Principal R&D Laser EPI Design Engineer
$134,750 - $192,500 USD yearly
Originally posted 29 October 2026 by the employer.
About the role
As a Principal R&D Laser EPI Design Engineer at Lumentum, you will develop epitaxial growth recipes and designs to meet laser device performance requirements including output power, drive voltage, wavelength, and reliability. This work focuses on modeling and translating III/V epitaxial structures to align with wafer processing and device design technology.
What you'll do
- Coordinate with device designers to develop epitaxial growth recipes that meet performance metrics including beam characteristics, high-speed operation, and electrical resistance.
- Model EPI design parameters including layer thicknesses, compositions, doping profiles, active regions, and growth conditions to achieve desired mode profiles and beam divergence.
- Translate designs into EPI growth recipes, collaborating with internal EPI growers and managing external vendors for growth execution.
- Review calibration and EPI characterization data across growth campaigns, adjusting EPI designs and providing feedback to internal and external growers.
- Partner with device designers and wafer process integration teams to launch process runs and support NPI data analysis for wafer processing, device testing, and reliability.
- Coordinate advanced EPI analysis using SIMS, TEM, and EDX to investigate performance and reliability, and generate intellectual property for novel device or EPI designs.
What you'll need
- PhD degree in optoelectronics or a relevant discipline with industry experience.
- Hands-on experience with MBE or MOCVD growth of III/V semiconductor material.
- Experience with semiconductor wafer analysis including photoluminescence (PL), reflectance spectrum, EPI defects and haze scans, X-Ray diffraction (XRD), SIMS, and ECV profiling.
- Knowledge of semiconductor device physics, laser diode testing, and wafer process technology.
- Experience with data analysis tools including Excel, JMP, or Minitab, and data processing in Python or Matlab.
Nice to have
- Experience with VCSEL devices, specifically GaAs based VCSEL devices.
- Experience with device modeling and device simulation.
Skills: EPI Design, MOCVD, MBE, GaAs, VCSEL, III-V
More semiconductor jobs: GaN and SiC jobs
This role has been open 0 days — well below the 49-day median for Compound Semiconductor Engineering roles.
Compound Semiconductor Engineering · Compound Semiconductor
|
Open roles in category
72
|
Median days open
49 d
|
Category median salary (all employers)
$120k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Lumentum | All employers we track in this specialty (72 roles · 25 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 8 | 72 |
| Median days open | 108 d | 49 d (+59 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $120k |
Skills observed across this category: EPI Design, MOCVD, MBE, GaAs, VCSEL, III-V
Who's hiring in this category
- Infineon Technologies · 9 open roles · median 49 d
- MACOM · 8 open roles · median 1 d
- Coherent Corp · 7 open roles · median 127 d
- Lumentum (this employer) · 6 open roles · median 114 d
- Texas Instruments · 5 open roles · median 47 d
- STMicroelectronics · 4 open roles · median 74 d
How we counted: 72 open Compound Semiconductor Engineering (Compound Semiconductor) roles from 25 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 29 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.