Director, Photonics Hardware Validation - Mountain View, CA, United States
$186,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 30 June 2026 by the employer.
About the role
In this role within Silicon Engineering, you will own the end-to-end post-silicon validation strategy and execution across optical, electrical, and system levels. You will collaborate directly with Silicon Design, Laser, Packaging, Software, and Supply Chain leadership to architect lab infrastructure, drive automated testing frameworks, and validate the Passage optical interconnect platform.
What you'll do
- Scale the product validation team by recruiting, mentoring, and developing talent across optical, electrical, software, and automation domains. - Drive silicon and platform validation strategies, requirements, and execution plans for the optical interconnect platform. - Architect and define validation environments, test frameworks, automated test suites, and telemetry data collection workflows. - Analyze silicon and system architecture to identify integration risks, design gaps, and marginality issues requiring corner validation. - Oversee execution of validation plans, leading technical triage and root-cause debug for hardware, firmware, and system-level issues. - Partner with Silicon, Packaging, Hardware, and Software teams while influencing pre-silicon design and simulation milestones for on-chip validation hooks, telemetry sensors, and diagnostic monitors.
What you'll need
- BS, MS, or Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Photonics, Physics, or a related technical field. - 12+ years of semiconductor or hardware validation experience, with significant exposure to optical/photonics link-level products. - Strong technical background in laser, optics, or silicon photonics architecture and characterization. - 5+ years of experience developing test content, automation infrastructure, and scripting in Python or C++. - Proven leadership track record managing cross-functional engineering teams working on transceivers or link-level products. - Solid understanding of industry standard requirements (IEEE, MSA, OIF) and product validation through corner testing (temperature, voltage, and process matrices), including defining validation plans and generating reports.
Nice to have
- Track record of leading multiple link-level products through validation and high-volume production release. - Experience scaling engineering teams, establishing career development frameworks, and fostering high-performance technical environments. - Capability to align executive stakeholders on technical roadmaps, resource trade-offs, and risk mitigation strategies.
This role has been open 112 days — below the 113-day median for Silicon Test Engineering roles.
Silicon Test Engineering · Silicon Validation
|
Open roles in category
192
|
Median days open
113 d
|
Median salary
$129k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Lightmatter | All employers we track in this specialty (192 roles · 57 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 3 | 192 |
| Open roles in the wider Silicon Validation & Test family | 9 | 2244 · 112 employers |
| Median days open | 111 d | 113 d (−2 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $129k |
Who's hiring in this category
- Teradyne · 14 open roles · median 116 d
- Qualcomm · 12 open roles · median 111 d
- Renesas Electronics · 12 open roles · median 104 d
- onsemi · 10 open roles · median 137 d
- Infineon Technologies · 9 open roles · median 119 d
- Marvell Technology · 9 open roles · median 119 d
How we counted: 192 open Silicon Test Engineering (Silicon Validation) roles from 57 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 22 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Silicon Validation & Test family row. Figures refresh nightly.