Thirteen technicians now work at Bosch’s Roseville plant, all hired from Sierra College since the German manufacturer bought the former TSI facility in 2023. Bosch gave that number to CapRadio in an email.
The hires are the visible edge of a workforce plan the Greater Sacramento Economic Council developed with Trusted Strategic Solutions. The council wants more Sacramento residents in semiconductor jobs, and the action plan is built around people rather than land or incentives.
“People are quintessential to any capability that is either being stood up or planning to expand,” said Daniel Marrujo, president and managing director of Trusted Strategic Solutions.
Marrujo said GSEC approached his firm after an evaluation by Newmark. “We focused on workforce development as being the core focus for this action plan, looking at all of the demands that industry had in the region.”
Classroom to cleanroom
Sierra College in Rocklin has already started producing workers through its mechatronics program. The program combines mechanical and electrical engineering concepts. Willy Duncan, the college’s superintendent, said students learn how things work mechanically, then what happens when you electrify them and use a chip to regulate the process. “It allows students to work really hands-on and get the basics and all of those components,” Duncan said.
Students can finish a mechatronics certificate in 18 months, or continue for an AA or AS degree. Duncan told CapRadio that certificate holders can earn $70,000 to $100,000 a year.
Bosch’s Roseville build-out
Bosch acquired the former TSI facility in Roseville in 2023. It has since been awarded $225 million in CHIPS funding to turn the site into a major U.S. production hub for silicon carbide chips. A $25 million California Competes Tax Credit from the Governor’s Office of Business & Economic Development is also supporting the redevelopment.
Bosch intends to start U.S.-based commercial manufacturing in 2026, three years after buying the site. The company told CapRadio it has hired 13 technicians from Sierra College since the acquisition. Some of those hires had already been in operations and were promoted after they obtained mechatronics certificates.
One of them is Sacramento native Ella Oettle. She went through the Sierra College mechatronics program and now works for Bosch as a line maintenance technician level 1. She has been with the company for two years.
“I was hired by Bosch right out of graduating from Sierra College Mechatronics program, and I had no prior semiconductor experience before that, or much prior work experience,” Oettle said.
“This is my first full-time job out of college, but over the last two years, I’ve gained a lot of knowledge about the areas that I am working on in the fab.”
Oettle said the program gave her what she needed. “No matter how much we’d like to talk about AI taking away jobs, the robots will always need somebody to fix them.”
The wider market
The U.S. National Science Foundation expects semiconductor jobs to grow by more than 100,000 across the country by 2035. Semiconductors are the materials used to make chips that power phones, laptops, cars, solar energy, defense technologies, artificial intelligence and medical devices.
Sacramento is already home to nine global semiconductor companies: Bosch, Samsung, Intel, Micron, Solidigm, AMD, Kioxia, Qualcomm and Western Digital.
Building the pipeline
Marrujo said GSEC and industry partners have also talked with UC Davis, Sacramento State and the Los Rios Community College District. Sacramento State was presented with a virtual program called Warp 10, which draws on national lab capabilities from Brookhaven National Labs.
“Instead of having students go all the way to Long Island, New York, and get hands-on experience, our virtual capability allows them to do state-of-the-art kinds of testing that is needed here in Sacramento, while leveraging the same capabilities framework that is available over at Brookhaven,” Marrujo said.
Solidigm, a U.S.-based semiconductor company owned by South Korea-based SK Group, has its headquarters in Sacramento. Oettle began her mechatronics path at Del Oro High School, where she took a dual enrollment class through Sierra College.
