Principal Photonics Engineer – Laser & III-V Integration - Fremont, CA, United States
Originally posted 22 October 2026 by the employer.
About the role
The Principal Photonics Engineer – Laser & III-V Integration leads the development of integrated laser technologies for optical communication and photonic systems. The role focuses on laser and photonic integration for co-packaged optics (CPO), integrated transceivers, and optical interconnect architectures.
What you'll do
- Develop architectures for integrating III-V gain materials and semiconductor laser devices with silicon photonics and other photonic platforms using hybrid and heterogeneous approaches. - Design and optimize photonic components and interfaces, including waveguides, couplers, tapers, Bragg gratings, resonators, filters, mode converters, and spot-size converters. - Perform optical and electromagnetic simulations using tools such as Lumerical, Tidy3D, RSoft, or Photon Design. - Work closely with III-V device and epitaxy teams to define laser requirements, optimize device performance, and design fabrication processes. - Collaborate with packaging teams on laser-to-PIC integration, optical alignment, thermal management, electrical interfaces, and reliability. - Support PIC and laser tape-outs, foundry interactions, and experimental characterization of parameters including threshold current, output power, spectrum, and linewidth.
What you'll need
- PhD or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, Photonics, Optics, Materials Science, or a related field. - Five or more years of relevant industry or advanced research experience in semiconductor lasers, integrated photonics, or optoelectronic devices. - Direct experience with semiconductor lasers such as DFB lasers, DBR lasers, Fabry-Perot lasers, or SOAs, alongside strong knowledge of semiconductor laser physics. - Experience with integrated photonic device and circuit design, including components like waveguides, couplers, tapers, Bragg gratings, resonators, and filters. - Experience with semiconductor fabrication processes, III-V epitaxy, wafer processing, or photonic foundries, plus PIC layout, foundry PDKs, and tapeout flows. - Hands-on experience with optical characterization of semiconductor lasers and photonic devices, as well as photonic simulation tools such as Lumerical, Tidy3D, RSoft, or Photon Design.
Skills: III-V, semiconductor lasers, photonic integrated circuits, silicon photonics, Lumerical