Senior Laser and SOA Designer - California, Santa Clara, United States
$141,910 - $269,100 USD yearly
Originally posted 7 August 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role involves the simulation, design, and development of advanced photonics components, specifically DFB lasers and semiconductor optical amplifiers, to enhance system performance, reliability, and integration into technologies for data centers and AI applications.
What you'll do
- Design, simulate, and develop photonics components such as DFB lasers and semiconductor optical amplifiers.
- Perform tolerance analysis and optimize components for performance, power efficiency, area, and reliability.
- Collaborate with interdisciplinary engineering teams to ensure seamless integration of photonics components into system-level designs.
- Drive test chip execution, including chip design, layout, tape-out, test, and validation.
- Analyze test data from photonics component characterizations, identify performance gaps, and propose improvement strategies.
- Develop and implement advanced photonics component and system modeling methodologies.
What you'll need
- Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Optical Science, or related fields with 3+ years of relevant experience OR Ph.D. with 1+ years of relevant experience.
- Expertise in designing, simulating, and analyzing photonics components including DFB lasers and semiconductor optical amplifiers.
Nice to have
- Expertise in analyzing photonic component or integrated circuit (PIC) test data using statistical tools such as JMP or data libraries in MATLAB/Python.
- Matlab programing experience.
- Familiarity with industry-standard layout tools like Cadence and KLayout for component design and test chip execution.
- System-level modeling expertise for optimizing optical link performance and scalability.
- Published research in peer-reviewed journals focused on photonics technologies.
Skills: DFB lasers, semiconductor optical amplifiers, photonics components, system-level designs, test chip execution
This role has been open 59 days — below the 67-day median for Optical/Photonics IC Design roles.
Optical/Photonics IC Design · Photonics
|
Open roles in category
133
|
Median days open
67 d
|
Median salary
$195k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Intel Corporation | All employers we track in this specialty (133 roles · 33 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 6 | 133 |
| Median days open | 48 d | 67 d (−19 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $195k |
Skills observed across this category: DFB lasers, semiconductor optical amplifiers, photonics components, system-level designs, test chip execution
Who's hiring in this category
- Lightmatter · 18 open roles · median 81 d
- GlobalFoundries · 16 open roles · median 67 d
- Coherent Corp · 15 open roles · median 75 d
- Lumentum · 9 open roles · median 62 d
- Keysight Technologies · 7 open roles · median 31 d
- Marvell Technology · 7 open roles · median 151 d
How we counted: 133 open Optical/Photonics IC Design (Photonics) roles from 33 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 5 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.