Senior Staff Optical Engineer - Santa Clara, CA, United States
$134,390 - $201,300 USD yearly
Originally posted 6 May 2026 by the employer.
About the role
The Senior Staff Optical Engineer performs validation testing, modeling, and end-to-end simulations for optical interconnect systems within Marvell's Optical Connectivity Group. The role focuses on DSP, broadband amplifiers, photonic ICs, and optical transceivers.
What you'll do
- Perform engineering validation test and design validation test. - Perform end-to-end system simulations for high-speed optical interconnect systems including Serdes, electrical channel, optical channel, packages, and optical transceiver. - Develop, maintain, and enhance system-level simulation environments. - Conduct laboratory measurements and correlate results with simulations for system validation, optimization, and performance evaluation. - Analyze and resolve signal integrity issues, including crosstalk, attenuation, reflections, and discontinuities in high-speed designs.
What you'll need
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or related fields with 5-10 years of related experience, or a Master’s degree/PhD with 3-5 years of experience. - 3+ years in design validation and modeling for fiber-optical communication systems. - Strong knowledge of optical communication components, including optical DSP, coherent DSP, high speed modulators, receivers, transimpedance amplifiers, and RF amplifiers. - Strong knowledge in optical communication systems impairments and compensations, signal integrity along the data path, amplifiers, and tunable filters. - Solid understanding of RF/microwave engineering and photonics fundamentals. - Strong programming proficiency in Python. - Experience with system or channel simulation using Keysight ADS (including IBIS-AMI) or MATLAB, alongside signal processing and analysis for data communication. - Hands-on experience working with electrical and optical test equipment, including optical spectrum analyzers, digital communication analyzers, high-speed electric scopes, wavelength meters, and power meters. - Familiarity with signal integrity, PAM4 Serdes, VNA, and TDR.
Skills: optical interconnect systems, optical communication components, optical DSP, high speed modulators, transimpedance amplifiers, RF amplifiers, signal integrity, PAM4 Serdes
This role has been open 171 days — well above the 79-day median for Optical/Photonics IC Design roles.
Optical/Photonics IC Design · Photonics
|
Open roles in category
136
|
Median days open
79 d
|
Median salary
$195k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Marvell Technology | All employers we track in this specialty (136 roles · 30 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 10 | 136 |
| Median days open | 37 d | 79 d (−42 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $195k |
Skills observed across this category: optical interconnect systems, optical communication components, optical DSP, high speed modulators, transimpedance amplifiers, RF amplifiers
Who's hiring in this category
- Coherent Corp · 17 open roles · median 95 d
- GlobalFoundries · 16 open roles · median 81 d
- Lightmatter · 14 open roles · median 100 d
- Lumentum · 10 open roles · median 82 d
- Marvell Technology (this employer) · 10 open roles · median 37 d
- Intel Corporation · 7 open roles · median 65 d
How we counted: 136 open Optical/Photonics IC Design (Photonics) roles from 30 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 25 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.