Photonics Circuit Designer - Palo Alto, California, United States
$120,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 21 May 2026 by the employer.
About the role
PsiQuantum is seeking a Photonics Circuit Designer to focus on integrated photonic circuits for a general-purpose silicon photonic quantum computer. The role covers linear photonic device modeling, photonic circuit design and optimization, simulation, and layout coordination.
What you'll do
- Perform data-driven modeling of linear photonic devices across different scales using diverse methods. - Design, optimize, and create schematic representations of photonic circuits. - Execute full simulation of complex photonic circuits, including modeling photon-pair generation through spontaneous four-wave mixing. - Coordinate photonic circuit layout. - Conduct data analysis to evaluate and understand the performance of photonic devices and circuits. - Collaborate with component design and circuit characterization teams to ensure the validation of photonic circuits.
What you'll need
- PhD or equivalent in Electrical Engineering or Physics. - 5 years of relevant work or academic research experience in integrated photonics. - In-depth knowledge of photonic devices, including performance metrics and testing techniques. - Extensive experience with photonic design using commercial software platforms. - Experience with integrated photonic circuit layout. - Extensive experience with Python for scientific applications and data manipulation.
Nice to have
- Experience using the Wolfram Language.
Skills: photonic devices, integrated photonic circuits, electromagnetic simulation, circuit layout, silicon photonics
This role has been open 155 days — well above the 78-day median for Optical/Photonics IC Design roles.
Optical/Photonics IC Design · Photonics
|
Open roles in category
138
|
Median days open
78 d
|
Median salary
$197k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | PsiQuantum | All employers we track in this specialty (138 roles · 30 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 7 | 138 |
| Median days open | 142 d | 78 d (+64 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $197k |
Skills observed across this category: photonic devices, integrated photonic circuits, electromagnetic simulation, circuit layout, silicon photonics
Who's hiring in this category
- Coherent Corp · 17 open roles · median 94 d
- GlobalFoundries · 16 open roles · median 80 d
- Lightmatter · 14 open roles · median 99 d
- Lumentum · 10 open roles · median 81 d
- Marvell Technology · 10 open roles · median 36 d
- Intel Corporation · 8 open roles · median 67 d
How we counted: 138 open Optical/Photonics IC Design (Photonics) roles from 30 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 24 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.