About the role
iPronics is seeking a PIC Architectures Engineer to join the PIC Architectures team within the Photonics Department, working on large-scale silicon photonics optical circuit switches. The role focuses on the design and simulation of switch architectures, programmable photonic circuits, and in-house software tools.
What you'll do
- Develop and maintain in-house Python tools for PIC architecture modelling, simulation, and verification.
- Design and evaluate optical switch architectures and programmable photonic circuits.
- Develop circuit-level simulations of photonic integrated circuits, including WDM and multiplexing/demultiplexing systems, to predict insertion loss, optical crosstalk, and wavelength and polarization dependence.
- Develop routing, path-finding, and switch-configuration algorithms for optical switches and programmable photonic circuits.
- Analyze the impact of non-idealities such as fabrication variations, thermal effects, and control errors on circuit performance to support calibration strategies.
- Collaborate with design, test, and software teams, comparing simulation results with lab measurements.
What you'll need
- MSc in Telecommunication Engineering, Physics, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related discipline with a focus on integrated photonics.
- 2-3 years of experience in photonic circuit modelling, optical switching, or programmable photonics across industry or research.
- Strong software development background in Python, including object-oriented design, modular code, numerical libraries (NumPy/SciPy), and maintaining medium-to-large codebases.
- Experience with photonic circuit simulation tools such as Lumerical INTERCONNECT, VPIphotonics, or Python-based S-matrix solvers.
- Solid understanding of integrated photonic building blocks, including MZIs, couplers, phase shifters, and crossings.
- Experience with Git, testing frameworks like pytest, and collaborative software development practices including code reviews and CI.
- Professional fluency in English (C1 level or higher).
Nice to have
- PhD in a related discipline.
- Strong mathematical background in linear algebra, graph theory, or combinatorics.
- Knowledge of routing algorithms and switching network theory, such as rearrangeable and non-blocking networks.
- Familiarity with graph libraries, Python packaging, and environment tools.
- Experience with the calibration and control of programmable photonic circuits.
More semiconductor jobs: Photonics jobs
First seen in our index 2 days ago, well below the 68-day median for Optical/Photonics IC Design roles.
Optical/Photonics IC Design · Photonics
|
Open roles in category
165
|
Median days since first seen
68 d
|
Category median salary (all employers)
$192k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, and who else is hiring
| Metric | iPronics | All employers we track in this specialty (165 roles · 34 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 4 | 165 |
| Median days since first seen | 2 d | 68 d (+66 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | n/a | $192k |
Who's hiring in this category
- Coherent Corp · 17 open roles · median 112 d
- GlobalFoundries · 13 open roles · median 83 d
- Lightmatter · 12 open roles · median 109 d
- Ayar Labs · 11 open roles · median 4 d
- Lumentum · 10 open roles · median 99 d
- Marvell Technology · 10 open roles · median 54 d
How we counted: 165 open Optical/Photonics IC Design (Photonics) roles from 34 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 11 Nov 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there. Days are counted from when our index first saw each posting, not from the employer's original posting date.