Distinguished MTS - Sunnyvale, CA, United States
Originally posted 27 July 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role provides senior technical leadership for the Coherent OCS Business Unit, focusing on fiberoptic components, modules, optical circuit switching, and system architecture. The role will advance OCS programs through technical studies, optical and electrical integration, and scalable test strategy development.
What you'll do
- Provide senior technical leadership for fiberoptic components, OCS architecture, and system-level tradeoff analysis.
- Drive validation and characterization strategy for OCS subsystems and assemblies.
- Support test development, automation, and data analysis.
- Lead root cause analysis and corrective actions for complex issues across optics, electronics, mechanics, packaging, thermal behavior, and software interfaces.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams and suppliers to support design reviews, qualification, NPI, and production ramp activities.
- Serve as a senior technical interface for internal stakeholders and external partners.
What you'll need
- Master's or Ph.D. degree in Applied Physics, Optical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a closely related field.
- 15+ years of experience in optical communications, photonic systems, or related technical leadership roles.
- Demonstrated experience in system-level optical architecture, validation, qualification, and manufacturing scale-up.
- Deep technical expertise in optical circuit switching, optical communications, fiber-optic systems, and optical packaging.
- Strong understanding of insertion loss, crosstalk, switching behavior, calibration, and measurement uncertainty.
- Experience with optical test equipment and measurement tools such as power meters, optical spectrum analyzers, polarization controllers.
- Familiarity with automation and data analysis tools, including Python, MATLAB.
Skills: fiberoptic components, OCS architecture, optical circuit switching, optical packaging, validation and characterization
This role has been open 70 days — slightly above the 67-day median for Optical/Photonics IC Design roles.
Optical/Photonics IC Design · Photonics
|
Open roles in category
133
|
Median days open
67 d
|
Median salary
$195k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Coherent Corp | All employers we track in this specialty (133 roles · 33 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 15 | 133 |
| Median days open | 76 d | 67 d (+9 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $195k |
Skills observed across this category: fiberoptic components, OCS architecture, optical circuit switching, optical packaging, validation and characterization
Who's hiring in this category
- Lightmatter · 18 open roles · median 81 d
- GlobalFoundries · 16 open roles · median 67 d
- Coherent Corp (this employer) · 15 open roles · median 75 d
- Lumentum · 9 open roles · median 62 d
- Keysight Technologies · 7 open roles · median 31 d
- Marvell Technology · 7 open roles · median 151 d
How we counted: 133 open Optical/Photonics IC Design (Photonics) roles from 33 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 5 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. Figures refresh nightly.