Layout Engineering Lead - Sherman, TX, United States
Originally posted 7 October 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role leads physical layout development for III-V semiconductor laser products, including VCSELs, DFB lasers, and photonic devices. You will own layout architecture, mask design, and mask data preparation from concept through production release for these optoelectronic technologies.
What you'll do
- Lead physical layout development for III-V semiconductor laser products including VCSELs, DFB lasers, and photonic devices.
- Own layout architecture, mask design, and mask data preparation from concept through production release.
- Develop, maintain, and improve design rule methodologies, verification flows, and layout standards.
- Develop automated Design Rule Check (DRC), Layout Versus Schematic (LVS), verification, and data analysis solutions.
- Champion layout automation initiatives to improve design productivity, consistency, quality, and cycle time.
- Coordinate mask revisions and change management activities while ensuring configuration control and documentation accuracy.
What you'll need
- Bachelor's, Master's, or Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Materials Science, Optical Engineering, or a related technical field.
- Minimum 5 years of semiconductor layout design experience.
- Expert-level experience with semiconductor layout tools such as Silvaco, Cadence, KLayout, Synopsys, or Mentor Graphics/Siemens EDA.
- Strong understanding of physical layout design principles, mask design, DRC, LVS, and semiconductor manufacturing constraints.
- Proficiency in programming and automation using Python, Tcl, Perl, C++, or similar languages.
- Hands-on experience with VCSEL, DFB laser, photonic integrated circuit (PIC), or related optoelectronic device layouts.
Nice to have
- Minimum 3 years of direct experience with III-V optoelectronic devices such as VCSELs, DFB lasers, edge-emitting lasers, photonic integrated circuits (PICs), or similar technologies.
- Experience with statistical analysis tools such as JMP or Minitab.
Skills: physical layout, III-V semiconductor, VCSELs, DFB lasers, photonic devices, mask design, DRC/LVS
This role has been open 1 day — well below the 71-day median for Optical/Photonics IC Design roles.
Optical/Photonics IC Design · Photonics
|
Open roles in category
135
|
Median days open
71 d
|
Median salary
$199k
|
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 (135 roles · 32 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 16 | 135 |
| Median days open | 80 d | 71 d (+9 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $199k |
Skills observed across this category: physical layout, III-V semiconductor, VCSELs, DFB lasers, photonic devices, mask design
Who's hiring in this category
- Coherent Corp (this employer) · 16 open roles · median 79 d
- GlobalFoundries · 16 open roles · median 71 d
- Lightmatter · 16 open roles · median 86 d
- Lumentum · 10 open roles · median 66 d
- Marvell Technology · 8 open roles · median 95 d
- Keysight Technologies · 7 open roles · median 35 d
How we counted: 135 open Optical/Photonics IC Design (Photonics) roles from 32 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 9 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.