Senior Photonics Design Engineer - California, Santa Clara, United States
$164,470 - $232,190 USD yearly
Originally posted 1 October 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role involves the design, simulation, optimization, and development of advanced photonic components for optical communication systems. You will contribute to the design and validation of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) components like modulators, detectors, lasers, and passive devices.
What you'll do
- Design, simulate, and optimize photonic components such as modulators, passive devices, lasers, and detectors for PICs
- Conduct tolerance analysis to ensure reliability and performance under various operating conditions
- Lead test chip development, including design, layout, tapeout, testing, and validation processes
- Analyze characterization data, identify performance gaps, and develop strategies for optimization and improvement
- Develop and refine modeling methodologies for photonic components and propose innovative test approaches
- Research emerging photonics technologies to define architectures and drive intellectual property development
- Collaborate with cross-disciplinary engineering teams to align component designs with system-level requirements
What you'll need
- Bachelor's or BS degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Optical Science, or a related field, and 6+ years of relevant experience; or Master's degree with 4+ years of relevant experience; or Ph.D. with 2+ years of relevant experience in photonic device design and simulation
- Proficiency in optical and RF design and simulation tools such as Lumerical (FDTD, MODE, DEVICE, Interconnect), RSoft, or Tidy3D
- Hands-on experience in photonic integrated circuit design, from concept through high-volume manufacturing
- Familiarity with photonic test methodologies and equipment, including optical spectrum analyzers, tunable lasers, and optical vector analyzers
- Experience managing statistical analysis of photonic test data using tools like JMP or programming languages such as Python or Matlab
Nice to have
- Proficiency in layout tools such as Cadence or KLayout for component design and PIC tapeouts
- Experience with advanced passive or active silicon photonic components such as ring modulators, Mach-Zehnder interferometers, EAM's/EML's
- Knowledge of system-level link modeling, Monte Carlo analysis, and optical coupling solutions
- Familiarity with inverse design methodologies and circuit-level simulations
- Understanding of advanced electronic ICs and integration with photonic systems, including drivers, TIAs, DSPs, and modulators
Skills: Silicon Photonics, photonic components, PICs, modulators, Lumerical
This role has been open 2 days — well below the 66-day median for Optical/Photonics IC Design roles.
Optical/Photonics IC Design · Photonics
|
Open roles in category
133
|
Median days open
66 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 | 47 d | 66 d (−19 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $195k |
Skills observed across this category: Silicon Photonics, photonic components, PICs, modulators, Lumerical
Who's hiring in this category
- Lightmatter · 18 open roles · median 80 d
- GlobalFoundries · 16 open roles · median 66 d
- Coherent Corp · 15 open roles · median 74 d
- Lumentum · 9 open roles · median 61 d
- Keysight Technologies · 7 open roles · median 30 d
- Marvell Technology · 7 open roles · median 150 d
How we counted: 133 open Optical/Photonics IC Design (Photonics) roles from 33 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 4 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.