Lead System Application Engineer (Optical) - San Jose, United States
Originally posted 6 May 2026 by the employer.
About the role
What you'll do
- Provide technical support for 51.2T and future-generation switch architectures, focusing on 800G and 1.6T optical transceivers. - Serve as the primary customer-facing technical lead, understanding customer requirements and delivering system-level solutions. - Debug and resolve interoperability issues involving AI networking switches, DSPs, and high-speed optical modules. - Lead customer demos, evaluations, and system bring-up, including switch configuration, link validation, and performance tuning. - Collaborate with optical, hardware, software, mechanical, and thermal engineering teams to ensure product integration. - Stay current with industry standards and trends in AI networking, optical transceivers, and switch architectures.
What you'll need
- Bachelor’s degree or higher in Electrical Engineering or a related technical field. - Strong understanding of optical transceivers, including architecture, configuration, and performance characteristics. - Extensive hands-on experience with DSP bring-up, transceiver configuration, and high-speed link debugging. - In-depth familiarity with AI networking switch architectures and Layer 1/Layer 2 configurations. - Experience working with 800G optical modules and 51.2T-class switches. - Excellent analytical, communication, and customer-facing skills.
This role has been open 73 days — well above the 51-day median for Hardware Systems Engineering roles.
Hardware Systems Engineering · AI ML Hardware
|
Open roles in category
963
|
Median days open
51 d
|
Median salary
$156k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Lumilens | All employers we track in this specialty (963 roles · 102 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 29 | 963 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 38 | 6118 · 145 employers |
| Median days open | 73 d | 51 d (+22 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $156k |
Who's hiring in this category
- Intel Corporation · 73 open roles · median 36 d
- KLA Corporation · 65 open roles · median 44 d
- Teradyne · 57 open roles · median 30 d
- NVIDIA · 51 open roles · median 68 d
- Applied Materials · 50 open roles · median 66 d
- AMD · 47 open roles · median 50 d
How we counted: 963 open Hardware Systems Engineering (AI ML Hardware) roles from 102 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 18 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 Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.