Photonic System Design Engineer - California, Santa Clara, United States
$164,470 - $269,100 USD yearly
Originally posted 13 October 2026 by the employer.
Design and simulate new system-level and component-level photonics solutions for high-speed optical communication transceivers.
About the role
As a Photonic System Design Engineer, you will architect, design, and simulate new system-level and component-level photonics solutions. This role focuses on developing and performing end-to-end system-level link simulations with high-speed silicon photonic components.
What you'll do
- Architect, design, and simulate new system-level and component-level photonics solutions
- Develop and perform end-to-end system-level link simulations with high-speed silicon photonic components
- Identify system-level tradeoffs and component performance optimization opportunities
- Define system specifications driving component development and tradeoffs
- Work cross-organizationally to validate photonic link and system understanding with experiment
- Implement system-level solutions and drive engineering requirements decisions
What you'll need
- Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a similar discipline with focus on Silicon Photonics, optical component, module, and transmission system with 6+ years of industry experience OR a PhD in Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a similar discipline with focus on Silicon Photonics, optical component, module, and transmission system with 4+ years of industry experience
- Experience in system link modeling and design methodology and tools for high speed (50GBaud to 200GBaud) optical communication transceivers and CPO/OCI engine products, both experimental/theoretical performance analysis, and optical components and system optimizations
- Experience in architecting, designing, and defining new systems and components for high-speed silicon photonics commercial optical communication products
- Experience with modeling direct detect higher order modulation format systems, advanced modulation formats, noncoherent and coherent optical systems (e.g., modulators, detectors, lasers)
- Experience with optical/electrical simulation platforms Simulink, Matlab, ADS, Lumerical, HFSS, VPI
Nice to have
- Experience modeling in transmitter, receiver, analog and Serdes interactions, Si and III-V photonic devices, subsystems in high-speed optical communication systems
- Experience with co-simulating high-speed electronics with optical components, DSP modeling, coding/decoding techniques, OSNR/BER/FEC error correction, CMOS IC's (driver, TIA's), and advanced modulation formats
- Experience in designing high speed optoelectronic and electronic components
- Experience in component, carrier, RF package, driver-modulator optimization, high-speed interconnect digital and analog system, DSP and FEC
- Exposure in optical system-, subsystem-, and component-level characterization
- Exposure to optical packaging concepts 2D, 2.5D, 3D and optical test
Skills: photonics components, silicon photonics, optical communication, modulators, high-speed detectors
This role has been open 2 days — well below the 72-day median for Optical/Photonics IC Design roles.
Optical/Photonics IC Design · Photonics
|
Open roles in category
129
|
Median days open
72 d
|
Median salary
$201k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Intel Corporation | All employers we track in this specialty (129 roles · 31 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 7 | 129 |
| Median days open | 55 d | 72 d (−17 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $201k |
Skills observed across this category: photonics components, silicon photonics, optical communication, modulators, high-speed detectors
Who's hiring in this category
- Coherent Corp · 17 open roles · median 85 d
- GlobalFoundries · 15 open roles · median 77 d
- Lightmatter · 12 open roles · median 91 d
- Lumentum · 9 open roles · median 72 d
- Marvell Technology · 8 open roles · median 101 d
- Intel Corporation (this employer) · 7 open roles · median 55 d
How we counted: 129 open Optical/Photonics IC Design (Photonics) roles from 31 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 15 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.