The Life of an Infineon System Application Engineer

I’ve learned a lot of new soft skills that have improved my interactions in both my personal and professional life… I also took up sailing with the purchase of a 30 year-old 28-ft sailboat, which is my outlet after a busy week.

David Williams, a Sr. Director in Applications Engineering for Enterprise Power, sat down with us to summarize the projects, responsibilities, and lifestyle that you could be working on  as a system application engineer at Infineon. Learn more about our work through David’s experience, or visit the Infineon Careers page for more information.

Are you a solutions-first IT fanatic looking for a workplace to call home? As a system application engineer, you’ll be supporting the development of multiphase controller IC’s, Point of Load (PoL) voltage regulators, and power stages. According to David, he and his team are also responsible for implementing specific design requests from their clients, alongside debugging customer designs when errors arise. Furthermore, your end customers will be some of the most influential tech companies to date, including Server OEMs such as HP, Dell, Google, Amazon, and Facebook. Not to mention the work we carry out for the rapidly growing gaming industry:

We build out high current GPU applications for nVIDIA and AMD GPUs, consumer motherboards from Asus (Gigabyte), and even consumer gaming stations including the PS4 and PS5.

Infineon’s work culture is not just about professional development; we also care deeply about your personal growth. For David, Infineon’s ongoing trainings and individual coaching have bolstered his professional skill set:

As I’ve taken more management responsibility, Infineon has provided training through ILEP1, ILEP2, and most recently individual coaching. These classes trained me to improve my collaborative skills by improving listening, empathy, and management skills.

On the personal side, David credits Infineon for boosting his ability to work with others - not to mention providing the financial freedom to pursue a new hobby: 

I’ve learned a lot of new soft skills that have improved my interactions in both my personal and professional life. I also took up sailing with the purchase of a 30 year-old 28-ft sailboat, which is my outlet after a busy week.

At Infineon, opportunity awaits at every corner. Throughout your tenure at Infineon, your potential for management will be constantly nurtured through leadership training, reskilling initiatives, and one-on-one coaching sessions. In David’s case, his role as an individual contributor gradually grew to a hybrid role with some management responsibilities, before launching into a full-fledged manager position. While he formerly placed all of his energy into hands-on lab work, David now prioritizes his relationship with other team members and ensures that his teammates have a rewarding career. 

Over the past 14 years, I’ve progressed from an individual contributor who spent 100% of my time in the lab to a contributor with some management responsibilities - and in the past two years, to a full-time manager.

Complex solutions are our strong suit. As a system application engineer, you’ll take on challenging projects that truly test your skill set and cultivate a genuine passion for your work. In David’s case, his past PS4 multiphase controller project is near and dear to his heart.

Over the course of a few years, David worked to design a digital multiphase controller into the Sony PS4. He also improved the PPM (parts per million) of the digital controller in cooperation with Sony. David and his team spent two years working with the customer to gain direction for the project, such as sketching and deep bench testing. Thanks to his work, David successfully won the design-in (the process by which a manufacturer chooses the supplier of sub-components) and production volume of an estimated 100 million digital multiphase controllers, scoring a huge win for Infineon. 

For David and the rest of our employees, there isn’t a sole trait that keeps them in the Infineon family - it’s a combination of many. With our personal and professional development opportunities and your passion for modern solutions, anything is possible. This is according to David, who closed out with these final words: 

Infineon is an excellent company to work for, the people I work with all like each other and like working together, the technical challenge excites me, and I’ve been able to grow in my career.

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