Principal Engineer, SerDes AMS Design and Architecture
$200,000 - $260,000 USD yearly
About the role
Ayar Labs is seeking a Principal Analog/Mixed Signal Design Engineer to define and guide the architecture of optical physical layer products. The role sets technical direction across the analog/mixed-signal roadmap and establishes high-speed optical PHY specifications alongside photonics and laser teams.
What you'll do
- Architect the high-speed optical PHY, including TX path, RX path, clocking, and mixed-signal control loops against a system-level link budget.
- Translate system-level specifications into AMS subsystem architecture and block-level requirements.
- Drive co-design across the electronic integrated circuit (EIC) and photonic integrated circuit (PIC) boundary.
- Lead silicon-success methodology, debug discipline, and characterization-to-production workflows.
- Mentor AMS design engineers through technical design reviews and silicon debug sessions.
- Represent the AMS organization in cross-functional architecture reviews, customer technical engagements, and foundry or EDA partner discussions.
What you'll need
- B.S. in Electrical Engineering.
- 12+ years of industry experience in analog/mixed-signal design.
- Proven track record of production tapeouts in advanced FinFET CMOS nodes.
- Design experience with high-speed and high-precision analog blocks, including PLLs, clock distribution, multi-phase generation, TX/RX analog front ends, data converters, and references/regulators.
- Fluency with the Cadence design environment and mixed-signal simulation tools (ADE, Layout, Spectre).
- Experience designing in FinFET CMOS (7nm or below) at data rates of at least 50Gb/s and/or RF circuits operating at 25GHz or above.
- Experience driving architectural tradeoff analysis using link budgeting tools.
Nice to have
- M.S. or Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering.
- Direct experience with optical link components such as TIAs, high swing drivers, MRMs, and thermal control loops.
- Experience designing for chiplets, 3D stacked, or other advanced packaging applications.
- Previous experience bringing a new AMS architectural concept from initial idea to production silicon.
- Demonstrated mentorship of junior designers.
More semiconductor jobs: Mixed-signal design jobs · San Jose jobs
This role has been open 53 days — well below the 116-day median for Mixed-Signal Design roles.
Mixed-Signal Design · Mixed Signal
|
Open roles in category
166
|
Median days open
116 d
|
Category median salary (all employers)
$183k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Ayar Labs | All employers we track in this specialty (166 roles · 42 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 5 | 166 |
| Open roles in the wider Analog & Mixed-Signal family | 8 | 1541 · 115 employers |
| Median days open | 71 d | 116 d (−45 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $183k |
Who's hiring in this category
- NVIDIA · 20 open roles · median 186 d
- Analog Devices · 14 open roles · median 138 d
- SiTime · 11 open roles · median 228 d
- Apple · 9 open roles · median 24 d
- Infineon Technologies · 9 open roles · median 115 d
- Microchip Technology · 8 open roles · median 227 d
How we counted: 166 open Mixed-Signal Design (Mixed Signal) roles from 42 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 Analog & Mixed-Signal family row. Figures refresh nightly.