Senior Photonics Design Engineer - Passives
$150,000 - $215,000 USD yearly
Design and validate passive optical components in a heterogeneous silicon with III-V photonic platform.
About the role
As a member of OpenLight’s Silicon Photonics (SiPh) team, you will be responsible for the design and validation of passive optical components in OpenLight’s heterogeneous silicon with III-V photonic platform. You will work cross-functionally with PIC architects, Process, Layout, and Test Engineers to define, design, fabricate, and validate silicon and silicon nitride passive components.
What you'll do
- Design and simulate passive components including multimode interference couplers, direction couplers, polarization beam splitters, adiabatic transitions between waveguide layers, grating couplers, and spot size converters.
- Generate datasheets, application notes, and user guides for devices.
- Define device CAD layouts in close collaboration with process and layout engineers.
- Develop compact models for OpenLight’s SiPh PDK.
- Work with process engineers to define and optimize device structures and processes.
- Collaborate with test engineering to define test scope and requirements for devices on wafer and die levels, and validate device performance versus specifications with PIC and system architects.
What you'll need
- Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Applied Material Science, Applied Physics or related discipline.
- 1+ years of relevant professional experience after your degree.
- 3+ years of experience (including graduate school) with FDTD and EME simulations.
- Strong hands-on knowledge of silicon and silicon nitride photonic devices.
- Proficiency in programming with scripting languages, preferably Python.
- Hands-on experience with photonic device characterization.
Skills: silicon photonics, FDTD, EME, passive components, PDK
More semiconductor jobs: Photonics jobs · Santa Clara jobs
This role has been open 0 days — well below the 88-day median for Optical/Photonics IC Design roles.
Optical/Photonics IC Design · Photonics
|
Open roles in category
134
|
Median days open
88 d
|
Category median salary (all employers)
$197k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | OpenLight | All employers we track in this specialty (134 roles · 29 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 7 | 134 |
| Median days open | 0 d | 88 d (−88 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $197k |
Skills observed across this category: silicon photonics, FDTD, EME, passive components, PDK
Who's hiring in this category
- Coherent Corp · 18 open roles · median 101 d
- GlobalFoundries · 13 open roles · median 75 d
- Lightmatter · 13 open roles · median 109 d
- Marvell Technology · 10 open roles · median 46 d
- Lumentum · 9 open roles · median 91 d
- Intel Corporation · 7 open roles · median 74 d
How we counted: 134 open Optical/Photonics IC Design (Photonics) roles from 29 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 3 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. Figures refresh nightly.