Principal Thermal Mechanical Photonic Designer
Focus on thermal and structural design, stress simulation, and reliability modeling for Silicon Photonic ICs and high-speed chip interfaces.
Originally posted 30 October 2026 by the employer. Relisted by the employer on 31 October 2026.
About the role
This role focuses on thermal and structural design within the global circuits team for silicon photonic designs and CMOS interfaces. Responsibilities span stress simulation, die-package thermo-mechanical interaction modeling, and opto-mechanical system design across NVLink, PCIe, USB, and OIF interfaces.
What you'll do
- Work on thermal and structural design of silicon photonic designs.
- Run stress simulation in optical components and fiber alignment, proposing improved design of optical components.
- Set up experimental methodologies for thermal validation and laser performance under various stress conditions.
- Model silicon die-package thermo-mechanical interactions, solder joint fatigue, creep, hygroscopic stresses, crack propagation, and interfacial delamination.
- Execute simulations of wire-bonding and wire fusing processes.
- Perform thermal characterization of electronic packages to generate thermal specification datasheets using finite element modeling and experiments according to JEDEC standards.
What you'll need
- PhD in Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a similar discipline (or equivalent experience) with 15+ years of experience in a related field.
- 8+ years of experience in the development of silicon photonics ICs from concept to high-volume manufacturing.
- Experience in product development and applied research on optics, photonic systems, or Silicon Photonic ICs.
- Proficiency in Ansys tools.
- Experience with design tools and fixtures to aid in alignment, fabrication, gluing, and assembly of lasers, interferometers, and optical components.
- Experience defining system performance and component specifications.
Skills: thermal design, structural design, silicon photonic ICs, optical components, solder joint fatigue, die-package thermo-mechanical interactions, JEDEC standards
More semiconductor jobs: NVIDIA jobs · Photonics jobs · California jobs
This role has been open 192 days — well above the 85-day median for Optical/Photonics IC Design roles.
Optical/Photonics IC Design · Photonics
|
Open roles in category
134
|
Median days open
85 d
|
Category median salary (all employers)
$195k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | NVIDIA | All employers we track in this specialty (134 roles · 30 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 4 | 134 |
| Median days open | 125 d | 85 d (+40 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $195k |
Skills observed across this category: thermal design, structural design, silicon photonic ICs, optical components, solder joint fatigue, die-package thermo-mechanical interactions
Who's hiring in this category
- Coherent Corp · 18 open roles · median 98 d
- Lightmatter · 14 open roles · median 106 d
- GlobalFoundries · 13 open roles · median 72 d
- Marvell Technology · 10 open roles · median 43 d
- Lumentum · 9 open roles · median 88 d
- Intel Corporation · 7 open roles · median 71 d
How we counted: 134 open Optical/Photonics IC Design (Photonics) roles from 30 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 31 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.