$232,000 - $368,000 USD yearly
Co-packaged optical interconnects for AI supercomputing platforms.
Originally posted 12 August 2026 by the employer.
About the role
NVIDIA's Mixed-Signal Design (MSD) Photonics team is seeking a Principal Photonics IC Design Engineer to serve as the technical lead owning photonic integrated circuit (PIC) products from architecture definition through production tapeout and silicon validation. The role focuses on developing co-packaged optical interconnects.
What you'll do
- Own end-to-end PIC product delivery, covering architecture, design, layout, DRC/LVS verification, tapeout, and post-silicon validation on silicon photonics platforms.
- Lead cross-functional execution across photonic device, analog/mixed-signal, packaging, and systems teams.
- Drive tapeout schedules, define design milestones, and resolve critical path issues across multiple concurrent PIC programs.
- Architect optical transceiver PICs integrating modulators, photodetectors, wavelength multiplexing, waveguides, and optical couplers for high-speed or DWDM applications.
- Define and improve PIC design methodology, automation such as scripted DRC and parameterized cells, and verification flows in Cadence and related EDA tools.
- Mentor and technically guide a team of photonics designers while establishing technical direction for the photonics PIC roadmap.
What you'll need
- PhD in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Applied Physics, or a closely related field with emphasis on integrated photonics, silicon photonics, or photonic device physics (or equivalent experience).
- 8+ years of industry experience in photonics IC design, including progression into technical leadership roles.
- Hands-on expertise with the Cadence design environment, including Virtuoso, PCell development, and SKILL scripting for photonic IC layout and simulation.
- Proven track record of production tapeouts personally driving PICs from design through GDS signoff on a foundry silicon photonics process.
- Grounding in photonic device physics, including waveguides, passive/active components, ring/MZI modulators, photodetectors, and optical couplers.
- Technical leadership experience defining project scope, making architecture tradeoffs, driving cross-team alignment, and delivering on schedule.
Skills: Photonics IC Design, PIC product, architecture definition, tapeout, silicon validation, Cadence design environment
More semiconductor jobs: NVIDIA jobs · Photonics jobs · California jobs
First seen in our index 90 days ago, well above 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, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | NVIDIA | All employers we track in this specialty (165 roles · 34 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 4 | 165 |
| Median days since first seen | 136 d | 68 d (−68 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | n/a | $192k |
Skills observed across this category: Photonics IC Design, PIC product, architecture definition, tapeout, silicon validation, Cadence design environment
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.