Principal Engineer, Reliability
$200,000 - $260,000 USD yearly
Join us to architect the reliability roadmap spanning our silicon photonics platform and mixed-signal EICs.
About the role
As Principal Engineer, Reliability, you will be the primary architect of the reliability roadmap for Ayar Labs' silicon photonics platform and mixed-signal EICs. Your expertise will directly influence chiplet co-design, foundry process qualification, and system-level reliability at the PIC-EIC interface.
What you'll do
- Own the execution and plan for product qualification, including silicon photonics and mixed-signal EIC components, complying with JEDEC, Telcordia (GR-468), and MIL-STD standards.
- Develop corrective action plans (CAPA) to resolve reliability issues discovered during qualification or in-field deployment.
- Integrate Design for Reliability (DfR) principles into the earliest stages of the product development lifecycle for both the photonics chiplet and its mixed-signal EIC.
- Conduct Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) across the PIC-EIC system, covering optical elements (waveguides, ring resonators, modulators, photodetectors) and mixed-signal circuit blocks.
- Serve as the technical lead for reliability with foundry partners across both silicon photonics and CMOS/mixed-signal process nodes.
- Develop and refine Physics-of-Failure (PoF) models for silicon photonics devices and mixed-signal EIC circuits to predict FIT (Failures in Time) rates and DPPM.
What you'll need
- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Materials Science, or a related field.
- 10+ years of semiconductor reliability experience, with at least 5 years focused specifically on Silicon Photonics and/or Mixed-Signal EIC reliability.
- Working knowledge of mixed-signal IC design and its reliability mechanisms (electromigration, HCI, NBTI/PBTI, ESD, latch-up) in addition to photonics-specific mechanisms.
- Deep understanding of foundry process flows and the reliability challenges unique to photonics and CMOS/mixed-signal processes.
- Proven track record developing aging models (Arrhenius, Coffin-Manson, etc.) for semiconductor and photonic devices.
- Familiarity with JEDEC, Telcordia (GR-468), and MIL-STD qualification standards.
- Proficiency in using Python to control lab equipment and DUT.
Nice to have
- PhD or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Materials Science, or a related field.
- Hands-on experience with Python for automated reliability data pipelines.
- Prior experience co-qualifying an optical chiplet alongside its companion EIC in a co-packaged optics (CPO) architecture.
- Experience in reliability issues with advanced silicon technologies (7nm, 3nm), advanced packaging (CPO/COWOS) and FAU reliability.
- Direct external customer interaction experience.
Skills: product qualification, design for reliability, FMEA, physics-of-failure, silicon photonics, mixed-signal EIC
More semiconductor jobs: Reliability engineer jobs · San Jose jobs
This role has been open 66 days — well above the 44-day median for Reliability Engineering roles.
Reliability Engineering · Reliability Engineering
|
Open roles in category
518
|
Median days open
44 d
|
Category median salary (all employers)
$151k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Ayar Labs | All employers we track in this specialty (518 roles · 78 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 3 | 518 |
| Open roles in the wider Process, Fab & Equipment family | 4 | 10057 · 117 employers |
| Median days open | 65 d | 44 d (+21 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $151k |
Skills observed across this category: product qualification, design for reliability, FMEA, physics-of-failure, silicon photonics, mixed-signal EIC
Who's hiring in this category
- Micron Technology · 75 open roles · median 73 d
- Infineon Technologies · 42 open roles · median 32 d
- Renesas Electronics · 26 open roles · median 25 d
- onsemi · 22 open roles · median 65 d
- STMicroelectronics · 19 open roles · median 29 d
- Analog Devices · 16 open roles · median 64 d
How we counted: 518 open Reliability Engineering (Reliability Engineering) roles from 78 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 8 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 — it is counted in the wider Process, Fab & Equipment family row. Figures refresh nightly.