Chain & Equipment Procurement, and VP of Workforce Development & Human Resources. The company required an executive search partner with deep semiconductor expertise and discreet access to leaders at competitors and foundries.

Why They Chose JRG Partners

Semiconductor & Electronics Manufacturing Focus

JRG Partners maintains a dedicated practice serving semiconductor and electronics manufacturing companies, with deep recruiting expertise across wafer fabs, foundries, packaging and test, equipment and materials suppliers, and electronics manufacturing services. This focus ensured an immediate understanding of fab ramp economics, yield learning, tool procurement, and the leadership profiles that deliver new facilities.

Discreet Competitor Access

Our firm has extensive experience engaging fab leaders at competitors, foundries, and equipment suppliers under strict confidentiality, which is essential in a small and closely watched talent market.

Multi-Role Execution

Our team specializes in running coordinated operations, engineering, facilities, supply chain, and workforce searches in parallel, ensuring leaders are selected as a complementary unit aligned to a single ramp schedule.

Our Executive Search Strategy

Phase 1 — Program Alignment

Our consultants partnered directly with the CEO, chief operating officer, and board to review the fab schedule, incentive milestones, process transfer plan, equipment procurement status, and workforce requirements, defining five executive profiles sequenced to the construction and ramp timeline.

Phase 2 — Talent Identification & Mapping

Our research team performed an extensive talent mapping initiative targeting fab operations, process engineering, facilities, supply chain, and workforce executives at semiconductor manufacturers, foundries, and equipment suppliers who had led documented greenfield fab builds and ramps. Over 460 executives were systematically assessed across these sectors.

Phase 3 — Confidential Candidate Engagement

Priority during outreach was given to leaders with a documented history of standing up 300mm fabs, delivering yield ramps on schedule, managing cleanroom construction and tool install, securing long-lead equipment, and building technical workforces in new regions. Outreach was conducted under strict confidentiality. Only candidates meeting these strict performance baselines advanced.

Phase 4 — Selection Process

Finalists presented ramp plans to the CEO and board, completed structured leadership assessments, and underwent reference verification focused on quantified fab construction, yield, and workforce outcomes.

Key Outcomes

• 460+ semiconductor and advanced manufacturing executive profiles mapped across North America.
• Successfully placed a synchronized leadership tier spanning fab operations, process engineering, facilities, supply chain, and workforce within eight months.
• Delivered the cleanroom to tool-ready status on schedule.
• Reached target yield four months ahead of plan.
• Hired and certified 1,200 technicians and engineers within two years.
• Achieved every incentive milestone and began volume production on time.