Principal Engineer Silicon Photonics - San Jose, United States
Originally posted 25 June 2026 by the employer.
Develop and validate packaged silicon photonics for optical interconnect products.
About the role
This Principal Engineer, Silicon Photonics role focuses on leading product direction, translating customer needs into technical requirements, and driving cross-functional execution from concept through validation for silicon photonics and optical interconnect products. This role requires deep experience with packaged silicon photonics, including optical engine integration, assembly flows, and manufacturing considerations.
What you'll do
- Serve as the primary technical interface with customers, foundry partners, and suppliers.
- Create and own clear product requirements, aligning internal engineering teams and external partners.
- Perform critical link analysis using simulation and modeling to assess impairments.
- Convert top-level product objectives into actionable requirements for silicon photonics, electronics, firmware, software, validation, and manufacturing.
- Guide the development of packaged silicon photonics solutions, including co-packaged optics and optical I/O approaches.
- Define the complete testing strategy, from engineering verification and product validation to system integration.
What you'll need
- Proven experience in a principal-level technical leadership role developing and delivering photonics-based products.
- Deep expertise in silicon photonics design, performance characteristics, and trade-offs.
- Direct experience with packaged silicon photonics or optical engine development.
- Demonstrated ability to perform optical link budget analysis using simulation and modeling.
- Experience defining product requirements and driving execution across hardware, firmware, software, validation, and manufacturing teams.
- Experience defining test plans (EVT, DVT, SVT) and test methodologies for optical systems.
- Ability to work effectively and drive decisions within a startup environment.
- Must be hands-on in a lab environment.
Nice to have
- Experience with test automation frameworks and scripting (e.g., Python).
- Direct experience working with hyperscale data center customers or suppliers on packaged optics, co-packaged optics, or optical I/O solutions.
- Experience with fiber attach technologies, optical assembly processes, and package-level integration challenges for silicon photonics products.
Skills: silicon photonics, packaged optics, optical engine integration, optical interconnects, link analysis, product validation
This role has been open 73 days — below the 74-day median for Optical/Photonics IC Design roles.
Optical/Photonics IC Design · Photonics
|
Open roles in category
132
|
Median days open
74 d
|
Median salary
$195k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Lumilens | All employers we track in this specialty (132 roles · 29 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 6 | 132 |
| Median days open | 62 d | 74 d (−12 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $195k |
Skills observed across this category: silicon photonics, packaged optics, optical engine integration, optical interconnects, link analysis, product validation
Who's hiring in this category
- Coherent Corp · 17 open roles · median 88 d
- GlobalFoundries · 16 open roles · median 74 d
- Lightmatter · 13 open roles · median 93 d
- Lumentum · 9 open roles · median 75 d
- Marvell Technology · 9 open roles · median 43 d
- Intel Corporation · 7 open roles · median 58 d
How we counted: 132 open Optical/Photonics IC Design (Photonics) roles from 29 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 18 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.