Mitchell Gallaher

Experience

• 

  Desert Currents Consulting

  Aug 2010 - Oct 2013

  Applications Engineer

  Worked on evaluation boards and demos for Texas Instruments' Precision Analog applications team.PCB design and LayoutDevelop labview GUIs for customer facing applicationsInterfacing microcontrollers with silicon on Evaluation ModulesDisplay TI parts to customers at tech days and trade showsDesign Software & Hardware for Rube Goldberg Demo:http://www.ti.com/ww/en/analog/candy-dispenser-products/?DCMP=hpa_opamp_general&HQS=rubegoldberg

• 

  Texas Instruments

  Oct 2013 - now

  I manage a team of 8-12 Validation Engineers in the Precision Amplifier product line at Texas Instruments. Day-to-Day responsibilities can range from sitting in the lab designing/debugging circuits, to architecting software frameworks for our automated test systems, or working with my fellow managers to identify project roadblocks and provide assistance where necessary.From a technical perspective, I enjoy getting to mentor and teach members inside, and outside, the Validation community. I am an activator at heart, so I enjoy challenging my team, and others, to push for solutions that overlap outside our specific context. Many of the solutions our team develops end up fanning to the community at large, which in turn provides excellent building blocks for people to improve on our methods.From a management perspective, I see my job in two different lenses. My primary objective is to support my team members, and remove roadblocks where ever possible. I'm completely willing to skip or cancel meetings if team members are struggling to understand the purpose of a task or don't know how to move forward, and see my team as my top responsibility. Secondarily, I am constantly trying to refine myself and my team members as leaders. Leaders wield influence and, whether they realize it or not, everyone has an opportunity to influence others. This practically looks like challenging solutions that bear the name tag "we've always done it that way" or "it's just easier to do it that way". I also try to encourage my team to prove me wrong, because I cannot and should not always have the solution to problems. Show less Validation Engineers are responsible for testing semiconductors to make sure they perform like our datasheet says they will. Most of this job entails automating tests to increase throughput, trying to break the devices before the customers do, and doing data analysis to try and confirm if our data/devices are performing properly.Validation Engineer, Energy Solutions (Oct 2013 - Oct 2015)This team was mostly oriented around isolated Delta-Sigma converters and isolated DC-DC converters. Most of the challenges around this job function were verifying new process technology and manufacturing flows that came out of a centralized R&D team. Many of the issues we faced were non-standard and we would often comment how they were not "google searchable". This role grew me in many ways including: Measurement Automation, FPGA Design, Electromagnetic Emissions and Interference, General Delta-Sigma architecture understanding and debug, Analog Circuit DesignValidation Engineer, Precision Amplifiers (Oct 2015 - Nov 2017)This team was responsible for making Op-Amps that measured down to single micro-volts and single pico-amps. Personally, this role was instrumental in refining my fundamentals and helped me to understand the value of solving the simple problems first. The most impact contributions I made in these two years were often logistical or simple software sequences to automate data collection. As we continued to build on smaller changes, I saw that incremental improvements often led to a better solution than trying to design something complicated up front. The things that I am most proud of in this job role are: AC Validation Throughput improvements, Data Analysis Algorithm developments, Reinforcement of my Analog fundamentals, and opportunities to grow as a software architect. Show less

  • Validation Manager

    Nov 2017 - now

  • Validation Engineer

    Oct 2013 - Nov 2017